Klesiv is an urban-type settlement in Volyn Polissia, the administrative center of the Klesiv hromada in Sarny Raion, 20 kilometers from Sarny. It grew up near the railway and granite quarries, and today it is also known for amber and the Klesiv Dendropark with its green sculptures. In 2020, local authorities decided to develop ecotourism here.
Station and quarries
Klesiv is a young settlement. In 1902, when the Kyiv — Sarny — Kovel railway was being built, a station of the same name was built a few kilometers away from the old village of Klesiv. A workers' settlement grew up around it: in 1906, there were 12 houses and 73 residents here. Forests began to be cut down and granite quarried all around, the Polissia Railways administration built a sawmill, and a school opened in 1909.
Between the wars, Klesiv belonged to Poland and was the center of a gmina in Sarny Powiat. The quarries operated at full capacity: photographs from the National Digital Archive of Poland have survived, showing tip carts and motor locomotives hauling stone. Klesiv granite is pink-gray, fine-grained, and very durable, and it is still quarried at several deposits.
Polissian Sich
In the summer of 1941, Klesiv became one of the centers of the Polissian Sich, an armed formation created by Taras Bulba-Borovets. UNR Army Colonel Diachenko moved his headquarters here, and two Klesiv kurens and a junior officer school operated here. On August 15, 1941, the Klesiv kuren captured Olevsk in combat. The Sich fighters took explosives for their operations from the storage facilities of the granite quarries. Later, Klesiv was part of the UPA military district "Zahrava".
Amber and dendropark
Klesiv is home to one of the largest amber deposits in Ukraine. And in the Klesiv forestry, there is a dendropark with imaginative green sculptures. Read more in the article Klesiv Dendropark.
Klesiv on video
Nearby
Sarny — 20 kilometers, Rokytne — to the east. More in the article Sarny Raion.
How to get there
Klesiv lies on the Sarny — Korosten railway. Suburban trains and buses run from Sarny.
