Shoenborn’s hunting castle

While traveling to Transcarpathian region, it is impossible to miss one of the most beautiful castles in this area. It is surprisingly well preserved, and still pleases visitors with its elegant architecture.  Of course I’m talking about Shoenborn’s hunting castle.

The castle itself is quite young and was based on a wooden hunting lodge, which was built in 1840. The Carpathians have an abundance of different kinds of wild fowls, so the owners of the castle often visited this place.  In 1890  building of the castle started. That castle can still be seen now. The date of the beginning of building was put on a plate in front of the castle. The construction lasted for five years. The castle, like many others at that time, had astronomic structure. There are 365 windows like the number of days, 52 rooms like the number of weeks and 12 entrances like the number of months in a year.

Around the castle a beautiful park with various plants from different regions was designed. In the center of the park there is a lake. It is thought that its shapes are similar to the form of the border of Austria-Hungary from those times.

Lake in the park

The castle survived the both world wars without any damage. After joining Transcarphatian region to the USSR, a new sanatorium “Karpaty” was created on the basis of the castle. The sanatorium has been working until now.

We visited the castle on our way back from Mukachevo to Lviv. You can’t drive directly to the castle. But you can leave your car in a parking lot just next to the road. It’s also possible to get there by public transport. Then there is a long rise because the castle is built on the hill. Admission to the nearest territory is free, but going inside the castle is prohibited for tourists.

What impressed us most is the beauty of the castle. By the way, as we were informed, this castle was used during the shooting of the kids movie “Snow queen”. The modern queens also attend this place. During our visit we saw several weddings.

Going further we found a small zoo. It was a fenced area with many deers. They fearlessly came to us waiting for food.

The deer in the zoo

Next to the zoo there is the lake which I mentioned earlier. There we found several swan houses and summerhouses for patients and guests.

While traveling around the park, we were asked if we had remembered to wash our faces in a fountain of youth. We couldn’t miss that chance and went to the end of the park. There after passing a small bridge, we found the fountain. A lot of people also come there just to take some water.

The park 

There are a lot of  people walking in the park. Moms with kids come there. People just sit on the benches and read. This place is one of those where you want to come back again and again. So, if you go by, certainly visit it!