The nature monument Casova Mountain

Scientists argue that there remain some plant species of the late Tertiary period. In the protected area grows more than 300 species of plants. Folk tradition has kept a range of legends and retellings about the Casova mountain, shrouded in mysteries of the past. According to one of them Prince Danylo Galytskyi kept money, gold and jewels in natural hiding places of the mountain. Yet a version about the lord of bovshivsk that was hiding his money in the labyrinth of karstic caves sounds more realistic. After the entrance of the cave has collapsed, money and jewels forever remained in the heart of the mountain, which people called the Casova mountain. Some researchers believed that on a plateau, that is located at one of the slopes of the mountain, stood an ancient russian monastery. Since ancient times, the whole mountain was littered by rare stones with lace of thin veins, called alabaster. Back in the 30s of XIX century one of the Amber owners emphasized on that and started an alabaster trade. But the mass processing of stones has staerted only a hundred years later. Apart from several private craftsmen, the alabaster art products were manufactured also by a local cooperative, which had its own workshop. Candlesticks, ashtrays, vases, inkwells, powder boxes, sculptures of animals, fishes, birds were made of alabaster.Products were sold partly on place and partly were taken abroad. Alabaster pgoods received a great popularity in the middle of 30s of the XX century. Many farmers were engaged in sale and delivery of raw materials to wellknown sculptors. This craft greatly impoverished natural reserves of the minerals. During the First World War the Casova Mountain was dugged with trenches by russians. The mountain was densely planted by cartridges of bullets and shells as a result of fierce battles over there. From the top of the Casova Mountain there are wonderful sights of the Dniester, Transnistria valley, Galich, Bilshivtsi, Burshtyn reservoir.