Chernihiv

Chernihiv Чернігів
City of regional significance
From top, left to right: Trinity Monastery, Chernihiv Philharmony, Administrative building, The building of the former provincial zemstvo, Pyatnytska Church, and view of ancient Chernihiv with Transfiguration, Borys and Hlib Cathedrals and Chernihiv Collegium
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname(s):  City of Legends
Chernihiv Location of Chernihiv in Ukraine Chernihiv Chernihiv (Ukraine) Show map of Chernihiv OblastShow map of UkraineShow all
Coordinates: 51°29′38″N 31°17′41″E / 51.49389°N 31.29472°E / 51.49389; 31.29472Coordinates: 51°29′38″N 31°17′41″E / 51.49389°N 31.29472°E / 51.49389; 31.29472
Country	Ukraine
Oblast	Chernihiv Oblast
Raion	Chernihiv Raion
First mentioned	907
City Status	907
Government
• Mayor	Vladyslav Atroshenko[1] ( [uk][1])
Area
• Total	79 km2 (31 sq mi)
Elevation	136 m (446 ft)
Population  (2021)
• Total	285,234
• Density	1,547/km2 (4,010/sq mi)
Postal code	14000
Area code(s)	(+380) 462
Vehicle registration	CB / 25
Website	chernigiv-rada.gov.ua

Chernihiv (Ukrainian: Чернігів, IPA: [tʃerˈn^(j)iɦiu̯]) also known as Chernigov (Russian: Черни́гов, IPA: [tɕɪrˈnʲiɡəf];^[a] Polish: Czernihów, IPA: [t͡ʂɛrˈɲixuf]) is a historic city in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of the Chernihiv Oblast (province), and Chernihiv Raion (district) within the oblast. It hosts the administration of , one of the hromadas of Ukraine.^[2] Population is 285,234 (2021 est.)^[3].

Geography[]

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Chernihiv stands on the Desna River 150 km (93 mi) to the north-north-east of Kyiv .

The area was served by Chernihiv Shestovitsa Airport, and during the Cold War it was the site of Chernigiv air base.

History[]

Chernihiv was first mentioned in the Rus'–Byzantine Treaty (907) (as Черниговъ (Chernigov)), but the time of establishment is not known. According to the items uncovered by archaeological excavations of a settlement which included artifacts from the Khazar Khaganate, it seems to have existed at least in the 9th century. Towards the end of the 10th century, the city probably had its own rulers. It was there that the Black Grave, one of the largest and earliest royal mounds in Eastern Europe, was excavated in the 19th century.

Imperial Russia Armorial of Little Russia with the coat of arms of Chernihiv

In the southern portion of the Kievan Rus' the city was the second by importance and wealth.^[4] From the early 11th century it was the seat of the powerful Grand Principality of Chernigov, whose rulers at times vied for power with Kyivan Grand Princes, and often overthrew them and took the primary seat in Kyiv for themselves. The grand principality was the largest in Kievan Rus and included not only the Severian towns but even such remote regions as Murom, Ryazan and Tmutarakan. The golden age of Chernihiv, when the city population peaked at 25,000, lasted until 1239 when the city was sacked by the hordes of Batu Khan, which started a long period of relative obscurity.

The area fell under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1353. The city was burned again by Crimean khan Meñli I Giray in 1482 and 1497 and in the 15th to 17th centuries it changed hands several times between Lithuania, Muscovy (1408–1420 and from 1503), and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1618–1648), where it was granted Magdeburg rights in 1623 and in 1635 became a seat of Chernihiv Voivodeship. The area's importance increased again in the middle of the 17th century during and after the Khmelnytsky Uprising. In the Hetman State Chernihiv was the city of deployment of Chernihiv Cossack regiment (both a military and territorial unit of the time).

Under the 1667 Treaty of Andrusovo the legal suzerainty of the area was ceded to Tsardom of Russia, with Chernihiv remaining an important center of the autonomous Cossack Hetmanate. With the abolishment of the Hetmanate, the city became an ordinary administrative center of the Russian Empire and a capital of local administrative units. The area in general was ruled by the Governor-General appointed from Saint Petersburg, the imperial capital, and Chernihiv was the capital of local namestnichestvo (province) (from 1782), Malorosiyskaya or Little Russian (from 1797) and Chernigov Governorate (from 1808).

According to the census of 1897, in the city of Chernihiv there were about 11,000 Jews out of the total population of 27,006. Their primary occupations were industrial and commercial. Many tobacco plantations and fruit gardens in the neighborhood were owned by Jews. There were 1,321 Jewish artisans in Chernihiv, including 404 tailors and seamstresses, but the demand for artisan labor was limited to the town. There were 69 Jewish day-laborers, almost exclusively teamsters. But few were engaged in the factories.^[5]

During World War II, Chernihiv was occupied by the German Army from 9 September 1941 to 21 September 1943.

The Statue of Lenin on Myru Avenue was toppled on February 21, 2014, as part of the demolitions of the statues of Lenin in Ukraine.^[6][7]

Until 18 July 2020, Chernihiv was designated as a city of oblast significance and did not belong to Chernihiv Raion even though it was the center of the raion. As part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Chernihiv Oblast to five, the city was merged into Chernihiv Raion.^[8][9]

Architecture[]

Chernihiv's architectural monuments chronicle the two most flourishing periods in the city's history - those of Kievan Rus' (11th and 12th centuries) and of the Cossack Hetmanate (late 17th and early 18th centuries.)

The oldest church in the city and one of the oldest churches in Ukraine is the 5-domed Transfiguration Cathedral, commissioned in the early 1030s by Mstislav the Bold and completed several decades later by his brother, Yaroslav the Wise. The Cathedral of Sts Boris and Gleb, dating from the mid-12th century, was much rebuilt in succeeding periods, before being restored to its original shape in the 20th century. Likewise built in brick, it has a single dome and six pillars. The crowning achievement of Chernihiv masters was the exquisite Pyatnytska Church, constructed at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. This graceful building was seriously damaged in the Second World War; its original medieval outlook was reconstructed to a design by Peter Baranovsky.

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  Regimental Chancellery building.

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  Eletsky monastery cathedral was modeled after that of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Note the contrast between its austere 12th-century walls and baroque 17th-century domes.

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  Chernihiv Philharmony

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  Hotel Desna.

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  Tarnovsky Museum of antiquities.

The earliest residential buildings in the downtown date from the late 17th century, a period when a Cossack regiment was deployed there. Two most representative residences are those of Polkovnyk Lyzohub (1690s) and Polkovnyk Polubutok (18th century). The former mansion, popularly known as the Mazepa House, used to contain the regiment's chancellery. One of the most profusely decorated Cossack structures is undoubtedly the ecclesiastical collegium, surmounted by a bell-tower (1702). The archbishop's residence was constructed nearby in the 1780s. St Catherine Church (1715), with its 5 gilded pear domes, traditional for Ukrainian architecture, is thought to have been intended as a memorial to the regiment's exploits during the storm of Azov in 1696.

Monasteries[]

All through the most trying periods of its history, Chernihiv retained its ecclesiastical importance as the seat of bishopric or archbishopric. At the outskirts of the modern city lie two ancient cave monasteries, formerly used as the bishops' residences.

The caves of the Eletsky Monastery are said to predate those of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (Kyiv Monastery of the Caves). Its magnificent 6-pillared cathedral was erected at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries; some traces of its 750-year-old murals may still be seen in the interior. After the domes collapsed in 1611, they were augmented and reconstructed in the Ukrainian baroque style. The wall, monastic cells, and bell-tower all date from the 17th century. The nearby mother superior's house is thought to be the oldest residential building in the Left-Bank Ukraine. The cloister's holiest icon used to be that of Theotokos, who made her epiphany to Svyatoslav of Chernigov on 6 February 1060. The icon, called Eletskaya after the fir wood it was painted upon, was taken to Moscow by Svyatoslav's descendants, the Baryatinsky family, in 1579.

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  The Savior Transfiguration Cathedral of Chernihiv (1030s) is the oldest in Ukraine.

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  Pyatnytska Church of Saint Paraskevi (c. 1201, restored after World War II).

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  Borisoglebsky Cathedral (1120s)

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  Chernigiv Collegium (1700s)

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  Catherine's Church (1715s)

The nearby we can find Saint Anthony Caves of Saint Elijah and the Holy Trinity features a small eponymous church, which was constructed 800 years ago. The roomy Trinity cathedral, one of the most imposing monuments of the Cossack baroque, was erected between 1679 and 1689. Its refectory, with the adjoining church of Presentation to the Temple, was finished by 1679. There are also the 17th-century towered walls, monastic cells, and the five-tiered belfry from the 1780s.

Other historic abbeys may be visited in the vicinity of Chernihiv; those in Kozelets and contain superb samples of Ukrainian national architecture.

Economy[]

Industry[]

Cheksil is one of the largest enterprises in the textile industry in Ukraine based in Chernihiv. The first stage of the plant was put into operation in 1963.^[10] The city also has the Musical Instrument Factory established in 1933. In 1995 was established a manufacturer of goods for animals, called Company established by Yuri Sinitsa.^[11][12][13]

Education[]

Chernihiv National University of Technology

Chernihiv has a Chernihiv National University of Technology, Chernihiv State Technological University and Taras Shevchenko National University "Chernihiv College".

Transport[]

Train[]

Chernihiv Ovruch railway in Chernihiv

Chernihiv has a train station with bus station called Chernihiv Ovruch railway. Narrow gauge railway of 76 versts was laid from the Kruty station of the Moscow Kyiv-Voronezh railway towards Chernihiv. In 1893, on the left bank of the Desna River, in the area of a modern automobile bridge, a railway station was built along the Kyiv highway. Passengers were delivered here from the city and back by horse transport. In 1925, traffic was opened on the Nizhyn - Chernigov section of the Southwest Railway. But the appearance of railway transport in Chernihiv was postponed until 1928 (the bridge over the Desna River was not ready and the trains still arrived on the left bank, where the old narrow-gauge railway station was located, from where passengers got to Chernihiv by road bridge). According to 2006 data, the volume of freight traffic is 84,737 wagons per year. Over 4.5 million passengers are transported each year. However, the condition of the rolling stock and the quality of the services provided do not meet modern requirements. Since the introduction of the new high-speed train timetable, the trailed wagons of the 93/94 Chernigov - Odessa train were canceled. As of 2015, regular trains Minsk - Odessa, St. Petersburg - Kyiv / Kharkiv run through Chernihiv, and there are direct connections with Moscow. Trains to Crimea (Simferopol, Feodosia) were canceled from December 27, 2014.

Air transport[]

The area was served by Chernihiv Shestovitsa Airport, and during the Cold War it was the site of Chernigov air base. The close airport is in Kyiv at the Boryspil Airport located 143.1 kilometres (89 miles) away, and the smaller, municipally owned Zhulyany Airport located 158.7 km (98.6 mi) away on the southern outskirts of the city of Kyiv.

Bus[]

Trolleybus in Chernihiv

The best way here from Kyiv is on a marshrutka from Chernihivska and Lisova metro station (100uah, two hours, around every 30 minutes), which drop off outside McDonald's (on pr Pobedy). Buses for Novhorod-Siversky leave hourly from Chernihiv's Central bus station (65uah, three hours), located near the Chernihiv train station.

Local public transport[]

Public transport includes buses and trolleybuses. There is no direct connection between railway station and Chernihiv-1 bus station to the most central sights on the Val - you will have to take any trolleybus or bus from the station to crossing of Prospekt Mira and Prospekt Pobedy (Hotel Ukraine stop; look for the end of the boulevard along Prospekt Mira near it), and then walk through historical centre a little. Trolleybus 1 and bus 38 will take you even one stop further, to Drama Theater stop near Pyatnickaya church, but no further. Consult a map, as different routes come to Hotel "Ukraine" from different sides, you will have to walk along Prospekt Mira along its continuation after boulevard ends.

Sports & Facilities[]

FC Desna Chernhiv[]

Players of FC Desna Chernihiv 2014-05-22

The main Football club of Chernihiv is called FC Desna Chernihiv, the original name of the club was "Avanhard Chernihiv" during its first year of existence. Between 1961 and 1970 the club was called Desna. In 1972 it was replaced with SC Chernihiv (team of the SKA Kyiv) that played in Chernihiv for the next couple of years. In 1977 Desna was revived now in place of the amateur club "Khimik Cherhihiv" that won regional competitions. On 27 May 2018, the team got promoted to the Ukrainian Premier League for the first time in their history. The original team colours were blue shirts, blue shorts, blue socks. The team got into the Quarterfinals of the Ukrainian Cup in the season 2017-18 against Dynamo Kyiv. The club and during the season 2019-20 got again into the Quarterfinals of the Ukrainian Cup for the second time of the history of the club. In Premier League in the season 2019–20, Desna got into the play-offs for the Championship round table and qualified mathematically at least for the Europa League third qualifying round, for the first time in the history of the Club since 1960.^[14]

FC Chernihiv[]

FC Chernihiv is another club in the city of Chernihiv, founded in 2003, which they play in Chernihiv Arena, they won the Chernihiv Oblast Football Championship. The club in 2020, got a certificate for vistup to participate for the Ukrainian Second League for the season 2020–21. For the first time in the entire history, the place will be represented in professional football by two teams, one of which is FC Desna Chernihiv.^[15]

WFC Lehenda-ShVSM Chernihiv[]

WFC Lehenda-ShVSM Chernihiv is Ukrainian professional women's football club from Chernihiv. The team won 6 times the Top Division, four times the Women's Cup and been in both competition second only behind Zhytlobud-1 Kharkiv. The club won also the Italy Women's Cup in 2007. In the 2001–02, 2003–04, 2006–07 seasons they played in the UEFA Women's Cup.

Sport Complex[]

Stadion Yuri Gagarin[]

Stadion Yuri Gagarin in Chernihiv

The Club of FC Desna Chernihiv played at the Olympic sports training center "Chernihiv" (formerly Stadion Yuriya Gagarina). The Stadion Yuri Gagarin in Chernihiv and it was built in 1936 for 3,000 spectators in eastern portion of a city park (garden) that exists since 1804 and where previously was located residence of the Chernihiv Archbishops.

Chernihiv Arena[]

The city of Chernihiv has also another sport complex called Chernihiv Arena (Lokomotiv Stadium) in Kil'tseva St, 2а, Chernihiv, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine, 14039. Here play the club FC Chernihiv, WFC Lehenda-ShVSM Chernihiv the Ukrainian professional women's football club of city and sometimes FC Desna-2 Chernihiv.

Rivers in Chernihiv[]

Desna River[]

The city of Chernihiv is crossed by Desna River which is a river in Russia and Ukraine, a major left tributary of the Dnieper river. The word means "right hand" in the Old East Slavic language. Its length is 1,130 km (700 mi), and its drainage basin covers 88,900 km² (34,300 sq mi).

In Ukraine, the river's width ranges from 60 to 250 m (200 to 820 ft), with its average depth being 3 m (9.8 ft). The mean annual discharge at its mouth is 360 m³/s (13,000 cu ft/s). The river freezes over from early December to early April, and is navigable from Novhorod-Siverskyi to its mouth, which totals about 535 km (332 mi).

Snov River[]

Chernihiv has also The Snov river in Bryansk Oblast in Russia and Chernihiv Oblast in Ukraine, right tributary of the Desna River (Dnieper's basin). The length of the river is 253 km (157 mi). The area of its drainage basin is 8,700 km² (3,400 sq mi). The Snov freezes up in November - late January and stays icebound until March - early April. Part of the river forms the Russia–Ukraine border.

According to Ruthenian chronicles, in 1068 at Snov River took place a battle between Duke of Chernihiv Sviatoslav Yaroslavich and Cumans led by their .

Climate[]

Chernihiv has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) with cold, cloudy and snowy winters, and warm, sunny summers. The average annual temperature for Chernihiv is 7.0 °C (44.6 °F), ranging from a low of −5.6 °C (21.9 °F) in January to a high of 19.5 °C (67.1 °F) in July. Precipitation is well distributed throughout the year though precipitation is higher during the summer months and lower during the winter months. The record high was 41.1 °C (106.0 °F) and the record low was −36.0 °C (−32.8 °F).

Gallery[]

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  Catherine's Church

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  The Pyatnytska Church Friday (c. 1201, restored after World War II).

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  Dytynets Park

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  Boldina Gora

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  Krasna Square and Shevchenko Theatre

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  Monument to Hetman Mazepa by Giennadij Jerszow

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  , designed by Semyon Fridlin

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  All Saints of Chernihiv Church

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  in Chernihiv

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  Chernihiv City Council

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  Chernihiv Regional Art Museum

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  Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi Museum

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  Tarnovsky Museum of antiquities

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  Church of St. Michael and Fedir in Chernihiv

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  Old and modern buildings

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  New apartment block

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  City hospital

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  Chernihiv philharmony

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  Wedding Palace

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  Chernihiv Museum of Arts

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  Desna River

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  Snov river

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  Chernihiv (U310)

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  Korolenko Regional Universal Scientific Library

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  Chernihivska

Panoramic view of the Krasna Square

Chernihiv panorama from Desna River to Catherine's Church

Notable people[]

• Yukhym Shkolnykov, Ukrainian coach and Soviet footballer, from Chernihiv, played for the team Avanhard Chernihiv that in 1960.
• Jacob Tamarkin, Russian-American mathematician born in Chernihiv
• Denys Skepskyi Ukrainian footballer born in Chernihiv
• Dmytro Zaderetskyi Ukrainian footballer born in Chernihiv
• Anatoly Rybakov, Russian writer
• Nikolai Fedorovich Drozdov, scientist and Red Army general
• Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, Soviet Bolshevik leader and diplomat
• Vadim Pruzhanov, keyboardist for the Extreme Power Metal band DragonForce
• Giennadij Jerszow, Polish-Ukrainian sculptor born in Chernihiv
• Eduard Weitz (born 1946), Israeli Olympic weightlifter
• Dmytro Mytrofanov is a Ukrainian middleweight professional boxer
• Andriy Yarmolenko, Ukrainian footballer raised in Chernihiv who played for FC Desna Chernihiv, FC Dynamo Kyiv, Borussia Dortmund and now plays for West Ham United F.C.
• Andriy Fedorenko, Ukrainian footballer goalkeeper born in Chernihiv
• Denys Bezborodko, Ukrainian footballer born in Chernihiv, played for Shakhtar-3 Donetsk
• Yuriy Hruznov, Ukrainian footballer goalkeeper and coach born in Chernihiv, played for FC Desna Chernihiv
• Vitaliy Havrysh, Ukrainian footballer born in Chernihiv, played for FC Desna Chernihiv
• Oleh Lyashko, Ukrainian politician, member of Verhovna Rada and leader of Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko.
• Andriy Protsko, Ukrainian footballer born in Chernihiv, who got the most caps for FC Desna Chernihiv
• Pavlo Polehenko, Ukrainian defender footballer born in Chernihiv, started his career in FC Yunist Chernihiv
• Yana Doroshenko, Ukrainian-born Azerbaijani volleyball player

International relations[]

Twin towns - Sister cities[]

Chernihiv is currently twinned with:

• Gomel, Belarus
• Memmingen, Bavaria, Germany since 2009
• Tarnobrzeg, Poland^[19] (since 2008)
• Petah Tikva, Israel
• Gabrovo, Bulgaria
• Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
• Ogre, Latvia
• Prilep, North Macedonia

Footnotes[]

Bibliography[]

Notes[]

External links[]