JOURNEY TO BEREZAN ISLAND

Berezan is an island situated in the Black Sea. Its length is about 1 km, width is about 2 km, height of the north part is 3-6 m, southern part-21 m.

Berezan is apart of the historical archeological reserve of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences ”Olvia”.

The island is uninhabited. In summer period some national archeological expeditions work here. In ancient times the island, probably, was a peninsula. From the end of VII century B. C. E. there was a Greek settlement Borisfen, founded by the natives of Miletus. At first, the territory of the colony was built up with dugouts. Starting the middle of the VI century B. C. E. a lot of land-based houses were built in this area as well as the small temple of Afrodite. That time the Greek city is, probably, becoming a center of normal antique policy. Berezan settlement is a unique archaeological site. It is the only settlement, preserved in the Northern Black Sea area, from the early period of Greek colonization.

In 1774 Turks built the fortress on Berezan island and controlled the output of the Dnieper-Bug estuary in the Black Sea.

On the 7th of November, 1788 Black Sea Cossak troops, headed by a judge troop Anton Golovaty, took a possession of the island by assault and forced the garrison situated in Turkish fortress to surrender. The Cossaks' descendants, after their migration to Kuban in 1792, founded there Berezanskaya village as a memory of those events.

On the 6(19)of March , 1906, the leaders of cruiser”Ochakov”rebellion Lt. Smidt, a ship engineer A. Gladkov, N. Antonenko and S. Chastnick were executed on the island. In 1968 a 15-meter concrete monument was established to them in the Southern part of the island by the architects N. Galkina and V. Ochakovsky.

According to some researchers, it is Berezan island, which is depicted by A. Pushkin in his ”Tsar Saltan”poem.

Structure:

8.00 Departure from Odessa
12.00 - 13.00 Berezan island
13.00 Camping on a shore. Tour of the island, swimming, ”treasure hunt” game (finding your location with the help of the map and a compass), sport games (shootin from the airguns according to your wish, volleyball, badminton, etc. ).
14.00 Barbeque. Grill and coals are organized by the yacht crew. Food stuff guest bring with themselves.
20.00 - 20.30 Return to Odessa.

During the voyage, guests can take part in team- and role-games, try their hand in yacht management as a captain or navigator, perform complex maneuvers, turns, salvation of the conditional”man overboard”, to deal with the cards and take a course to the island.

The cost of participation:650 UAH/per.