Ancestral Rivers

Not long ago, in the suburbs of Ivano-Frankivsk, a group of young friends began to build boats based on replicas of those that sailed Ukrainian rivers more than a thousand years ago until the middle of the 20th century.   Few people know that wooden boats used since the Middle Ages were still forging rivers during the Second World War. The friends, therefore, named their project the Medieval Shipyard.   Volodymyr Ilkiv is the lead shipbuilder. He has dreamed from childhood of replicating historic ships. As a young boy, he made model ships and listened eagerly, almost lustfully, to tales of the past. As time went on, he became more and more immersed in art, a passion for which he inherited from his parents. But the shipbuilding dream never died. Finally, his friends established a camp for children and adults where outdoor recreation was combined with crafts and boating lessons.