New lease of life for Ukraine’s war-torn mountain observatory
CHORNOGORA MOUNTAIN RESCUE POST: Perched spectacularly 2,000 metres up on a snowcapped peak in Ukraine’s Carpathian Mountains, the Bilyi Slon observatory has stood empty and battered by the elements for some seven decades.
Abandoned only a year after it was built in what was then Poland due to the outbreak of World War II, it became a carcass of thick sandstone walls and missing windows that looked more like a ruined castle than a scientific outpost.
Now, with efforts under way to raise around $1 million in funding, scientists aim to restore the wreck and transform it into a learning centre for young researchers studying wildlife, plants and weather patterns.
“There was no roof, all the floors were warped,” local mountain rescuer Vasyl Fitsak, part of a small crew stationed there, said as icy winds swirled outside.
“There were piles of bricks, stones and trash that hikers left here for years. Some piles reached two metres in height.”
Work on rebuilding the observatory — nicknamed Bilyi Slon (White Elephant) by locals because of how it looks when covered in snow — started in 2012. Scientists hope that significant progress on the restoration will be made by next year, when the observatory marks its 80th anniversary.
So far the copper roof has been restored and debris cleared from much of the building. But tough conditions mean that progress has been slow and there remains a lot to be done.
Snowstorms and freezing temperatures mean that work can only go ahead six months of the year and no more than 10 construction workers can stay at any one time because of the cramped conditions.
The observatory, which sits on the Pip Ivan peak, the second highest in the Chornogora mountain range, is a six-hour hike from the nearest town. In summer the only road for transporting up building materials becomes an impassable bog.
The observatory’s location has not only proved inhospitable due to the dreadful weather. It has also been buffeted by the hurricane of history that has blown through this bloodsoaked region in eastern Europe.
Completed in 1938 on what was then the Polish-Czechoslovak border, the five-storey observatory was equipped with a modern telescope and served as a base for Polish military meteorologists.
After just one year, however, the scientists hurriedly packed up their equipment and fled as Soviet troops seized the area under a pact with Nazi Germany to divide Poland.