International Scientific Center “Observatory”/“White Elephant”: Ukrainian-Polish Scientific Project with Pan-European Perspectives

In the mid-1930s, Leon Berbetsky, President of the Supervisory Board of the Polish Anti-Aircraft Defense League, initiated the construction of an astronomical observatory in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. With state support, by the middle of 1938, a multi-functional Astronomical—Meteorological Observatory named after Marshal Józef Piłsudski was established on Mount Pip Ivan. It was a unique scientific institution with state-of-the-art equipment, which had no analogues in the Polish state of that time. After the Soviet invasion of Poland, astronomical work was halted. After World War II, it was not restored. Several attempts were made to revive the facility in the 1960s and 1990s, but they ended in failure. The situation changed when Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University and the University of Warsaw took up the task of restoring the observatory. Through the collaborative efforts of these educational institutions, the issue of reconstructing the observatory was raised to the interstate level and by the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century received support from the Presidents of Ukraine and Poland. Despite changes in leadership in both countries in 2010, work to restore the facility continued. Cooperation between universities and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast played an important role in this effort. In 2017, it established its rescue post at the International Scientific Center “Observatory”. A significant step, marking the transition of restoration work to the pan-European level, was the implementation of the project “Adaptation of the Former Observatory on Mount Pip Ivan for the Needs of a High-Mountain Rescue Center” within the framework of the European Union cross-border cooperation program Poland—Belarus—Ukraine. Its successful completion has opened up new opportunities for further development of the functionality of the astronomical observatory for the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University and the University of Warsaw, as well as for advancement in the fields of meteorological observations, conducting theoretical and practical research in ecological and safety dimensions.