Halych

Halych gave Galicia its name: from the twelfth century it was the capital of the Galician principality and one of the major centres of Rus, though the medieval city stood at Krylos a few kilometres away and what survives there is earthworks, a church and an excavated cathedral site. In the present town a ruined castle stands on the bluff above the Dniester. The Ancient Halych reserve runs both, along with a skansen of wooden buildings.

What you actually see

• The castle ruin - walls and a tower on the bluff above the Dniester.
• The Krylos site - earthworks and the excavated cathedral of the medieval capital.
• The Church of the Assumption - a sixteenth-century church at Krylos built from cathedral stone.
• The skansen - relocated wooden buildings in the reserve.

When to go

April to October is the comfortable season. Museum sites keep weekday and Saturday hours. The Dniester valley is at its best in autumn.

Honest expectations

The medieval capital is largely gone and the sites are earthworks needing interpretation. The reserve's parts are several kilometres apart and need a vehicle. Labelling is in Ukrainian.

Nearby

Ivano-Frankivsk is south, and Rohatyn is northwest.