Chernivtsi

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Introducing Chernivtsi

Chernivtsi is a glorious hotchpotch, a bittersweet ruin that might be smartening itself up in the coming years. Leafy but dishevelled – especially its pavements – it displays the signs of a more elegant past. Its phantasmagorical university is not only the best preserved of its many historic buildings – combined with the huge Kalynivsky Market on the city’s outskirts, that temple of higher learning is also responsible for this shabby city’s lively atmosphere.

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Six hundred years old in October 2008, Chernivtsi was once the chief city of Bukovyna (Beech Tree Land) in old Moldavia (now Moldova). It belonged to the Habsburg Empire in the 19th century, when much of the city’s ornate architecture was built, and after WWI was temporarily drawn into Romania. Today the city remains the ‘capital’ of the unofficial Bukovynian region, but its past Jewish, Armenian and German communities are now just ghostly presences.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009

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Thorn Tree forum discussion

Recent posts

  1. AUonTour avatar
    RE: Travel from Bacau to the Ukraine

    by AUonTour 01 September 2011

    From Bacau in Romania.. I guess we can easily go Chernivtsi from there, but the problem is how to get to Donetsk afterwards..
  2. ktack avatar
    RE: Travel from Bacau to the Ukraine

    by ktack 28 August 2011

    Unfortunately I don't think there aren't any faster options overland. If you need to get there quicker you'll have to travel by air,…
  3. activeukraine avatar
    RE: transport between Lviv-Mukacheve and Lviv-Chernvtsi-Odessa

    by activeukraine 18 August 2011

    Hey! Your Ukrainian is getting good :) Buses from Chernivtsi to Odessa - depart at 17:30 from Ch. and arrive at 7 - 7:30 to Odessa…

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