Vorokhta

Vorokhta (Ворохта; Worochta) is an urban-type settlement located in the Carpathian Mountains on Prut River and is part of Nadvirna Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Historically, it is a tourist spa town and later was also turned into a ski resort with several ski-jumping ramps (Avanhard). Vorokhta hosts the administration of Vorokhta settlement hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: due to a constant flow of tourists, its population almost year-round is bigger. Located at an elevation of 800 metres above sea level, it is known for its close ties to the Hutsuls – an ethno-cultural group of Ukrainians who live in the Carpathians, and is often regarded as a Hutsul capital. Vorokhta along with the town of Yaremche and few more villages constitute a series of enclaves within Nadvirna Raion and administered by the Yaremche city municipality. The town is located near the administrative border with Zakarpattia Oblast in the Verkhovyna-Putyla Mountains close to the Yablunytsia Pass and source of the Prut River. Vorokhta is surrounded by the Carpathian National Nature Park and the ethnographic area of Hutsuls. The town is surrounded by such mount peaks as Mahora, Makivka, and others. According to oral legends, Vorokhta was established in the 17th century. So claimed to be the Polish ethnographer Jan Falkowski. Supposedly near village Mykulychyn settled a ranaway from the army of Crown of Poland by name Vorokhta. The main population consisted of peasants who were engaged in growing livestock, land cultivation, handcraft industries. The local population actively supported the anti-Polish Opryshky uprising which was taking place in the vicinity until mid 19th century. Following the 1848 Spring of Nations, in Austria was abolished serfdom, yet big landowners remained in Vorokhta with one owning up to 800 morgen of polonyna. Due to difficult economic situation many local soon began finding place to earn money elsewhere immigrating to countries of the New World, Canada, Brazil, Argentina.