New lease of life for war-torn White Elephant

CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS, Ukraine - Perched 2,000 meters up on a snowcapped peak in Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains, the Bilyi Slon observatory has stood empty and battered by the elements for some seven decades.

Abandoned only a year after it was built in what was then Poland due to the outbreak of World War II, it became a carcass of thick sandstone walls and missing windows that looked more like a ruined castle than a scientific outpost.

Now, with efforts under way to raise around $1 million in funding, scientists aim to restore the wreck and transform it into a learning center for young researchers studying wildlife, plants and weather patterns.

"There was no roof, all the floors were warped," local mountain rescuer Vasyl Fitsak, part of a small crew stationed there, said as icy winds swirled outside.

"There were piles of bricks, stones and trash that hikers left here for years. Some piles reached 2 meters in height."

Work on rebuilding the observatory - nicknamed Bilyi Slon (White Elephant) by locals because of how it looks when covered in snow - started in 2012.

So far the copper roof has been restored and debris cleared from much of the building.

But tough conditions mean that progress has been slow and there remains a lot to be done.

Snowstorms and freezing temperatures mean that work can only go ahead six months of the year and no more than 10 construction workers can stay at any one time because of the cramped conditions.

The observatory, which sits on the Pip Ivan peak, the second highest in the Chornogora mountain range, is a six-hour hike from the nearest town. In summer the only road for transporting up building materials becomes an impassable bog.

The observatory's location has not only proved inhospitable due to the dreadful weather.

It has also been buffeted by the hurricane of history that has blown through this region in eastern Europe.

Completed in 1938 on what was then the Polish-Czechoslovak border, the five-storey observatory was equipped with a modern telescope and served as a base for Polish military meteorologists.

It then fell under Nazi control after Hitler's invasion of the USSR and was used as a barracks until it was recaptured by Moscow's forces in 1944.

Those behind the project admit that weather conditions mean it is unlikely to be used for serious stargazing in the future.

But curator Igor Tsependa said the restored observatory could help open up the Carpathians to new visitors.

"It's a pity that we don't have many sites on this mountain range," Tsependa said.

"So this observatory could become the first step in the development of modern tourism in Ukraine, just like in other European countries."