Every summer, and especially in August, on Sundays, local villagers used to organize a trade fair with a romantic name, Brekhalivka, for Mezhyhirya visitors near the steamship pier. These were picturesque events with long-standing traditions.
A particularly large number of guests visited the ancient Mezhyhirya Monastery on its feast day, the Savior, which is August 19, Gregorian calendar. At that time, all of Kyiv gathered in Mezhyhirya, and residents of the surrounding villages met the visitors at the pier with their wares.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Mezhyhirya and its surroundings were a kind of resort and recreation area for Kyiv residents. Many Kyiv travel guides mentioned the healing properties of water from the Dzvinkova well and the crystal-clear air of the area.
In 1929, a brochure by Dr. S. Khaikis entitled “Kyiv’s Suburbs as a Climatic Resort” was published in Kyiv under the brandmark of the company “Publications of the Resort Bureau”. In a small article about Mezhyhirya, the author writes that from mid 1920’s until 1929, the buildings of the former Mezhyhirya Monastery housed a holiday home of the Kyiv Insurance Fund every season.
By a decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR of May 10, 1933, the Mezhyhirya Monastery buildings were turned into the Art House of the All-Ukrainian Union of Proletarian Writers. During the two seasons of 1933 and 1934, almost all representatives of our Executed Renaissance visited this writers’ holiday house in Mezhyhirya.
