Pripyat / Prypiat (Part One)
Day Two - Chernobyl / Chornobyl & Kyiv - 2016
Entering Pripyat / Prypiat, a look into Medical Unit Number 126, better known as Pripyat’s Hospital, as well as the once joyful Pripyat Café.
Editor’s Comment: When I first posted this travelogue, I used Russian-to-English transliterations for place names. However, subsequent events -namely the 2019 adoption of Ukrainian-derived places names by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine- have subsequently compelled me to update this travelogue. Broadly speaking, place names associated with the 1986 nuclear accident will have both versions listed; prominent structures (such as the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant or Pripyat Hospital) will continue to use their now-popularized 1986 names, as will instances where these locations are referenced metonymically (“traveled to Chernobyl,” for example); locations not directly associated with the 1986 disaster (primarily, Kyiv) will use modern Ukrainian-derived nomenclature; and, maps and URLs will continue use names from the original post until such a time as I can update them.
Map Credit: OpenStreetMap
1. Medical Unit Number 126 #1
A state-of-the-art facility at the time of its construction, Medical Unit Number 126 could care for 400 patients.
Our first stop in Pripyat / Prypiat pulled out all the stops. Medical Unit Number 126, better known as Pripyat Hospital, treated the sick and wounded plant workers and first responders on the night of the accident. This facility is massive, and we only really scratched the surface exploring it, but what we did see will leave an impression with me for the rest of my life. While Chernobyl was a tragedy and many dozens of people ultimately lost their lives as a result of the explosion, only two died on 26 April: the previously-mentioned Valery Khodemchuk, who died at and is entombed in the Reactor Number Four building, and Vladimir Shashenok, who died in Pripyat Hospital as a result of wounds. Others would obviously perish in the coming weeks, but not before being moved to a medical facility in Moscow. The abandonment of Pripyat / Prypiat was tragic, certainly, but the hospital is the only place in the city that can truly be described as “grim”. Being there is unsettling in ways that are difficult to describe.
2. Medical Unit Number 126 #2
The reception area of the hospital. The sign reads, “In the Name of Life”.
3. Medical Unit Number 126 #3
A surprising amount of furniture remains in the building; however, most all the windows and glassware have been smashed.
4. Medical Unit Number 126 #4
The medical examination tables are among the most impactful items you’ll see in the hospital. Like all large hospitals, Pripyat Hospital has a morgue which would arguably take this mantle; however, we did not visit it.
5. Medical Unit Number 126 #5
After decades of abandonment and exposure to the elements, there is quite a bit of rust on unfinished metal surfaces, such as those on this overhead examination lamp. The wiring inside the light, however, appeared in surprisingly good condition.
6. Medical Unit Number 126 #6
Among the many things that fascinated me about Pripyat / Prypiat was just how quickly nature reclaimed whatever spaces it could in the absence of humans. Not only is moss growing on this section of room, but bushes and grasses, as well. A fascinating phenomenon.
7. Medical Unit Number 126 #7
The amount of literature and other printed material still remaining in the hospital was also surprising as I expected they would make easy targets for trophy hunters.
8. Medical Unit Number 126 #8
A patient information card. I won’t translate what is written here, you can research it if you are interested to know.
9. Medical Unit Number 126 #9
Generally, visitors on accompanied tours do a pretty good job not disturbing artifacts in the buildings of the Exclusion Zone. That said, there are individuals known as “stalkers” who effectively break into the Zone, typically at night, and rearrange objects (such as these glasses, presumably) while they are there.
10. Medical Unit Number 126 #10
Once esoteric, it is now generally well known that the gear and clothing of the firefighters and other first responders were placed into a gigantic pile to quarantine them from the rest of the hospital. This pile was made in a room in the hospital’s basement, and as a result the room has one of the highest levels of radiation in Pripyat. As such, the basement is off-limits to visitors and this elevator shaft -more or less directly above the area with the contaminated gear- is as close as casual visitors will get to it.
11. Medical Unit Number 126 #11
If a visit to the abandoned nursery doesn’t give you chills, I’m fairly certain you don’t have a soul.
12. Medical Unit Number 126 #12
Once a place of joy, it is now a place of solemnity.
13. Medical Unit Number 126 #13
Amazingly, this plant has seemingly thrived even without human care.
14. Medical Unit Number 126 #14
More medical procedure spaces to chill the bones.
15. Medical Unit Number 126 #15
While I imagine most of the “serious” pharmaceutical objects have been pilfered or otherwise removed, there is a surprising amount left in the building, to include this glucose.
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16. Café Pripyat #1
The once-ornate Café Pripyat was a popular social hang-out for the village’s residents, whose average age in 1986 was only 26-years-old.
After leaving the hospital, we took the short walk to go visit the remains of Café Pripyat. Situated on the banks of the Pripyat / Prypiat River, you get the sense visiting that this would have been quite a welcome place to relax. What struck me immediately was how ornate the architecture is - after all, how many coffee shops have you been to that have stained-glass windows? More impressively, the windows appeared to survive decades of neglect, although -at the time- it appeared many of the stained-glass panes were not too far away from falling out from their rusting frames.
The following eight photographs are also from Café Pripyat.
17. Café Pripyat #2
18. Café Pripyat #3
19. Café Pripyat #4
20. Café Pripyat #5
21. Café Pripyat #6
22. Café Pripyat #7
A quick note about this soda vending machine: these were popular across the Soviet Union; however, unlike Western drink machines, the Soviet variants used a common glass which the user was expected to place upside-down on a rinsing jet before using.
