Chernihiv

Chernihiv is one of the oldest European cities. First it was mentioned in 907 in “The Chronicle of Bygone Years”, written by historian Nestor as the second biggest city of Kyivan Russ after Kyiv. Years of the ruling of Mstyslav the Brave (son of Vladimir the Great, brother of Yaroslav the Wise) were the beginning of golden century for Chernihiv.

The prince’s treasury house was collecting taxes from the territory as big as the territory of contemporary France. It was the great years for the art and culture. A lot of chronicles were written, the many beautiful buildings were built, and some of them exist in our days. Chernihiv was one of the biggest European cities with fortified area of two square km and population of 25 thousands people.

In 1239 Chernihiv was captured by Mongol Khan Mengu. The city was destroyed so bad that it took almost four centuries to rebuild it.

Despite it the depository of architectural monuments of pre-Mongolian period is the richest in Ukraine and Russia.

In the early XVII century the land of Chernihiv - Siverschyna was a part of the Great Lithuanian Principality, then it belongs to the Moscow Kingdom and later to Rech Pospolita. In the late XVII – early XVIII centuries Chernihivschyna was the centre of Hetmanschyna, and in the XIX – early XX centuries it was a province of Russian Empire.

In 1932 Chernihiv Region, as it is known today, first appeared. It is located in Northeast of Ukraine, on the border with Belarus and Russia. As a result of the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe, 115 villages and cities were contaminated with radioactivity and today they belong to Chernobyl-affected area.