Every design for Chełm

Chełm rises from the western edge of Volhynian Polesie on a hill of chalk, its old town gathered around the Góra Chełmska while the Uherka, a tributary of the Bug, runs through the lower ground below. The chalk dates from a time when this land lay at the bottom of an ocean, and the name of the town is thought to come from an old Slavic word for a hill.

That position has shaped everything. The city sits south-east of Lublin and only a short distance from the Ukrainian border, on a broad-and-standard-gauge railway that links it to Kovel. Beneath the streets run the Chełmskie Podziemia Kredowe, kilometres of chalk tunnels; on top of the hill stand the Bazylika Kolegiacka Narodzenia Najświętszej Maryi Panny and the Zamek w Chełmie. On the outskirts, the Borek woods and the small Rezerwat Wolwinów protect a patch of steppe plants, including dwarf cherry.

If you grew up here, you know the climb up the hill to the basilica and the view out over the flat country towards the border.