BEREHOVE – Imagine a land of beautiful mountains, flowers, rivers and caves. A land where brightly colored pheasants scamper across the fields, and vineyards grow lush under the sun.

For a living, the locals make red and white wine, as well as dozens of types of organic cheese.

This land is in the far west of Ukraine’s Zakarpattya Oblast – in Berehivskiy District, some 800 kilometers to the south-east of Kyiv, and only about 10 kilometers from the border with Hungary.

These territories used to be part of Hungary before the World War I. Then they were Czechoslovak, Ukrainian, and then Hungarian again. Zakarpattya finally became part of Ukraine only 72 years ago, in 1946, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.

Locals say anyone who was born at the beginning of the 20th century in Zakarpattya could have lived in five different states without setting foot outside the area.

But a part of Zakarpattya – several districts near the Tysa River, mostly inhabited by ethnic Hungarians – has managed to maintain its Hungarian culture, language, and traditions.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire architecture of the cities and towns of Berehivskiy district is mixed with cozy traditional houses with tiled roofs in the countryside.

The best time to come here is in April and May to enjoy cherry trees, lilac, daffodils, wisteria and many other flowers that bloom in spring.

Beregszasz

Is it Berehove or Beregszasz, Ukraine or Hungary? The street and road signs here are written both in Hungarian and Ukrainian.

The Hungarian language can also be heard everywhere in the streets. Berehove and the nearby villages of Berehivsky District are home to some 100,000 ethnic Hungarians, who constitute 10 percent of Zakarpattya’s population of 1 million.

One of the options to stay in Berehove is the Zolota Pava or Golden Peacock Hotel, located at 1 Ferenc Racoczi Square, in the city center.

Originally a casino, constructed in 1913 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled these lands, the building was turned into a restaurant during the Soviet times, and then into a hotel in 2003.

The building looks like a haunted house from a movie by U.S. filmmakers Guillermo Del Toro or Tim Burton: The dark-purple hall and blue restaurant features giant reproductions Alfons Mucha’s muses on its ceiling and walls.

The shady corridors with red carpets and yellow walls, lined with paintings of the old towns of European capitals, lead to suites with wooden furniture, large bathrooms, free Wi-Fi and air conditioners.

A semi-lux suite with a skylight and an extra sofa costs Hr 600 or $22 per night. Breakfast is not included, but the Zolota Pava Restaurant, located on the first floor of the hotel, offers plenty of dishes from Hungarian, Ukrainian and Zakarpattya cuisine, and the average price per dish is Hr 150-290.

Berehove is an ideal base from which to travel all around the area’s Hungarian villages, vineyards and mountains.

Wine country

The small, picturesque villages of Muzhiyevo and Bene, inhabited by ethnic Hungarians, are located some 8 kilometers east of Berehove. One can get there by car, or by a local bus for Hr 16.
In the past, Muzhiyevo was the gold mining center of the region, with a gold mine operating here until 2010, when it was finally declared bankrupt.

Nowadays, the main business here is winemaking.

Two major Ukrainian wineries, Cotnar and Chizay, are located in Muzhiyevo.

Chizay’s main office is located in Berehove, but the company offers wine tours to Mala Mountain, near Muzhiyevo. Mala Mountain is completely covered by Chizay’s vineyard.

For Hr 360, or $13, the company offers a three-and-a-half-hour tour, which includes a walk and a guided tour of the vineyard, a wine tasting, and a bowl of the Hungarian soup Bograch for dinner.
Cotnar Winery also offers a tour and tasting in a wine cellar in Muzhiyevo for Hr 300 or $11.

Visitors can see the winemaking process and then sample nine types of wine – red, white and rose – along with local cheese, fruit, and bread. However, wine is made in the region not only by major producers: Lots of the locals also produce homemade wine, and have been doing so for a long time.

The Ursta Family winery, for instance, with its four-hectare vineyard in the village of Bene is one small local winemaker, which has been in the Ursta family since the 1930s.

Once bottled, the Urstas’ wine is matured in the winery’s cellars, located 5-25 meters underground in the 400-year-old caves carved into the Kerteys Mountain.

The winery is located at the foot of the mountain. After a wine tasting, visitors can buy a bottle of Merlot, cold and wet from the cellars, and without even a label. There is no need to pre-book a tour to visit Ursta Family Winery – tired tourists can just drop in: It is against local traditions to turn visitors away.

How to get there:

To get to Hungarian Ukraine from Kyiv, take the Kyiv-Solotvyno train for Hr 380 or $14 with a ticket on to Berehove railway station. The journey is a long one, at 18 hours, but the train is comfortable.

If traveling by car, take the E-40 and then E-471 highways west from Kyiv to Mukachevo, then drive south by the M-24 and M-25 roads, or the M40, to get to Berehove. The 804-kilometer drive should take about 10 hours.