While I was planning for the trip, I read a bunch of books about Jewish heritage sites in the L'viv region. I'd emailed with Alex in advance of the trip about places that I wanted to see. Looking at some maps, I'd tried to group sites together that made sense as day trips. Since Dad left all the research to me, and I was more than happy to do the research, I'd compiled a nice list of towns to visit. Today's trip took us into the Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil Oblasts, to the Galician shtetls Berezhany (partially demolished cemetery, synagogue, and Polish fortress) and Buchach (monument in the forest to victims of another mass execution, an overgrown-but-otherwise intact Jewish cemetery) by way of Rohatyn. It involved the furthest distance to travel to and from L'viv. I hadn't quite realized how long the drives were going to be, and wasn't really prepared to be spending most of the day in the car. Needless to say, I wasn't able to get nearly as many pictures to capture the amazing scenery we drove through. So, after some photos of these towns, I'm going to provide you with a listing of things I saw from the car window as opposed to my usual narrative.
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| Synagogue in Berezhany, with some evidence of slow restoration |
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| Outside wall of the Berezhany synagogue |
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| recently-constructed fence at the Jewish cemetery in Berezhany |
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| crumbled gravestones |
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| Some of the gravestones were fairly intact |
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| These stones were recently installed by relatives in Israel |
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| repairing the church dome |
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| Berezhany fortress |
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| In the courtyard of the fortress, you can see a scale model of what the castle will look like once reconstruction is complete. |
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| Harold on the pathway outside of the castle |
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| Monument in the forest, Buchach |
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| Cemetery in Buchach |
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| Aside from the weeds, these stones were fairly undisturbed. |
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| Legible Hebrew inscription |
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| On the reverse side of many stones, the name of the deceased was written in Polish. |
Some observations I made of the Galician countryside:
- Small brick houses with painted metal gates and chickens in the yards;
- Farmers leading their cattle along the side of the road, or driving horse carts;
- Babusyas hauling sacks or selling enormous pumpkins;
- Flocks of geese stopping traffic as they cross the road;
- Rolling hills with land divided into rectangular plots of rich, black soil (chornozem);
- Stray dogs roaming through 750-year-old towns;
- Fat cats scrounging for food in a dumptster;
- The stench of a sugar-beet processing plant;
- A coal-fired electrical power plant;
- Autobus stops decorated with tile mosaics and covered in grafitti;
- Glittering domed churches;
- the mighty Dniester river.
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