Let me share some of the pictures I took during one of our pre-war family research projects in the villages of Sambir District, Lviv province. What I enjoy the most during such trips is learning about local people’s lifestyle, mentality, culture, and communication with them.
A great area to tour or even stay for a couple of days to wind down. Enjoy the late summer vibes from the Pre-Carpathian area! I will try to add a bit of a story to these photos too.
These shallow rivers at the foot of the mountains can become very fast and deep within an hour after the heavy rains. It’s when they can break bridges and cause floods. It happened quite a few times that I had to drive across them by car, through the water, and without any bridge.
This is a typical old house in the Sambir District and it was covered with wooden shingles when our customer’s ancestor lived here.
The local life is so peaceful you can fall asleep.
It’s a surprise to be woken up by a stranger and a great pleasure to chat with the locals.
There’s a lot of the old farming equipment that it not used anymore. The locals mostly rent out their plots to the big farms.
Small private farmers like this man are not common anymore. The chance that this man is in the military today, fighting in the east is high.
Things have changed a bit, haven’t they? You won’t believe but this wheel was made only about 20 years ago and such wheels were still used on the horsecarts then.
Our customer’s ancestor was a wheelwright; we even filmed a story about how the wheels were made in the old days.
Rubber tires are used today
The house is covered with corrugated asbestos.
Wood is critical if you live in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.
I like this combination in the picture very much: it’s all part of my childhood. It is the same type of car my grandfather had and I learned to drive in it.
There’s always a lot of work in the garden if you live in a village. While the bigger plots are rented out, people have kept the smaller ones to grow vegetables for themselves.
Wind energy is developing in Ukraine.
This land is already cultivated by big farmers.
A typical local view: there are small statues of Jesus on many properties.
I prefer treating animals differently.
The waiting room interior is probably not very different today.
It is noon and cows are on their way home from the pasture to be milked. Each of them knows where to go and the owners are waiting outside to open the gate when it comes. They will return to spend the second half of the day at the pasture and they are taken care of by 1-2 shepherds. Each family owning a cow takes turns to pasture them
Hello from the Sambir area! 🙂
May you like to have a video (check out what it can be like) or a photo album from your ancestral village done, or need help with family research, we are here to help you.
Love from Ukraine!
Andriy Dorosh