Slavsko Settlement Community

History

The Slavsko settlement community is an area of a year-round resort.

It was created in August 2017.

In the 12th century, a trade route passed through Slavsko. According to legend, Tatar-Mongol troops tried to break through it. Officially, the name Slavsko appeared in documents in 1483. Since the 19th century various cultural figures, such as Mykola Ustyianovych, Volodymyr Shashkevych, Ivan Franko, lived in the village at different times.

The tourism business in Slavsko was started by Grödl entrepreneurs, who built hotels and a climate therapy station here in the 19th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, ski lifts and ski jumps were built on Pohar and Ilza mountains. 

The greatest tourist development in Slavsko took place in the 1970s and 1980s, when more than 10 ski lifts were built and sports ski schools were founded. They are still operating today.

In the period of spring irrigation and floods, the Opir River becomes suitable for water tourism and rafting. In the summer, bicycle tourism, “hunting” for mushrooms and berries, and hiking become more and more popular.

Many years ago, the village of Tukhlya, in the Lviv region, was made famous throughout Ukraine by Ivan Franko, who, in his novel entitled Zakhar Berkut, told about the heroic struggle of the locals against the Mongol invasion. The local residents destroyed such a large number of enemies that they could not bury them all, and they stank in the valley of the river which began to be called Opir (Eng. – resistance). And the village, because of these corpses, began to be called Tukhlya (Eng. – rotten stuff).

Ivan Franko wrote his famous novel Zakhar Berkut about this event. One of the mountains is now called Zakhar Berkut.

Economy and Welfare

Historical and natural prerequisites contribute to the fact that Slavsko remains an important tourist center of the Carpathian region, and the tourism industry itself is the basis of the community’s economic development. Only in recent years, the number of tourists visiting Slavsko has increased several times (over 950,000), which indicates the high tourist attractiveness of the Community. This is also due to convenient transport logistics.

Various enterprises engaged in forestry and other related types of activities operate on the territory of the community. Thus, the Slavsko enterprise Halsillis and the state-owned enterprise Slavsko Forestry employ over 200 residents of the community and neighboring population centers. The area of forests within the Slavsko united territorial community exceeds 39,000 hectares.

As of the late 2021- early 2022, there were 347 undertakings in the Slavsko community.

On the territory of the Community, the field of education is actively developing and operating for which the largest share of funding is spent from the Community budget. There are 1 gymnasium and 16 schools here.

The community also has an art school, a leisure and culture center, public school libraries, a children’s and youth sports school, a youth center, and a football school.

Athletes of the school are part of the national team of Ukraine in alpine skiing.

Football is actively developing here: there are two junior teams, a youth team and a veteran football team in the community. The sports infrastructure is partially developed: multimedia sports grounds or football fields have been arranged in 6 population centers.

Community and War

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Slavsko community became a refuge for Ukrainians fleeing the war. A humanitarian headquarters was established in the community, where local residents brought food, warm clothes and hygiene products. First aid and Ukrainian language courses were organized for all those willing.

To date, about 500 men and women from the Slavsko community have come to the defense of Ukraine. Schoolchildren weave camouflage nets, make trench candles, hold charity fairs, local housewives prepare various delicacies, volunteers collect funds to purchase the necessary ammunition, cars and deliver everything necessary to the front line.

Since 2014, the Slavsko community has lost 19 residents in combat.

 People of the Community

Volodymyr Beha has held the office of Head of the Slavsko Community since 2017.

Since 2014, Volodymyr Beha has been helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a volunteer.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, he has promoted mobilization activities on the territory of the community and initiated a program of financial support for all mobilized servicemen who are residents of the Slavsko Community, as well as payments to the families of killed or wounded soldiers.

He concluded an agreement on friendship and cooperation with the Georgian town of Mestia and established cooperation with ROTARY, an international service organization.

Also, the Head of the community became the Leader of the Carpathians 2022 according to the Carpathians Ukraine Euroregion Association.

Development Strategy

As a result of the analysis of interrelationships of factors through the SWOT/TOWS matrix, strategic priorities for the development of the Slavsko community until 2027 were determined, namely:

1. economic development of the community and its tourism and recreation potential;

• Formation of the marketing and promotion system of the resort.

This is the created brand of the resort and the promotion of its image on the domestic and international markets of health and tourism services. It is important to ensure marketing and promotion.

• Increasing investment attractiveness

The main task is the development of urban planning documents (Master Plans) for community population centers and Community Territory Planning Schemes together with land zoning

• Increasing the tourist attractiveness of the community

The task is the development and improvement of tourist infrastructure (creation of camping areas; tourist information center; construction of observation decks, observation tower, installation of information stands, leisure centers);

* creation of new recreational facilities (for example: museum network, theater, spa centers, hippodrome, circus)

* identification and restoration of tourist routes, laying  walking and cycling routes, etc.;

* development of green tourism as a promising economic direction;

* improving the quality and expanding the range of tourist services.

2. preservation and reproduction of natural and cultural heritage;

*preservation of authentic culture and art; architectural and religious heritage of the community;

* creation of memorial or memory spaces;

* preservation of historical memory associated with the liberation struggle;

* development of various directions of modern art and their promotion;

* creation of conditions for cultural and artistic development of community residents and guests;

It is appropriate to hold annual events that will popularize local traditions and flavor, Slavsko funk, various master classes, fairs with the presentation of unique Boyki traditions.

3. improvement of the quality of life

An important factor in community development is improving the quality of life of its residents by creating and restoring public and recreational spaces in population centers, ensuring the development of sports spaces and green areas, as well as a barrier-free environment and inclusiveness.

Strengthening the material and technical base of educational, health care and cultural institutions.

Developing infrastructure and improvement projects through an effective information system.

Ensuring effective activities in the field of public relations, as well as the development of inter-municipal and international cooperation through the Agency for the Development of the Slavsko Community.

 List of Sources

• Official website of the community 
• Slavsko-gromada.gov.ua
• slavsko.travel/
• Pages in social networks 
• facebook.com
• www.instagram.com
• instagram.com