Modern Boryslav: what to see in the city of oil workers

In addition to oil and ozokerite production, Boryslav is famous for several other features:

• This city is located between two famous resorts, Truskavets and Skhidnytsia, so visitors to Boryslav can visit one or both of them at once during a sightseeing visit. By the way, Boryslav itself also has healing springs with Naftusia, although they are not as well known as the Truskavets waters.
• Another famous neighborhood of Boryslav is the Kamen rock, where pagan petroglyphs are located. The famous Tustan fortress was located here in the Middle Ages, which is now considered a protected area.
• Boryslav also has ancient churches worth seeing, including examples of wooden religious architecture from the early twentieth century.
• And, of course, this city is closely connected with oil production, and the expositions in the local museum of local lore, the museum of oil and gas industry are dedicated to this industry. Here you can listen to the fascinating story of the emergence of Ukrainian California and learn local legends about oil.
• In the city itself, there is a UNESCO geological monument - the most productive oil well No. 298, known worldwide as Oil City, which is more than a kilometer deep!
• Boryslav is also among the TOP-10 greenest cities in Ukraine, despite its "oil" status. And it is here that you can admire the beautiful parks and squares.

Oil City well

"Oil City"(Oil City) is a historic oil production well with a depth of 1016 m, built in 1908 by the Hollander Oil Syndicate company at the Tustanovych-Boryslavske oil field. The construction of this well began in 1907 on Mykhailo Babiak's field (modern B. Khmelnytskoho Street). Since in 1907, at a horizon depth of 927 meters, the well produced only 860 tons of oil, it was decided in early 1908 to continue deepening the well.

The glory day of Oil City had come. On June 13, 1908, at the end of the well drilling, when the horizon was reached at a depth of 1016 meters, a strong oil blowout occurred at the tower. The amount of oil spewed out grew before our eyes, each time flooding an even larger area. Imagine, in one day, the oil release amounted to 3 thousand tons and 900 thousand cubic meters of gas! For comparison, modern Boryslav produces a total of about 35 tons per day from all available wells. The natural gas was hardly used and was released into the atmosphere in such quantities that it was visible to the naked eye from a great distance. By June 17, the oil industry had brought the situation under control, and production was directed to the earthen reservoirs.

Less than a month later, lightning struck the most productive well at the Boryslavske field, causing the largest fire in European history. It took 21 days to extinguish the fiery oil fountain about 100 meters high. Not only firefighters, but also oil industry workers, military sappers from the city of Przemyśl, and a huge number of hired workers were involved in the liquidation of the "Galician Vesuvius".

Oil City was developed until 1947. In 1952, the well was abandoned. Today, it is a historical site, a monument of the oil and gas industry in Boryslav, and an object of the nature reserve fund of Lviv region.

Today, Oil City is a geological natural monument of local importance in Ukraine. It is located in the southeastern part of Boryslav(64 B. Khmelnytskoho Street).

Museum of the oil and gas industry

TheMuseum of the History of the Oil, Ozokerite and Gas Processing Industries of the District was founded in 1972 in Boryslav at the Palace of Culture of Oil Workers (32 D. Halytskoho St.). In 1973, it had 502 items of museum funds, 272 of which were main items.

From the Palace of Culture of Oil Workers, exhibits of the oil and gas industry were moved to the premises of the former St. Barbara's Church in Volianka, and then to the premises of the City Memorial. In the process, some of the exhibits were lost. Although the museum officially operated until 1995, there were only 182 pieces of museum collections, 72 of which were the main ones, and the rest of the exhibits were transferred to the collections of the city's History and Local Lore Museum.

In 2003, a newly created Museum Room of the Oil and Gas Industry of Ukraine was opened. The Museum of the Oil and Gas Industry of Ukraine is located in a building adapted to the administrative building of Boryslavnaftogaz (fifth floor). It is a technical museum.

The exposition of the museum room introduces visitors to the history of Boryslav oil production, the oldest oil industry in Ukraine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The museum presents:

• Material finds - tools, industrial equipment, samples of raw materials and products, household items, products made by OGVU employees, numismatic materials (coins, medals, orders, badges, etc.), working models, videotapes, disks, floppy disks, as well as samples of living and non-living nature.
• Written monuments include books, newspapers, magazines, booklets, manuscripts, documents, letters, printed and handwritten postcards, etc.
• Visual monuments include: sculpture, painting, graphics, photographs, posters, original diagrams, maps, photographic or pictorial postcards, calendars, philatelic materials, etc.