Keptar Travel

15/05/2016

Keptar Travel organizes tours around Western Ukraine. You can visit the most beautiful cities and parts of Western Ukraine with us.

15/05/2016

15/05/2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJNUBGVu9Es&noredirect=1

European locations - Ukrainian prices Хотин. Одна з найбільших фортець Східної Європи. Це місце, де билися українці, поляки, турки, татари та московіти. Це м...

15/05/2016

Keptar Travel organizes tours around Western Ukraine. You can visit the most beautiful cities and parts of Western Ukraine with us.

15/05/2016

Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів, L’viv, "the city of the lion"), the largest city in western Ukraine and the seventh largest city in the country overall, is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Ruthenia (more accurately called Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia) from 1272 before being incorporated into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland in 1339 and becoming the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship, then renamed Lemberg in 1772 as the capital of the Habsburg Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Administratively, Lviv serves as the administrative center of Lviv Oblast and has the status of city of oblast significance.

From the Polish recurrence after the First World War in 1918–21 until the German and Soviet conquest and dividing of Second Polish Republic, after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, the city was known as Lwów and was the centre of the Polish Lwów Voivodeship.

During the war the city was first occupied by the USSR, but soon after Operation Barbarossa, the German attack on the Soviet Union, the city was instead taken by the Germans. After N**i Germany's defeat, at the Potsdam Conference, the Soviet Union argued that the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was legal and the city should become a part of the Soviet Union; Churchill objected but America agreed. It was the centre of Lviv Oblast of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR, and became part of Ukraine after 1991.

Lviv was the centre of the historical region of Galicia. The historical heart of the city, with its old buildings and cobblestone streets, survived Soviet and German occupations during the Second World War largely unscathed. The city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as Lviv University and Lviv Polytechnic. Lviv is also a home to many world-class cultural institutions, including a philharmonic orchestra and the famous Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumière in the city centre in September 2006.

15/05/2016

Together with the city of Lviv, Chernivtsi is viewed at present to be a cultural center of western Ukraine. The city is also considered one of modern Ukraine's greatest cultural, educational and architectural centers. Historically a cosmopolitan cultural center, Chernivtsi was even dubbed "Little Vienna" and "Jerusalem upon the Prut". Chernivtsi is currently twinned with seven other cities around the world. The city is a major regional rail and road transportation hub, also housing an international airport.

Archeological evidence discovered in the area surrounding Chernivtsi indicates that a population inhabited it since the Neolithic era. Later settlements included those of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, the Corded Ware culture; artifacts from the Bronze and Iron Ages were also found in the city.

A fortified settlement located on the left (north-eastern) shore of the Prut dates back to the time of the Principality of Halych and is thought to have been built by Grand Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl. Legendary accounts refer to this fortress-city as Chern', or Black city; it is said to owe its name to the black color of the city walls, built from dark oak layered with local black-colored soil. This early stronghold was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of Europe by Boroldai in 1259. However, the remaining ramparts of the fortress were still used for defense purposes; in the 17th century they were augmented with several bastions, one of which is still extant.

Map of the United States of Greater Austria, proposed in 1906, shows the city at the border of the areas inhabited by Romanians and Ukrainians.
Following the destruction of the fortress, later settlements in the area centered on the right (south-western) shore of the Prut River, at a more strategically advantageous, elevated location. In 1325, when Kingdom of Poland seized control of Galicia, and came into contact with the early Vlach (Romanian) feudal formations, a fort was mentioned under the name Țețina; it was defending the ford and crossing point on the Prut River. It was part of a group of three fortifications, the other two being the fortress of Hotin on the Dniester to the east, and a fort on the Kolachin River, an upriver tributary of Prut.

Between 1359 and 1775, the city and its surroundings were part of the Principality of Moldavia; the city being the administrative center of the homonymous ţinut (county). The name Cernăuţi/Chernivtsi is first attested in a document by Alexander the Good on 8 October 1408. In Ottoman sources, the city was mentioned as "Çernovi", a phonetic transliteration of a Latin cognomen meaning new castle see French Castelnau or Welsh Carno.

In 1775, the northwestern part of the territory of Moldavia was annexed by the Habsburg Empire; this region became known as Bukovina. The city became the region's capital, which in 1849 was raised in status and became known as the Duchy of Bukovina, a crownland of the Austrian Empire. The city received Magdeburg rights. The city began to flourish in 1778 when Knight Karl von Enzenberg was appointed the chief of the Military Administration. He invited many merchants, craftsmen and entrepreneurs to help develop trade and other businesses. Saint Peter's Fairs ( 1–15 July) had given a new vibrant impulse to the market development from 1786. In the late 19th century the German language—due to the Habsburgian and the very important Jewish influence—became the lingua franca and more and more newspapers were edited in German, also a remarkable literary production in German began in this period, featuring most prominently Karl Emil Franzos.

During the 19th and early 20th century, Chernivtsi became a center of both Romanian and Ukrainian national movements. In 1908, it was the site of the first Yiddish language conference, the Czernowitz Conference, coordinated by Nathan Birnbaum. When Austria-Hungary dissolved in 1918, the city and its surrounding area became part of the Kingdom of Romania. In 1930, the city reached a population of 112,400: 26.8% Jews, 23.2% Romanians, 20.8% Germans, 18.6% Ukrainians, the remainder Poles and others. It was one of the five university centers of interwar Romania.

In 1940, the Red Army occupied the area; the area around the city became known as Chernivtsi Oblast, and was allotted to the Ukrainian SSR by the Soviet Union. The city's large Romanian intelligentsia found refuge in Romania; while the Bukovina Germans were "repatriated" according to a Soviet-N**i agreement. This prompted Romania to switch from an ally of France and Britain to one of N**i Germany; in July 1941, the Romanian Army retook the city as part of the Axis attack on the Soviet Union during World War II. In August 1941, Romanian military dictator Ion Antonescu ordered the creation of a ghetto in the lowland part of the city, where 50,000 Bukovina Jews were crammed, two-thirds of whom would be deported to Transnistria in October 1941 and partly in early 1942, where the majority perished. Romanian mayor of the city Traian Popovici managed to persuade Antonescu to raise the number of Jews exempted from deportation from 200 to 20,000.

In 1944, when Axis forces were driven out by the Red Army, the city was reincorporated into the Ukrainian SSR. Over the following years, most of the Jews left for Israel; the city was an important node in the Berihah network. Bukovina Poles were also "repatriated" by the Soviets after World War II. The city became a predominantly Ukrainian one.

Since 1991, Chernitvtsi has been a part of independent Ukraine. In May 1999, Romania opened a consulate general in the city. Contemporary Chernivtsi is an important regional center, which is situated on the picturesque banks of the Prut River and occupies an area of about 150 square kilometres (58 sq mi).

15/05/2016

Kamianets-Podilskyi (Ukrainian: Кам'янець-Подільський, translit. Kam'ianets'-Podil's’kyi or Kamyanets-Podilsky) is a city on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine, to the north-east of Chernivtsi.

Modern Kamianets-Podilskyi was first mentioned in 1062 as a town of the Kievan Rus' state. In 1241, it was destroyed by the Mongolian invaders. In 1352, it was annexed by the Polish King Casimir III. In 1378 it became seat of a Roman Catholic Diocese. In 1432 King Sigismund I the Old granted Kamieniec Podolski city rights. In 1434 it became the capital of the Podolian Voivodship and the seat of local civil and military administration. The ancient castle was reconstructed and substantially expanded by the Polish kings to defend Poland from the southwest against Ottoman and Tatar invasions, thus it was called the gateway to Poland.

15/05/2016

Hutsuls (Ukrainian: гуцули, hutsuly; Polish: Hucuł, plural Huculi, Hucułowie; Romanian: huțul, plural huțuli) are an ethno-cultural group of Ukrainians, who for centuries have inhabited the Carpathian mountains, mainly in Ukraine and in the northern extremity of Romania (in the areas of Bukovina and Maramureş). Hutsuls regard themselves as being part of the broader Rusyn ethnic minority and/or as Ukrainian highlanders.

15/05/2016

Khotyn, first chronicled in 1001, is located on the right (southwestern) bank of the Dniester River, and is part of the historical region Bessarabia. Important architectural landmarks within the city include the Khotyn Fortress, constructed in the 13-15th centuries (new fortress started in 1325, major improvements in the 1380s and 1460s), and two 15th century constructions by Moldavia's ruler Stephen the Great: the Prince's Palace (Palatul Domnesc) and the city's clock tower.
In the first Battle of Khotyn in 1621, an army led by Osman II, advanced from Adrianople towards the Polish frontier. The Turks, following their victory in the Battle of Cecora, had high hopes of conquering Polish controlled Ukraine. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth commander Jan Karol Chodkiewicz crossed the Dniester in September 1621 with approximately 35,000 soldiers and entrenched the Khotyn Fortress, blocking the path of the Ottoman march. The arrival of 40,000 Ukrainian Cossack forces under their hetman Petro Konashevych was helpful in that anti-Ottoman victory. The Commonwealth hetman held the sultan at bay for a whole month, until the first snow of autumn compelled Osman to withdraw his diminished forces. But the victory was also dearly purchased by Poland: a few days before the siege was raised, the aged grand hetman died of exhaustion in the fortress on September 24, 1621. The Commonwealth forces held under the command of Stanisław Lubomirski. The battle, described by Wacław Potocki in his most famous work Transakcja wojny chocimskiej, marked the end of the long period of Moldavian Magnate Wars.
In 1673, the Polish hussars again fought a major battle on this site (second Battle of Khotyn). This time Polish forces under the command of soon-to-be-king Jan Sobieski defeated the Ottomans on November 11, 1673. In this battle, rockets of Kazimierz Siemienowicz were successfully used. This brilliant victory was a prelude to the Battle of Vienna 1683.
In the Russo-Turkish War, the fortress was taken by Russian field marshal Burkhard Christoph von Munnich on August 19, 1739. This victory is remembered primarily through the Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks, composed by the young Mikhail Lomonosov.This ode has a place in the history of Russian literature: its sonorous iambic verse is often taken as a starting point of the modern Russian poetry.

15/05/2016

Malanka Festival in Chernivtsi - a unique event, which provides Ukrainian, Bessarabia, Hutsul, Romanian Malanka, traditions are preserved in Bukovina. In the festival as part of Malanka modernized groups, the so-called peryberiyeyu. The special significance of participation in the festival area malankuyuchyh teams that demonstrate a genuine Malanka, whose age is more than a hundred years.
During the festive, carnival participants of the festival the streets of Chernivtsi, viewers can see and feel coloring, riznobarvnist uniqueness teams. And exclusivity, originality and imagination of the participants of the Festival does not hold.

15/05/2016

Keptar Travel organizes tours around Western Ukraine. You can visit the most beautiful cities and parts of Western Ukraine with us.