In their memoirs from the early 20th century, many people compare the beautiful health resort in Slovyansk to the famous German resort town of Bad Kreuznach. And the area around Svyatohirs’k is referred to as nothing less than the “Donetsk Riviera.”
Indeed, at that time, the resort was popular among residents of the Kharkiv Governorate as well as beyond its borders. So the positive reviews are well-deserved. A great deal of detail about resort life can be found in the *Seasonal Bulletin of the Slovyansk Mineral Waters: A Popular Balneological Newspaper*, which was published beginning in 1889.
The publication regularly featured (with addresses) lists of doctors, dentists, midwives, massage therapists, and paramedics practicing at the resort. It also featured individuals who had “purchased seasonal passes” for each week, articles and studies on the healing properties of mineral waters and mud, and various announcements from the city and resort administrations. There were separate sections: “For Readers’ Attention,” “Gossip,” “Theater and Music.” Thanks to this, we can learn more about how our ancestors spent their vacations. For example, the first issue of 1910, published on Friday, May 14, began with a lengthy and objective article about the resort:
Slavic Mineral Waters has long held a prominent place among the country’s top-tier resorts, thanks to the healing properties of its therapeutic treatments, its excellent, locations that are perfectly suited to their purposes, the relatively low cost of living at the resorts, and, moreover, the rational organization of medical care there.
Boasting inexhaustible reserves of the strongest brine, which makes it possible to adjust the concentration of the baths as desired—taking into account the nature of the illness, the patient’s individual characteristics, the course of the disease, and other factors—and, furthermore, wonderful deposits of therapeutic mud, the efficacy of which has been proven to be of undoubted benefit in severe cases of various diseases treatable here; and finally, possessing three salt lakes, bathing in which, aside from being a pleasure, serves as an excellent post-treatment regimen, The Slovyansk resort, given the presence of other favorable conditions as well—such as a mild, temperate climate—cannot help but thrive, especially if the city administration makes every effort, on the one hand, to further improve the organization of medical care at the resort, and on the other—to eliminate the inconveniences of life for patients undergoing treatment here, which existed in Slovyansk in the past and still exist to some extent today, and to improve living conditions here for the resort’s guests—who do not have large sums of money at their disposal and receive no subsidies or benefits from outside sources—the city is nevertheless beginning to take steps to improve the resort in order to attract the largest possible number of visitors. In essence, one need not be particularly far-sighted to see that the whole matter rests on a simple commercial calculation: the better, more respectable, more comfortable, and more beneficial the resort becomes, the more visitors there will be, and the greater the revenues will be—in particular for the water authorities and, more generally, the city’s population—including summer residents, merchants, artisans, and others—and the more prosperous the population becomes, the fuller and more robust the city’s coffers will be, and the more valuable the city’s assets will become. Every ruble spent will return to the coffers tenfold or even a hundredfold. Of course, we must not forget the interests of the sick here, but until now, matters at the Slovyansk resort have been managed so well that there could be no question of these interests being harmed, nor has the issue ever been raised. If I may put it that way, the “product” offered has always been top-notch and reasonably priced…
…The city administration is now focused on establishing a water supply system. On the mountain, on the northwestern side of the resort, a test well has been dug, and the water in it turned out to be soft, clean, completely fresh, and free of impurities—and in such abundance that those in charge of the project deemed it feasible to establish a water supply system from this well, initially for the resort’s residents and, in the future, after increasing the number of wells, for the entire city. The water supply system will likely be ready soon. Among the drawbacks of our resort, incidentally, there are two: the lack of good, well-equipped summer cottages where visitors could settle in with at least some comfort, and the presence of dust. As for the summer homes in our resort area, those that offer some amenities in terms of living conditions and, subsequently, sanitation and hygiene can be counted on one hand; there are absolutely no luxurious, opulent summer homes, and the remaining small ones, often uncomfortable, leave much to be desired in terms of amenities. There are also many small, so-called peasant dwellings, but they are hardly suitable for the sick to live in. The need for good, comfortable summer homes, I repeat, is great…
Among the newspaper’s announcements, all visitors were informed:
The resort administration considers it necessary to clarify to visitors who are required to purchase a seasonal pass to use the resort’s facilities that the seasonal fee has nothing to do with the park admission fee after 6:00 p.m. For the latter purpose, in addition to single-entry tickets, there are also season passes valid for the entire season—which, of course, are required only for those who wish to visit the park during the specified hours—whereas the seasonal fee is mandatory for all visitors, with very few exceptions. The public’s inaccurate labeling of season passes as “seasonal” often leads to mutual misunderstandings.
The resort administration also strongly urged visitors not to ride bicycles or drive carriages along the park’s avenues, Gresserovsky Square, or the pine grove “to prevent accidents and ensure the comfort of pedestrians.” Other restrictions and prohibitions are no less interesting:
— Male children were not allowed in the women’s communal bathing areas.
— To avoid disturbing theatergoers as they enjoyed the performers’ acts, ladies were asked to remove their hats.
— Dogs without muzzles or leashes were prohibited from entering the park and the entire resort area.
— On the feast day of Saint Panteleimon the Healer, all of the resort’s medical facilities—except for the bathhouses and the medical examination room—were closed.
— Not all products were permitted for sale at the park’s newspaper kiosk.
Separate rules applied to visits to the resort park, where theater troupes performed throughout the season, a specially invited symphony orchestra played, and dance evenings were held from time to time.
Admission to the park was free during the day; however, starting at 6:00 p.m., entry to the area containing the bandstand, restaurant, orchestra stage, and other entertainment venues cost 15 kopecks for both children and adults. For convenience, all vacationers were offered the option to purchase a season pass at the resort office for 2 rubles and 10 kopecks per person. And for a family (husband, wife, children)—5 rubles 30 kopecks. However, when purchasing such a season pass, all visitors to the resort were informed that the Mineral Waters Administration could, with advance notice, increase the single-entry fee (no more than 5 evenings per season) on days when special events were held in the park. Season passes were not valid for such evenings.
For the convenience of resort guests, there was a separate telephone in the lobby of the resort hall for making calls to the city. Anyone who wished to do so could use it at any time, completely free of charge.
However, while physical wellness at the resort was more or less satisfactory, the issue of “spiritual health” left much to be desired. Priest Ioann Filevsky, who visited there in the summer, wrote the following in his article “On the Question of Establishing a Church at the Resort”:
…It’s been 11 years now that I’ve been coming every summer to my dacha in Slovyansk, at Mineralnye Vody—and every time I see announcements posted in the Kurzal about building a church at the resort; but there’s no sign of any active community organization or practical steps being taken to make this happen…
Representatives of other faiths also visited here from time to time during the resort season. Since the vacationers belonged to different religious denominations, all announcements on this topic were published in the newspaper:
“On Friday, August 6, at 11:00 a.m. in Slovyansk, at the Mashuryants residence, Father Chaevsky, the chaplain of the Kharkiv Catholic Church, will celebrate Mass for Catholics. The service is open to anyone who wishes to attend.”
Overall, however, the 1910 season—which officially ended on August 25—was not particularly successful for Slovyansk due to the cholera epidemic that had broken out in the Russian Empire. Despite timely measures, several people at the resort fell ill. Exaggerated reports of this were immediately published in many newspapers, triggering a mass exodus of vacationers; by August 15, virtually all guests had left.
Undoubtedly, the city and resort authorities have been trying to improve the situation for many years. However, little has changed since the early 20th century, as noted in an 1881 diary entry by the renowned writer and journalist Prince Vladimir Petrovich Meshchersky:
Friday, June 26.
…In Slovyansk, in the Kharkiv Governorate, as is well known, there are some of the strongest and finest mineral waters in the world. It is also well known that the waters of Slovyansk suffer from a complete lack of any semblance of comfort for patients and those undergoing treatment…
That is why our ancestors preferred to vacation and seek medical treatment at mud and mineral resorts abroad, where the level of comfort was significantly higher, while prices remained about the same. As for the wealthier ones, they would come in the summer to their dachas in the nearby “Holy Mountains.”
