Chernivtsi
[key], Ger. Czernowitz, Romanian
Cernauţi, Rus. Chernovtsy,
city, capital of Chernivtsi region, SW Ukraine, on the Prut River and in the
Carpathian foothills. It is a rail junction and the economic, cultural, and
scientific center of the region of Bukovina. Industries, which include
woodworking and food processing, are powered by a nearby hydroeletric
station. One of Ukraine's oldest towns, Chernivtsi was part of Kievan Rus. It passed to Austria in
1775 and in 1849 became the capital of Bukovina. During the 19th and early
20th cent., the city was a center of a Ukrainian nationalist movement. With
the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918, Chernivtsi was transferred to
Romania, which held it until the USSR seized N Bukovina in 1940. The city
has a university (est. 1875), a 13th-century fortified castle, a
17th-century wooden church, and a 19th-century Orthodox Eastern
cathedral.
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