Odessa Venice. Vilkovo is a Ukrainian Venice in the Odessa region. Danube Biosphere Reserve
VILKOVO, a city in Ukraine, Odessa region(see ODESSA REGION). Population 10.6 thousand people (2001). Located in the Danube Delta (see DANUBE) (Cilian Arm (see CILIA ARM)), 18 km from the Black Sea, on islands separated by a large... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
A city in Ukraine, Odessa region, a port in the Danube Delta (Kiliya Arm), 18 km from Chernyi metro. 11.1 thousand inhabitants (1991). Fish processing and ship repair enterprises; press unit plant. Known since 1762... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Noun, number of synonyms: 3 second Venice (1) city (2765) port (361) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms ... Synonym dictionary
A city in the Kiliysky district of the Odessa region of the Ukrainian SSR. Port on the Danube, 18 km from the Black Sea. Located on the Chilia arm in the Danube delta, on islands separated big amount ducts and canals (so-called water streets). 10.2 thousand… … Great Soviet Encyclopedia
City in Odessa region. (Ukraine), 147 km to the southwest. from Odessa, in the Danube Delta (Kiliya Arm). 11 thousand inhabitants (1996). Known since 1746. The city is crossed by numerous canals and channels, which serve as original streets, for which V. is called... ... Geographical encyclopedia
Landing in Zhebriyany Vilkovo, 1944 Great Patriotic War Date August 23 August 24, 1944 Place Odessa region ... Wikipedia
Coat of arms of the Romanian period ... Wikipedia
Coordinates: 45°24′00″ N. w. 29°35′00″ E. d. / 45.4° n. w. 29.583333° E. d. ... Wikipedia
Vilkovo, 1944 Great Patriotic War Date August 23 August 24, 1944 Place Odessa region, Ukrainian ... Wikipedia
This term has other meanings, see Shevchenkovo. The village of Shevchenkovo, Ukrainian. Shevchenko Flag Coat of Arms ... Wikipedia
Books
- Old Believer liturgical and singing culture. Typology issues
- Old Believer liturgical and singing culture, Denisov Nikolai Grigorievich. The book is dedicated to the liturgical and singing traditions of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (ROSC) (Belokrinitsky Consent). It is based on material researched by the author on...
The unusual thing about the city is that the old part of the city is located on the water. Instead of streets there are canals along which people travel mainly on peculiar Ukrainian “gondolas” (made here) and motor boats. In the city, people swim through the canals standing on the stern of the boat and pushing off with a pole.
The area of Vilkov is about 460 hectares. No authorities know how many islands there are, although in fact this city with a population of 10 thousand people is Ukrainian territory. But people here still speak the Russian language of pre-Petrine times and do not know what country they live in: some still think that they are “under Russia,” others “under Romania.”
Old Believers Church
But Vilkovo still remains quiet and hidden, hidden in the Danube floodplains - reed thickets. The town is small, it’s difficult to get lost here, and there are very friendly and welcoming people around.
In the mid-17th century, fugitive Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, persecuted for religious and political reasons, settled in the lower Danube Delta. The location was chosen on the mainland on low sedimentary banks, which were flooded with water during strong winds and floods. There was a need to strengthen areas for housing, outbuildings and vegetable gardens. The soil was taken here, digging canals and eriks around the captured areas. They served as the border between land plots owners and good passages and shelter for boats.
Together with the natural channels of the delta, man-made canals formed a single water system canals and eriks in Vilkovo. It occupies up to 45% of the city’s territory and you can get to any part of it via canals by boat.
The town is lined up and down with thin lines of canals. Willow trees are planted on the banks of the canals to strengthen the canal. The sidewalk consists of 2 wide and thick boards, which are also slightly slippery from the rain. The village has very well-kept yards. Old Believers prefer white. Bed linen is only white. The houses are freshly whitewashed. Shell rock, 50 cm wide, is poured around the perimeter of the house. When it rains, water falls on the shell and the splashes do not stain the walls.
Every summer, local children swim to the sea and bring back baskets of shells. This is what they call a children's business. As for sludge, this is the main fertilizer and construction material for the islands. The canals must be cleaned of silt every year to prevent them from becoming smaller.
Each resident was responsible for his own plot. This is usually done in the hottest month, when the water subsides, people go into the canals and scoop out the silt with their hands.
The domina looks like it's made of brick; we looked at the section of the wall - reed, plastered.
The house is light, does not sag, warms up quickly and maintains the temperature. Cane is one of the types of business local population. It is cut, dried, packed on machines - it comes out like a mat and sent for export to Holland and Germany. The product is environmentally friendly, like all fruits and vegetables. Berry is a different story. One family collects up to 5 tons of strawberries from their plot on the islands per season. It ripens here early and is said to be the most delicious in Ukraine.
Vilkovo. Embankment
Vilkovo. Old Believers Church
Vilkovo. Three churches were built on the territory of the city - one Orthodox and two Lipovan.
Male and female Old Believers enter the church through separate entrances. Unlike Orthodox Church, opens only once or twice a week for the duration of the service. A cemetery with identical white crosses, which we passed by - Old Believers. A person dies - the cross is brought into the church and left for 40 days, after which it is carried to the cemetery and placed on the grave.
For example, the address: Belgorodsky Canal, 24. This is something like a central avenue for them. You float, and all around you are whitewashed clean houses, small vegetable gardens fertilized with silt, wooden masonry on the sides of canals 1-2 meters wide. The channels are called eriks. There are simple wooden bridges across the eriki. The top of the walkway is not secured. If the boat is carrying oversized cargo, then the top of the bridge is removed, and when the boat passes, it is put back in place. It turns out that the bridges are drawable.
Vilkovo is an original and colorful region: Lipovan settlements, amazing dialects, a city of fishermen and winemakers.
The city is located on water, so all the land here is alluvial. Most of vegetable gardens are located on the islands, where they go by boat. Standing in the water, they take out the silt here, then lay it on the shore, and the dried silt is taken to the right place by wheelbarrows or stretchers. Fertilizers are almost never used. Il, as in ancient Egypt, gives strength to any plant. Perhaps that's why strawberries are practically here all year round, but in addition to strawberries, Novak grapes are grown here, which is completely unique - nowhere is there a variety that grows on silt and water. The grapes are used to make wonderful red wine and sell it, as indicated by chalk signs next to the gates. Wine costs 5-6 hryvnia 1.5 liters. There is a joke here: a Vilkov resident who wet his throat with Novak wine can be easily recognized. It only wobbles back and forth and in no case left or right. In Vilkovo this is impossible, because you will immediately fall into the water - there are such narrow masonry walls along the houses. Also here you can drink wonderful herbal teas from a wood-burning samovar, which are comparable only to those from the Carpathians.
According to local legend, the people of Vilkovo can walk on the sea as if on land. In Vilkovo, almost every family has fishermen, so there is plenty of fresh fish here. Men go fishing on the Danube or on the islands. Fishing lovers will appreciate quiet shores The Danube and its channels, overgrown with willows and reeds bending towards the water. You will see many exotic birds that live in abundance in the floodplains: pink pelicans, geese, striped hawks, and the famous white-tailed eagles.
Another of our trips from last summer was a trip to the town of Vilkovo, which is located in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta. We did not plan this trip; we were told about this town already at sea, warning that the “Ukrainian Venice” differs quite strongly from the original one. This is true. Looking ahead, I will say that Venice is a city on the water, and Vilkovo is still a village on the water, which explains everything (all photos are clickable).
Buses run regularly from Odessa to Vilkovo, but the journey is delayed because they have to go around the Dniester estuary and at one point cross the border with Moldova.
We drive our Mitsubishi from the coast to the north, to Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, and then turn left, towards Izmail - the city of Russian military glory.
In these places, there used to be constant wars, in particular with Turkey, and this entire area once belonged to Romania. Slavic names of cities here alternate with Turkic ones: Monashi, Reni, Spasskoye, Tatarbunary...
We reach the town of Spasskoye and, near an inconspicuous sign, turn left 90 degrees.
Historical reference:
A city in the Danube Delta, “Ukrainian Venice”. Founded in 1746 by Old Believers fleeing persecution from the Orthodox Church (a monument to the founder is installed on the pier). It is located on numerous artificial canals and channels that form water streets (eriki). The main type of transport is boats. It is the center of the Danube Biosphere Reserve. From the pier, excursions are organized around the eriks of the old city, to the Danube flood plains, to the “zero kilometer” (the place where the Danube flows into the Black Sea), to the islands of the Old Believers. The Old Believer Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1850) has been preserved.
Later, harsh fugitive Cossacks - Don and Zaporozhye - moved to this secluded region, which consisted of 15 large and more than 150 small islands. The flight of the Don Cossacks to the Danube, whose troops were led by Ignat Nekrasov, lasted for a decade. The flow waxed and waned. Particularly significant movements were observed after the Russian-Turkish wars of 1768-1791. That’s when Vilkovo was among those settlements, in which the Nekrasov Old Believers settled especially densely.
At the same time, the Zaporozhye Cossacks were settling this territory. The dispersal of the Zaporozhye Sich in 1775 was perceived by the Ukrainian people as a national tragedy. Having liquidated the Sich, the tsarist government sent the Cossack elders to Siberia and gave the lands to the landowners. The prospect of becoming serfs forced the Cossacks to flee.
Having settled in the settlement of Lipovanskoye, the Ukrainian Cossacks lived separately, without mixing with the Old Believers. This conditional division in Vilkovo has been preserved to this day - there is the “Lipovan” part of the city, the most famous, with eriks and bridges, and there is the Ukrainian one, which stands on solid ground and currently finds itself in the center of the city.
Actually, the name appeared because the Danube here forms numerous “forks” - it bifurcates. In general, it seems that the population of Vilkovo is still trying to isolate themselves from the whole world - the last 10 kilometers to the town the asphalt surface is completely destroyed - they had to make their way along it with special precautions so as not to lose the wheels there... Locals said that this happened after some there is a large construction site in this place - heavy trucks have damaged the road. Of course, no one thought of fixing it...
Well, finally...
Actually, there are several things you can see here: the canals themselves that cut through the town, as well as the Danube Biosphere Reserve, where you can see various rare plants, as well as birds. The town itself is divided into 2 parts - land and water.
On the embankment and the main pier there is a monument to the founder of the city, the Old Believers who came to these remote lands. By the way, to this day the descendants of the Old Believers and Cossacks live separately, each going to their own churches and trying not to marry each other.
On the other side of the river is Romania.
At the entrance along the road there are representatives of various excursion companies with whom you can agree on a program: a boat trip, a visit to the zero kilometer, etc. They try to lure clients away from each other. The first ones we turned to turned out to be slow, so we let others lure us away... 🙂 We drove up to the pier, got into the boat and set off for 2-3 hours on the water. Our boatman also served as a tour guide.
For excursions by water, you need to have a passport with you. Coming out along one of the many “arms” to the Danube, somewhere in the reeds, there is a border guard’s booth. Our boatman just shouted to him: “Russians, we have passports,” and we moved on. There may also be checks from the other, Romanian side.
There are trees, reeds and other greenery all around, the whole territory is dissected by narrow channels.
Everything stands here and is adapted for water - houses, gardens, garden plots, etc.
Many different animals live here: herons (white and black), cormorants, pelicans, etc. We couldn’t get too close to them...
We came out to an island completely covered with a thick layer of shells. Small shells are called shells here, and large ones twisted into a spiral are called “rapans”.
There are many water lilies here - a sign of clean water.
After the reserve we sail into the city. Here is a typical house on a river street.
There are no sidewalks in the town, so for walking along the streets, wooden platforms were built, which are called here “masonry” and serve as a sidewalk.
Each house has its own boats, vegetable garden, grapes and even a satellite dish.
We also saw a local doing sports section— of course, kayaks! 🙂
This, of course, is not Venice, but it certainly has its own charm and flavor. If only they could make the road, it would be absolutely beautiful!
It is curious that 300 years ago, when Vilkovo (formerly Lipovanskoe) was founded by the Cossacks and Lipovans, the city stood near the sea. But over the past centuries, the sea has moved 18 kilometers away.
The Danube is the main local attraction. This is the most big river Europe, almost 3000 kilometers long. The river is the border of ten states, including Ukraine. Actually, on the opposite bank from Vilkovo there is already Romania. Despite the fact that the amount of fish in the Danube is decreasing, it is still there and fishing is an important source of income for local residents. There are sturgeon and beluga here.
What to do in Vilkovo:
- take a boat ride along the city canals or walk along them
- visit the “zero kilometer”, the place where the Danube flows into the sea
- get acquainted with Lipovan culture and cuisine
- see Old Believer churches
- go fishing
- try local wine
- visit the unique Ermakov Island, see birds and animals
There is a main canal in Vilkovo, just like in Venice. Actually, this is the only “working” channel that is constantly used.
There are also many small eriks.
The system of wooden and stone platforms is interesting; they are found almost everywhere and allow you to avoid dirt.
Hundreds of such platforms - personal berths - have been built along the Danube.
In spring there are a lot of daffodils in the city.
There are several monuments.
Lenin was demolished last year, only one pedestal remains.
The state provides very little support for the tourism industry in Vilkovo, so the tourism infrastructure that exists now was created by local residents. Actually, the state, apparently, generally supports Vilkovo only in words, this can be seen even by the terrible road that leads to the city.
We, as tourists with many years of experience, will list what what needs to be done here first of all to develop the tourism industry. In case those in power read us.
1. The most important thing is to pay attention to Vilkovo. Not only in terms of tourism. Believe me, this needs to be done for various reasons. And if you don’t understand these reasons, then you have no place among those in power.
2. Repair 80 kilometers of the road, this is some kind of shame, not the road.
3. Clear, improve and, most importantly, preserve the remaining small eriks (channels). Same business card Vilkovo, which many tourists now simply call a swamp.
4. Improve tourism water transport and the services they provide. On this moment There appears to be no special oversight over those offering services.
5. Place more emphasis on Lipovan traditions and cuisine. Take an example from the promoted Hutsuls.
There are many other recommendations, these are just the main ones. Why should you pay attention to Vilkovo? Because it unique place. Believe us, wherever we have been, we still write that this place is unique, with good potential.
Moreover, Vilkovo is already popular among foreign tourists. Together with us there was a group of Germans, 15 people, embassy employees. Many European tourists come to Vilkovo during cruises on the Danube. This is the last point for them, here they transfer to small boats and go to the zero kilometer, that is, the place where the Danube flows into the Black Sea.
In addition to Vilkovo itself, the Danube Biosphere Reserve, which is located around the city, is of great interest. Wherever you go by boat, your path will go through the reserve. The ecosystem of the Danube Delta is the most interesting in Europe and one of the best in the world. During two days of excursions we saw great amount birds and animals.
We took two boat trips. First, up to the symbolic zero kilometer along the Ankudinovy arm. Along the way we looked at alluvial gardens and reed thickets.
At the final point of the route we took a photo with a symbolic sign. Here you can collect various beautiful shells and see rare birds. It’s a pity that our camera doesn’t allow us to photograph them in the distance, but believe me, they are there, even pelicans.
We also visited Ermakov Island. Along the way we passed along Vilkovo.
It is visited by only a few hundred people a year, so it has a unique ecosystem. There is no pier here, disembarkation is directly on the shore. We really wanted to fly here on a copter and show the island from above, but the border guards forbade it (we specifically called them to ask permission).
A long lens is a must here. We saw wild horses, wild cows, hyena, white-tailed eagle, bittern, cormorant, Dalmatian pelican, heron, pheasant, hoopoe. We really wanted to see forest cats and wild boars, but it didn’t work out.
The island is surrounded by a special dam that prevents the growth of tall trees and shrubs. It is very convenient to walk along the dam and, by the way, the path on it is trodden by animals, not people.
Not everyone survives the winter; we saw the bones of several large animals.
Crow Egg
And of course very beautiful landscapes.
Vilkovo is also interesting because Old Believers (Lipovans) live here. We have little interest in religion, so we didn’t even know who they were. In a nutshell: in the 1650s and 1660s, a reform of the church was carried out. Those who did not accept the reform began to be called Old Believers. They are also Orthodox believers, just with small, “cosmetic” differences. You can read in detail on Wikipedia, but for us the main difference was that Old Believers cross themselves with two fingers, not three, and there are separate entrances to the church for men and women.
There are three churches in Vilkovo: two for Old Believers and one modern. We specifically shot them from above for comparison. Purely visually there are no differences. True, you can’t take photographs inside the Old Believers; the local mayor’s office has officially banned it. The reason is conflicts between Old Believers and tourists.
You can read on the Internet that Lipovans are closed and unsociable. We must say that there is such an impression. Although, when we flew in the city with a copter, local residents came up with interest and asked what it was and how it worked. There were no problems in communication :)
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Vilkovo is very far away. To get to it, you will have to drive 200 km of roads south beyond Odessa. small town, located in the Danube floodplains, is now actively promoted as a tourist attraction and is proudly called the Ukrainian Venice. This fact is common among many tourists who visited Ukraine Vilkovo, is disappointing - they say, it’s better to save up money for Italy... It is, but this is not a reason not to visit Vilkovo Odessa region, and don’t rush to conclusions.
To organize an excursion, the easiest way is to contact a tour operator " Vilkovo-Pelican—tour". His office is located in Vilkovo, but there is a representative office in Odessa. Through a search engine you can easily find the official website of the tour operator - http://www.pelican-danube-tour.com.ua/. Second option - independent trip, but then you will have to look for an overnight stay in Vilkovo (one day is not enough) and negotiate either with the locals or again with the Vilkovo-Pelican Tour about water excursions. You can’t see Vilkovo only from land.
Minimum excursion program Vilkovo Odessa region should be like this:
- pedestrian excursion around Vilkovo;
- boat trip along the canals and rivers;
- water excursion along the Danube to the delta.
How we got there: We visited Vilkovo as part of a trip from Odessa to Izmail. We arrived in Vilkovo around 12-00 by local bus from the neighboring one, where we reached by the coast - sometimes on foot, sometimes by crossing. We left the next day at about the same time, also by bus.
Sights of Vilkovo on the map
Driving into Vilkovo, you don’t notice anything unusual outwardly - streets, sidewalks, a small bus station, a market, a church. An ordinary regional center.
To understand what's what, you need to know the history. So, the 17th century. After the split of the Russian Orthodox Church, rebellious Old Believers fled in all directions from the cruel church reforms of Patriarch Nikon. The swampy Danube delta also accepted settlers - Lipovan (one of the Old Believer directions). On the territory that then belonged to Turkey, they were out of danger, but how to survive in conditions that were completely (as it seemed at first glance) unsuitable for life? Survived.
They settled on alluvial soils and constantly strengthened them by adding silt and sand. And kilometers of man-made canals (eriks) - large and small - were formed around. Later, the fugitive Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich “asked” to join the Old Believers. They founded the Transdanubian Sich, then began to lead a settled life - so in Posad Lipovansky (the old name of Vilkovo) two faiths began to live side by side - the Lipovan one (in the floodplains) and “our” Orthodox (on solid land).
Since we are still near the market and bus station, this is the territory of the descendants of the Zaporozhye Cossacks - New town. There is no water anywhere, but from the lush greenery and humidity of the air you feel that it is somewhere nearby. In the summer, after the hot sun of Primorsky, the contrast is striking. From the bus station and St. Nicholas (Orthodox) Church we quickly (see map) go to the Danube. The blue (as the song says) Danube disappoints with its color (it is not blue, but swamp green), but delights with its width - 300 meters, no less! On the opposite bank is Romania.
But we see not the full power of the great river, but one of its branches. Much earlier (above Izmail) its current split into two arms - the Chilia and the Tulchin. The latter, in turn, was divided into Sulinskoye (the deepest) and Georgievskoye. Both are Romanian. Thus, the Danube flows into the Black Sea through three main branches, but only one belongs to Ukraine - the Chilia branch. It is the northernmost, with Ukrainian Izmail, Kiliya and Vilkovo standing on it.
Why is Vilkovo called that? Because the Danube (or rather, its Kiliya part) begins to branch again and forms a “fork” - four branches: Belgorodskoe, Ochakovskoe, Ankundinovo and Starostambulskoe (the largest). The Old Believers in their distant time settled directly at the mouth of the river. Now the mouth has gone 18 km into the sea. The Danube is conquering new lands from the sea. The place where we went to the river is decorated with a monument to the Old Believer Lipovan - it was erected here relatively recently (in the 90s), but has already become a symbol of the city. Next to it is a nondescript pier, although ships from Odessa once moored to it. Now the Vilkovo-Pelican Tour begins its water cruises from the Vilkovo pier. It also accepts ships with tourists from Europe - some cruise tours on the Danube include visits to Vilkovo and the Danube Biosphere Reserve.
Let's go back to the bus station and market to go the other way. We walk a couple of blocks, pass several shops, a square, the Fishermen's House - now there is a local history museum, which contains a real boat of the Cossacks of the Transdanubian Sich and other interesting exhibits. Finally, we get to the Old Believer Nativity Church - this means that we are already in that part of the city that belongs to the Old Believers. In the Old Town.
The Nativity Church was built by Old Believers in 1855-1857, but during the years of Soviet power it was dilapidated. In the 90s it was restored and restored.
I’ll digress and say that we didn’t just walk around Vilkovo, but purposefully went to the Pelican camp site in search of an overnight stay, although we weren’t really keen on going there: the conditions there are good, but the prices correspond to that. Since we were carrying a tent with us, we considered the option of staying in it - Vilkovo-Pelican Tour has such a service. They allow you to set up tents at the camp site for a fee and use the amenities of a shower and toilet. But we walked and didn’t get there - we accepted the offer of private owners to live in the house. Yes, not just any kind, but the Old Believer one. Well, how can you disagree?
About the house later. So, we are in the old part of Vilkovo. The one on the water. Here main street is the Belgorod arm (canal). A network of eriks has been dug from it on both sides - there is no way to get to the houses except by boat. Wooden pavements are laid along the eriks for pedestrians. Today, unfortunately, the canals have begun to become shallow, and boats can no longer pass through many of them. Together they represent a complex water system. It is enough for one person to become clogged, and others stop with him.
A local residents, who previously drove a boat straight into his yard, is simply a disaster. The boats have to be moored in the Belgorod Canal, and then walk to the house on wooden platforms along dry river banks - it’s good if you’re light, but what about the cargo? What will happen next is unknown.
Tourists should not expect to see something grandiose, otherwise they will say that Venice in Vilkovo is a pure deception. But for now, in the spring, water returns to Eriki. At this time of year you should come to Vilkovo to see it in all its glory. If the canals die completely, they will probably be covered with earth and a road will be built on top. Or maybe this is what the locals are striving for? A car and asphalt are, of course, more prosaic than a boat in Erica, but practical. It’s a pity, it would be better to rely on tourism.
This is what the streets in the Old Town look like in summer:
You shouldn’t ignore it, because it can be more economical in terms of money.
Behind the bridge over the Belgorod Canal Old city continues - this is the island of Kalimbeika. There is another Old Believer church here - Svyatonikolskaya (1909-1913). You can go into the church (both this one and the Rozhdestvenskaya one), but you need to know that it has two entrances - male and female. Pay attention to the ancient icons on the tree - they are more than 300 years old. It’s better not to take pictures of anything - it’s not welcome. At the Vilkovo cemetery, Orthodox Christians and Old Believers are buried separately. Old Believers men do not shave their beards and wear shirts belted with a rope; women wear a bonnet. Now, of course, these external attributes are not found everywhere, but on church holidays traditions are observed. Marriages between Old Believers and Lipovans were not allowed for a long time; now they are allowed, but accepting the Old Believers is a mandatory condition. The Old Believers never quarreled with the Orthodox and they always served a cup of water, but they themselves never drank from it - they kept the “filthy” dishes separately.
After the Old Nikolskaya Church, you just have to walk a little to the Pelican camp site. You must also travel along this same road (see diagram on the map) by car - it is impossible to get lost, there are signs with arrows nailed to the poles indicating the distance. This is what the camp site looks like from the water, this is the Ochakovskoe arm:
The house we lived in
When the first inhabitants of Vilkovo mastered the floodplains, they first created for themselves artificial island: they dug a canal around, and formed land from the silt. House to house was connected by masonry and bridges. Everyone has a boat they can’t live without. The Vilkovsky house itself has a special design. Its frame is made of wood, inside the frame there is reed reed. Inside and outside the walls are plastered with Danube silt mixed with chopped reed, straw, and sawdust. Houses in Vilkovo keep warm well in winter and cool in summer.
There is a bridge across the erik to the gate of our house, but there are no masonry walls along the fence. This is it Vilkovo - Ukrainian Venice, pictured The following shows that a narrower canal branches off from the large erik, separating our estate from the neighboring one. The third photo (the one on the left) is a view from the bridge towards the Erik to the right. And the next two photographs show the left side of the site. In such an abundance of water, the greenery is fragrant, the flowers bloom profusely, the vegetables ripen in the beds, the grapes are filled with large clusters, and the branches of the trees break under the weight of the fruits.
The foundations of the houses are covered with shell around the perimeter. It absorbs excess moisture and protects the walls from dampness and mold. But the Old Town is not as happy as it might seem. There is electricity, but no natural gas. In winter, the house is heated by a stove. In the kitchen there is bottled gas or an electric stove. There is no sewerage. Facilities (shower and toilet) in the yard. It’s not difficult to guess how high the groundwater level is here and where the runoff goes. The sewer truck won't come here. There is a running water supply, but water appears in it by the hour - it’s hard to believe that Vilkovo is among the abundance water resources is experiencing a shortage of clean drinking water. Out of curiosity, I looked into the water supply hatch - it was completely filled with water. The question is - which one? Somewhere at the bottom there were pipes “floating”. The second question is what flows in them?
There is another gate on the left side of the site. It comes out onto board steps that serve as a pier. The boat was not there, so I had to photograph the neighbors’ fences with exactly the same gates.
About how we sailed on a boat along the eriks, and about our excursion to the Danube Biosphere Reserve on the Danube seaside to the 0th kilometer: .