The castle in the village Dyyda

The Village Dyyda (old version: Deyda, Diedovo), was founded in 1957 by combining two villages Berehdyyda and Mezevgomok which were situated closely to each other. The village is located at an altitude of 110 meters above sea level. The reformist church of the 14th century and the Greek Catholic Church of 1862 (renovated in 1982), built on the place of wooden church of 16th century, are among the attractions which attract tourists to the village. A sand pit is particularly popular among the guests of the village; people from surrounding areas and even from Uzhhorod come here to swim in clear water. There is the fourth sight in the village - one of little known castles in Transcarpathia, until recently it has almost not mentioned and known only to a few persons.



The local wildlife sanctuary «Tovar» is on the outskirts of the village. Oak forests and fens. There is an artificial sandy hill with the area of 4 hectares, which has archaeological value, in the middle of the territory. Once the castle-fort "Tovar" of 12-13 century was on it (the name derives from to -; -Var - "Lake Castle" or "Castle of Lake"). The castle was a slight strengthening of 25 meters in diameter, surrounded by three earth banks, the main castle building was in the center of it; according to some information it was built of clay. The castle area located in the heart of an impenetrable swamp, and it was possible to approach it only through two wooden bridges, each one was of 400 meters long, standing in two rows of oak logs. The first mention of the castle in the documents was in 1274.



You should look at the territory from a satellite in order to imagine the locality on which the castle was situated more fully. Dark spots are the swamps. Mugs in the form of "a fish-eye" are moats and ramparts of the castle area.



Another satellite foreshortening. A little closer…



But this photo was made standing in the center of concentric circles. Bright grass "shades" three pits and shafts by them. A ditch, running through all three rings, is visible in the middle. Perhaps, once one of the bridges was over it.



Currently, most of the swamps around Berehovo are drained. The hill stands alone in the field, surrounded by drainage channels on the two sides, and only by a small swamp on both sides. There is written evidence that in the 30's of last century the remains of wooden piles could be seen in the swamp, in front of the hill, in that place where the hill was approached with one of the bridges. Fifty years earlier, the researches which engaged "Tovar", wrote in their reports that only some stones and bricks had been left from the masonry and substructure, and some part of the area had been completely covered with pits, left by treasure hunters.

While visiting the wildlife sanctuary "Tovar", we found several dozen cows grazing neatly on the territory of 25-meter strengthening. A drunk shepherd said that few years before the village council had decided to allow grazing of cows on the territory of local wildlife sanctuary due to lack of grazing areas, and he was surprised very much when we told him about the historical value of this place.

There is dark vegetation, Rogoz, marking the beginning of swamps, in the background.



By the way, there are two more wildlife sanctuaries near the wildlife sanctuary "Tovar". The first one is the wildlife sanctuary "Didivskyy mits". It is a swamp ecosystem with vegetation noted down in the Red Book of Ukraine. It is the area near the channel, which flows into a small pond. The second one is a local wildlife sanctuary "Stav". The Bohemian Sedge, which was noted down in the Red Book of Ukraine, grows in its territory. More recently it has been thought that it has not grown anywhere else in Ukraine.

10.02.2011. 14:26

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