Discovering the Secrets of Ukraine's Vinnitsa! ????????
Vinnytsia is a Ukrainian regional center and one of the main cities of Podolia. In addition to several ancient churches, the buildings of the historical center, picturesquely located on the steep bank of the Southern Bug, the Pirogov Estate Museum with the mausoleum of the great surgeon, as well as the Ukrainian Air Force Museum are interesting here.Vinnitsa stands on the rocky shores of the Southern Bug and in this sense is quite typical of Podolia. It is believed that the name of the city comes from the Old Slavonic word vyno - a gift. There are other versions: vinnitsa - a distillery where wine beers were brewed, and Vinnichka - a river.
The first mention of Vinnitsa dates back to 1362, when the Lithuanians who captured Podolia founded a fortress here. The old Vinnitsa castle was located on the left bank of the Bug, where the Old Town district is now located, in which, however, nothing medieval remains. Since 1569 Vinnitsa has been part of Poland. The early period of the city’s existence was not rich in events, with the exception of the mysterious and still obscure history of Magdeburg rights, which was obtained back in the 16th century, then lost when the corresponding charter burned down in a fire in 1580, and restored only in 1640. Although during the entire Polish period Vinnitsa was part of the Bratslav Voivodeship, the Sejm of the gentry was located in Vinnitsa. At the same time, a Jesuit monastery was located here, followed by other areas of Catholicism. If in the Middle Ages Vinnitsa suffered from Tatar raids, then from the middle of the 17th century Cossack-peasant uprisings became the main threat to the city, which, however, did not have serious geopolitical consequences: until 1793, Vinnitsa remained under the rule of Poland, after which, together with the rest of Podolia is part of the Russian Empire.
Kamenetz-Podolsky became the center of the Podolsk province, and Vinnitsa had every chance of getting lost if it were not for the construction of the Kyiv-Odessa railway in 1870. In the second half of the 19th century, the city more than tripled in size, factories, luxurious mansions and large administrative buildings appeared. It is probably not necessary to talk about the Vinnitsa architectural style, but local architects were sensitive to fashion and creatively embodied the latest metropolitan trends, as a result of which Vinnitsa, which was not even a provincial city until 1914, does not look provincial. During the Great Patriotic War, Vinnitsa had a special position, since Hitler's headquarters Werwolf was located near the city (see Surroundings), but otherwise there were the same horrors of the occupation and the Holocaust as throughout Ukraine.
There are no large-scale industries like metallurgy in Vinnitsa, but a significant part of the city is occupied by factories - from the food and clothing industries to mechanical engineering and metalworking. Vinnytsia feels like a large, modern city with several educational institutions (the medical university has many students from Africa, which you least expect to see in Ukraine) and an active cultural life. From a tourist point of view, Vinnitsa is little known: there are neither antiquities of Western Ukrainian cities, nor Odessa charm, however, Pirogov's estate and mausoleum are of unconditional interest and have no analogues simply because of the uniqueness of Pirogov himself. The city center is also quite interesting. There are no bright monuments in it, but the architectural environment is well preserved, and the steep banks of the Bug only add charm to the city.
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