The mystical aura of Buchach

Author drawn back to scenic Western town by lingering childhood memories, self discoveries

BUCHACH , Western Ukraine – My firsts memory of Buchach is of a tiny, half hidden stone cross, placed on the side of a dirt road not far from my aunt’s house.

The year was 1974 and my father and I were in this western Ukrainian town illegally, and therefore he was not able to visit his frail mother and other family members, whom he’d not seen for more than 30 years. The trip to Buchach was my father’s final trip to the land of his birth. Terminally ill with cancer, he wanted to see his homeland one last time, to come full circle in the journey that was his life.

As I looked at the cross, I remember walking down the road quickly so as not to be noticed by the curious – and frightened – neighbors. People who associated with foreigners could face questioning by Soviet police or worse.

Over the years, long after my father had died, I returned to Buchach feeling drawn to a land that, although I was the child of landed immigrants, always beckoned. My closest family members in Ukraine lived in Buchach: Aunt Mariyka, a fierce and not always pleasant woman who had spent eight hard years in Siberian labor camps; always industrious Cousin Bohdanna who for a number of years in the early 1990s supported her husband and two sons by running bootleg across the Polish border. Cousin Ihor, whom I met and remember as a joyous teenager, died tragically in an accident the year after our visit.

There were other relatives, like my aunt’s distant cousin, who in later years was so impoverished that she slept on a bed of straw among cows and geese in a half constructed house. Buchach was the place where my father and generations before him were born, where the graveyard was full of tombstones marked with the last name “Feduschak,” and where I could gaze at an empty plot of land at the bottom of the hill from my aunt’s house where the family mill once stood.

On all my visits, I looked for the cross on the roadside but could never find it. I asked my family and their neighbors if they remembered a cross, made of small stones and dating back to 1974. None did and, to this day, I don’t know if the crucifix was just an apparition in the mind of a child – a sign that she was not alone – or if many adults, their heads filled with everyday concerns, never noticed it and over the years it crumbled in decay.

Still, the idea of that cross has come to symbolize Buchach for me as a revered place and, try as I might, I can’t shake this image.

It’s not always easy to characterize a place that’s close to one’s heart. There is that one place which is ever personal, and that one shared by the rest of the world. Buchach, by rights, should thus beckon others.

One could easily drive through Buchach on the winding road that leads to Ternopil or Lviv and think about how quaint a place it is, but without ever pausing or stopping to take it in. The Western Ukrainian landscape brims with picturesque towns like Buchach – Pochaiv, Berezhany, Monastyrsk – each with its own story that melts into the history of the region.

Buchach is worth a stop, not only because of its quaint hills and quiet castle ruins, but because it was once a crossroads of cultures and an important city in its time. Several renowned people have their roots here, including literature Nobel Prize laureate Josef Agnon, who has a street named after him, and even Sigmund Freud’s ancestors lived here (although there is some debate whether Freud himself was actually born or simply conceived here).

The first written mention of Buchach was in 1260, when the great empire of the Kievan Rus was on the decline and another – that of Halych Volynsk – was on the rise. The city took its name from an archaic word “bucha,” which translates literally as, “a native water, in the early spring, which is wild and deep.” An old booklet about Buchach notes this description quite well and describes the surrounding environment.

The native water referred to is likely the Strypa River, which cuts through the middle of the town. At some points, the river luxuriates and is like a broad mirror, reflecting gracefully the homes and forest around it. At others points, however, the river seems angry, particularly on cold autumn days

when gray skies drizzle over Buchach. The most furious part of this winding river is in the very heart of the town, just steps away from the ratusha (town hall), which stands at the foot of Fedir Hill leading to the Basilian Monastery.

From this vantage point, across the river and atop another hill stand the ruins of a stone castle, Buchach’s crowning jewel, which was long ago governed by two important noble families, the Buchatskys and the Potockis. Both families played an important role in the development of Buchach and the region.

The Buchatskys were first to incorporate Buchach into their land holdings. Between the 14th and 17th centuries, the town was the main bastion of defense in Podilya, a geographic region in Western Ukraine. Buchach and its outskirts were guarded by a system of towers and castles. The Buchatskys made the castle their home and even built underground tunnels to allow residents to escape in the event of an attack. The castle was rebuilt several times, after increasingly frequent raids by the Turks and Tatars. Four hundred years later, when the Buchatsky clan vanished and the Potockis ruled the region, Mykola Potocki decided to build a new fortress for his family and the castle was abandoned as a place of residence.

The Buchatskys left to Buchach more than their castle. Copies of a 14th century religious document state: “Mykhaylo Buchatsky, the possessor of Buchach, founded on July 28, 1397, the Roman Catholic parish in Buchach.” Arguments continue over the actual date, as other documents read the year as 1379 or 1387. No matter, Buchach became home to a Roman Catholic church that stood for almost four centuries, surviving fire and other potential ruin. Over time it became evident a new structure was needed. The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption was erected in 1761 63 and still stands today.

Never to be outdone, the Potockis also went on a building spree. In 1610, Stefan Potocki and his wife Maria erected the Church of St. Mykola, the first stone chapel in Buchach. Excavations in the cellar only a few years ago uncovered human skeletons bearing signs of torture. Historians had little doubt – this was another memorial to the brutality of the Soviet secret police.

On May 12, 1751, Stefan’s descendent, Mykola, laid the first stone for the magnificent Basilian Monastery. At the beginning of the 17th century, Stefan was given permission by the archbishop in Lviv to invite Basilian Fathers from Lithuania to found a theological school in Buchach. The abbey remains one of Western Ukraine’s most beautiful and has in recent years been undergoing a facelift.

For many decades, the abbey was the center of religious education. By coincidence, both

my father and my mother’s father attended mass there, although in different years; this last summer my cousin Bohdanna’s eldest son was married there. (Both my father and grandfather also attended Buchach’s Gymnasium, a three story building just around the corner from the abbey.)

The monastery functioned periodically until 1944, around which time my father and his brother fled Buchach to make a new life in the West. In 1995, the monastery was granted the status of a historical philosophical lyceum by Ukraine’s education ministry.

I may never find that little stone cross half hidden on the side of a dirt road, but I will always look for it. I will always climb up Castle Hill to its ruins and gaze across the ravine with the Strypa River running below to get a view of the monastery.

And the view is breathtaking.

Practical Information

How to get there: Buchach is accessible from several western Ukrainian cities; it is about an hour and a half drive from Ternopil, which can be reached by overnight train from Kiev. The trip costs about Hr 50 by cab, or Hr 5 by bus (if you have the patience for an overcrowded and slow ride). Buchach can also be reached by bus from Ivano Frankivsk. The connection is convenient with buses leaving from the train station shortly after the Kyiv train arrives. Buchach is also connected to other cities and towns in the region since it is a main transit point in western Ukraine.

Where to stay: Buchach has one hotel used largely by truckers traveling through the region. It is best to make the city a day trip unless staying with someone you know.

Where to eat: Buchach has several restaurants that boast a surprisingly active nightlife for a small town.A favorite of many is the pizzeria located in the heart of Buchach.