BUKATYNKA — THE MAGIC OF ART
House in the village of Bukatynka / ukrainer.net
This is not a popular tourist destination, no millions are invested here, and even the road to this village is far from ideal. But after visiting just once, you will inevitably want to come back. And this village is called Bukatynka. It is located on the left bank of the Murafa River in the Vinnytsia region, not far from the district center of Mohyliv-Podilskyi. This place attracts visitors with its unique nature and historical landmarks, and the guardians of this heritage are the artist couple Oleksii and Liudmyla Aloshkin, who create a living museum around themselves every day.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL HERITAGE
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n Bukatynka, stone remnants from the planet-forming period — ancient volcanic eruptions, seas, and deserts — emerge on the Earth’s surface. During a warming period, they were washed out by glacial waters. It is therefore no surprise that in 1985, the village became the focus of the World Congress of Geologists. Scientists from all over the world came to study the petrified earth’s crust, whose layers, unlike in other places, have been preserved without displacement.
Artifacts of the Bug-Dniester, Trypillian, and Scythian cultures have also been found within the village’s territory. In the Cossack era, an important route from the East to Europe passed through Bukatynka, highlighting its strategic significance. Incidentally, there is an entire network of underground passages here, where locals would hide during raids by the Turks and Tatars. One legend tells of Bakota, a Cossack stonemason, who, as a child, was saved from enemies together with his mother by hiding underground.
TRADITIONS OF THE STONEMASONRY CRAFT
Bukatynka was once a center of stonemasonry, as the area is exceptionally rich in sandstone deposits. In the first half of the 19th century, a landowner from the neighboring village of Dzyhivka invited Italian stonemasons, who settled in the village of Rusava. They shared advanced techniques for quarrying and working stone with the locals, and the abandoned quarries they left behind passed into the hands of peasants, who continued the craft.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, stonemasonry reached its peak thanks to Emil Karlovych Hede, a native of Germany. In the 1880s, he founded a millstone factory in the neighboring village of Bandashivka. Stone products from the area were supplied, among other things, for the construction of the Nemyriv Palace of Princess Maria Shcherbatova.
By 1916, more than 300 people were engaged in stonemasonry. They mainly produced household items — grindstones, millstones, drinking troughs, feeding troughs, tables, posts, crosses, gravestones, monuments, and building stone — which were sold in nearby villages and even exported to Bessarabia, Volyn, Kyiv, and as far as Vienna.
DECLINE OF THE CRAFT, BLOSSOMING OF ART
With the advance of scientific and technological progress, the stonemasonry trade fell into decline, and by 1978, only 11 craftsmen remained in Bukatynka. That same year, sculptor and artist Oleksii Aloshkin visited the village for the first time. He was brought there by his future wife, also an artist, Liudmyla.
In her father’s hometown, she wanted to show her beloved the surviving Scythian stone figures. This made a tremendous impression on the young artist, and he eagerly began learning skills from the local stonemasons, delving into the details and wondering why, while admiring the sculptures of Ancient Greece, we fail to notice our own remarkably fascinating heritage.
Bukatynka was enchanting. The couple even wanted to take tents and live right by the caves, although both were from cities: Oleksii had grown up in Kyiv, and Liudmyla in Minsk. Both came from well-off families. Oleksii could have had a studio in the center of Kyiv, but in the city, he lacked freedom and space. So, some time after their wedding, the young Aloshkin couple decided to move to the small village of Bukatynka to create without limits and in harmony with nature.
«A great force was driving us. Although when we moved to Bukatynka, there was nowhere to settle — every house was occupied. We moved into a semi-dugout that was already several hundred years old. Later, we bought this hut», recalls Liudmyla Aloshkina.
Over time, the couple built their own house. In Bukatynka, the Aloshkins had five children, all of whom also became artists. In addition to creating sculptures and art objects, the couple also taught in neighboring villages. Oleksii Mykhailovych taught drawing, history, and ethnology, while Liudmyla Viktorivna taught crafts, drawing, and drafting.
At the same time, they told schoolchildren old legends, taught them to sculpt in clay, make motanka dolls, create pysanky, and cut paper designs known as vytynanky. Above all, they taught their students — and continue to teach the guests of Bukatynka — to think unconventionally, to notice not only the material but also the spiritual.
LIVING MUSEUMS
Bukatynka now has only about 100 residents, the school has been closed, and it might seem the village is dying — yet there is magic in everything here. Every stone feels alive, every sculpture carries meaning, and every drawing on the rock has its own story. Giant foil vytynanky sway in the wind, creating a special melody.
The caves in the cliffs draw visitors with the chance to feel like explorers. Homemade swings right above the Murafa River invite you to take flight. Here, the man-made blends so seamlessly with the natural that it creates a sense of something unreal.
The Aloshkins gradually built this fairytale — buying abandoned neighboring houses and turning them into museums: a shadow theatre, a pottery museum, an antiquities museum, and a stonemasons’ house. One separate house holds the family’s works, while another is used for sand-on-glass drawing workshops.
The museum floors are covered with fragrant hay, and their exteriors are painted with Trypillian symbols, mythical figures, and Podillia ornaments. The museums are not officially registered, and entry is free everywhere. However, visitors here don’t just observe the exhibits — they can take part in the creative process themselves. Many of the children’s crafts made in the Aloshkins’ workshops become part of the museum collections.
«Children feel everything very deeply. They are sincere in their words. Once, a four-year-old boy, seeing me for the first time with long grey hair, a beard, a floor-length tunic, and a yellow-and-blue flag in my hand, asked his mother if I was God. It was very touching», shared Oleksii Mykhailovych.
Having settled in Bukatynka, the Aloshkins found their happiness. Not far from the museums, Oleksii Mykhailovych created a large stone sculpture, which he called the Bird of Happiness. In the center of the monument is a round opening through which a person can climb. The Aloshkins are convinced that only the freedom of body and spirit makes people truly happy.
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