Local tradition says that Roksolana, the girl who became the wife of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, was born in Rohatyn. Whether or not that is true, the town in the Galician foothills of western Ukraine has been telling the story for centuries, and a statue and a museum keep it alive. Rohatyn sits on the small river Hnyla Lypa, east of the Carpathians, in a country of low hills, orchards and wheat fields, and its pride is a small wooden church dedicated to the Descent of the Holy Spirit, built in the late sixteenth century and still standing near the old market square.
The church is one of the wooden churches of the Carpathian region that were added to the World Heritage list in 2013, a group of Ukrainian and Polish buildings that show a tradition of timber construction going back many centuries. The Rohatyn church has a modest tripartite form, with three connected sections under tall shingled roofs and a bell tower beside it, and inside, painted icons and an ornate iconostasis fill the interior with colour. Some of the painted decoration is later than the structure, but the feeling of age is real, and the smell of old wood, wax and incense is hard to forget.
On a motorbike, western Ukraine rewards patience. The main roads between towns are busy with lorries and minibuses, and the surface may be broken and patched, so potholes are the chief hazard, and you learn to read the asphalt. The side roads are quieter, with villages of whitewashed houses and wells, storks nesting on poles, and haystacks in the fields, and they lead to places like Potelych, where another wooden church stands, the ride's next stop. Check the current security situation and official travel advice before you plan any journey in the country, since conditions have changed greatly and may vary by region.
Rohatyn has about eight thousand people, with a few shops, cafes and fuel stations, and bigger options at Burshtyn, seventeen kilometres to the south, and Ivano-Frankivsk beyond. The local food is hearty and generous: borscht, dumplings with potato or cheese called varenyky, pancakes with sour cream, and strong sweet tea or coffee. The best months are May to October, with green fields in early summer and golden light in September. Winters are cold and snowy, and the spring thaw turns the lanes to mud.