3269 UKRAINE (Autonomous Republic of Crimea) - Tarkhankut Lighthouse

The Tarkhankut Lighthouse is located in Crimea (so to the Black Sea) at the Tarkhankut Cape 5 km southwest of the resort village of Olenivka. The construction of the this lighthouse and its twin tower on the Khersones peninsula started in 1816 to ensure safe sailing in the area. The Inkerman stone, of which the building is made, was mined near Sevastopol and transported by barges. At the end of the year, it looked like a conic 36-metre-high stone tower with a wooden 3.3-metre-high decagonal lantern. The lighthouse became operational in 1817 after its lighting system had been repaired.

3170 UKRAINE (Lviv) - Potocki Palace in Lviv

The Potocki Palace in Lviv was built in the 1880s as an urban seat of Alfred Józef Potocki, former Minister-President of Austria. It was confiscated by the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1940, and in 1972 was adapted for holding wedding ceremonies. In the 2000s, the President of Ukraine appropriated the palace as one of his residences. The present palace was built in the style of Baroque, the era of French King Louis XIV by the French architect Louis Alphonse Rene Dovernut. The project was modified by Lviv architects Juliusz Tsybulski and Ludwik Baldwin-Ramult and implemented under their guidance.

3135 UKRAINE (Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast) - Church of Saint Elijah in Yaremche

Yaremche (Yaremcha until 2006) is a mountain resort, the most famous tourist center of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, located at the altitude of 550-585 m above sea level, on picturesque valley of the Prut River. It was first mentioned in 1787, but the villages of Dora and Yamna, which not long ago entered the city boundaries, have somewhat earlier history (14-15th centuries). Passing through the village of Dora, can be seen two delicate wooden sacred buildings: the Church of the Holy Prophet Elias and a belfry nearby, built in 1937.

ALBANIA / AUSTRIA / BELGIUM / BULGARIA / CROATIA / GERMANY / ITALY / ROMANIA / SLOVAKIA / SLOVENIA / SPAIN / UKRAINE - Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe (UNESCO WHS)

This transboundary property stretches over 12 European countries. Since the end of the last Ice Age, European Beech spread from a few isolated refuge areas in the Alps, Carpathians, Dinarides, Mediterranean and Pyrenees over a short period of a few thousand years in a process that is still ongoing. The successful expansion across a whole continent is related to the tree's adaptability and tolerance of different climatic, geographical and physical conditions.

2796, 2906 UKRAINE - Traditional costume of Ukraine (2)

2796

Posted on 04.10.2016, 17.12.2016
Generally, in Ukraine are recognized six ethnographic regions: Polesia, Carpathian region, Podolia, Middle Dnieper (the Ukrainian heartland), Slobidska, and the Southern or Steppe region. It must be noted that between this ethnographic regions there are no clear boundaries, so this division is rather arbitrary. From one region to another, but also within regions, particularly in the areas of contact with other peoples, traditional costumes differ substantially, but have also some common features. The costume considered Ukrainian traditional has many elements from the Middle Dnieper region.

2906

For men, traditional dress includes shirts of differing cut (Chumachka, Strilkova), Kozhukh (a sheepskin coat for winter), Kontusz, (a long robe, usually reaching to below the knees, with a set of decorative buttons down the front, and long and loose sleeves) Żupan (a long garment, always lined) and Sharovary (pants free to hips, often with assembly at the waist, collected at the bottom near the ankles). As footwear are common, in both women and men, the boots made of red or yellow leather.

2632 UKRAINE - Vertep in Galicia

2632 Ukrainian Christmas Vertep theater group in 1948,
in village of Trostianets, Zboriv District, Ternopil Province

Vertep is a portable puppet theatre and drama predominantly in Ukraine (but also met in Russia, Belarus, Croatia and Serbia), which presents the nativity scene, other mystery plays, and later secular plots as well. The original meaning of the word is "secret place", "cave", "den", referring to the cave where Christ was born, i.e., the Bethlehem Cave in the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church. Religious Christmas carols were also sung, often in harmony.

1460 UKRAINE - Old Hutsul woman

Hutsuls are an ethno-cultural group, or rather an ethnic subgroup, who for centuries have inhabited the Carpathian mountains, mainly in Ukraine (Trans-Carpathia and Pokuttya) 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. Rusyns are, in their turn, the descendants of a minority of Ruthenians who didn't adopt the use of the ethnonym Ukrainian in the early 20th century.

1366 UKRAINE (City of Kiev) - A farmstead in Museum of Folk Architecture and Life from Pirogovo

One of the most interesting landmarks of Kiev is the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, located in Pyrohiv (Pirogov), originally a village, now a neighborhood in the southern outskirts of the Ukrainian capital city. Its construction began in 1971 on a 150-ha site in a forest and park zone, and when completed, it will be the largest such museum in the world. By the summer of 1976 the first part had been opened to visitors.

1319 UKRAINE (Donetsk Oblast) - Sviatohirsk Lavra

Named also the Holy Mountains Lavra, due to the surrounding mountains, Sviatohirsk Lavra is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery (a lavra) located on the right bank of the Seversky Donets River. The first monks settled in the area in the 14th century, but the first written mention of the monastery was in 1526, and in 1624 it was officially recognized as the Sviatohirsk Uspensky Monastery. During times of the Crimean Khanate it was invaded a couple of times, being restored in 1787, and in 1844.

0199 UKRAINE (City of Kiev) - Paton Bridge

I have at least four reasons to consider this postcard a special one. The first is that the sender (many thanks, Tamila) is born in the same day as me, so she is the sixth added to my special topic, Received from those born on August 8. The second is that it was sent on February 29, a date which exist only an every four years. The third is that it shows a bridge from Kiev, from an area that will be radically transformed in the next 15 years according to the plans made by five Romanian architects. The fourth is that the stamp depicting Taras Shevchenko is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

1193 UKRAINE (Odessa Oblast) - Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral - part of Historic Center of the Port City of Odessa (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

The first and foremost church in the city of Odessa, the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral (Saviour's Transfiguration Cathedral), belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), and was founded in 1794 by Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni, a Romanian clergyman who served as Metropolitan of Moldavia (1792), Metropolitan of Kherson and Crimea (1793–1799), Metropolitan of Kiev and Halych (1799-1803), Exarch of Moldo-Wallachia (1806–1812), and Archbishop of Chişinău (1812–1821), being the first head of the church in Bessarabia after the Russian annexation.

1089 UKRAINE (Khmelnytskyi Oblast) - Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle

Located on the Smotrych River, near to its flow into the Dniester, Kamyanets-Podilsky is one of the oldest cities in Ukraine, for many centuries a major cultural centre of Podolia. It was first mentioned in 1062 as a Slavic town controlled by Lithuanians, but evidence suggests that was founded a thousand years before by the Dacians, under the name Petridava or Klepidava. In 1241 it was destroyed by the Mongols, and in 1352 was annexed by the Polish King Casimir III.

0972 UKRAINE (Autonomous Republic of Crimea) - Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora (UNESCO WHS)

Chersonesus is an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2,500 years ago, by settlers from Heraclea Pontica, on the shore of the Black Sea (now in a Sevastopol's suburb), in the southwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula, known then as Taurica. During much of the classical period, it was a democracy ruled by a group of elected archons and a council called the Damiorgi. In the late 2nd century BC it became a dependency of the Bosporan Kingdom, in 1st century BC was subject to Rome, and in the 370s AD was captured by the Huns.

0950-0952 UKRAINE (Volyn Oblast) - Lubart's Castle in Lutsk

According to the legend, Lutsk, located on the Styr River, now in northwestern Ukraine, was founded in the 7th century, but first documentary attestation dates from 1085. In 1321, the Lithuanians conquered the town, and had kept it for a century. Liubartas (Lubart), son of Gediminas the Great, erected the castle which will bear his name. The current castle was built mostly in the 1340s, being fortified to guard against artillery and gunfire during the reign of Vytautas the Great. The principal entrance, now bricked in, was from the west and adjoined a bridge over outer moat.

The castle repelled sieges by numerous potentates, including Casimir the Great (1349), Jogaila (1431), and Sigismund Kęstutaitis (1436). Its walls formerly enclosed St. John's Cathedral, the residence of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and an episcopal palace. Of these buildings, only the Neoclassical palace of the bishops still stands. In castle took place in 1429 a conference of monarchs, having as subject the Tartar threat. In total more than 15,000 guests came to this congress, while the population of Lutsk itself was only about 5,000 residents.

In 1432 Volhynia became a fief of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and Lutsk became the seat of the governors, and later the Marshalls of Volhynia. In the same year, the city was granted Magdeburg rights, so it continued to prosper for a while, but during the Khmelnytskyi Uprising was looted and the population was slaughtered or fled. The town never fully recovered after that. Besides, in 1781 and 1845 was struck by devastating fires, and in 1795 was annexed by the Russia.

0794 UKRAINE (City of Kiev) - Kiev: Saint Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (UNESCO WHS)

Erected to rival Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople, the church with the same name in the capital of the Kievan Rus', created in the 11th century in a region evangelized after the baptism of Saint Vladimir in 988, is one of the major edifices representing the culture of Eastern Christianity, inspired by Byzantine models. Dedicated to the Holy Wisdom, not to a specific saint named Sophia, it is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first patrimony on territory of Ukraine to be inscribed on the World Heritage List along with the Kiev Cave Monastery complex in 1990.

0783 UKRAINE - Traditional costume of Ukraine (1)

The array of the Ukrainian traditional clothing is characterized by wide regional and ethnic diversity, even adjacent villages displaying important dissimilarity. The conception of traditional dress is related to the region of Central Ukraine, just as the present-day standard Ukrainian language, that also has formed in this region. The most widespread garment, inherited from the ancient Slavs, is a long shirt decorated with embroidered magic ornament with a waistband. Incidentally, embroidery is the major adornment of the traditional costume, and always enclosed certain information.

0777 UKRAINE (Chernivtsi Oblast) - Residence of Bukovinian and Dalmatian Metropolitans (UNESCO WHS)

At first glance, this building - erected by Austrians for the Orthodox Christians (mainly Romanians, but also Ukrainians and Ruthenians), after the designs of a Czech architect (Josef Hlávka), who combined the Byzantine and Moorish styles, but added several Stars of David on the clock tower - seems to be an oddity. For who knows the history of the city it is not so. Located on the upper course of the River Prut, Chernivtsi (Cernăuţi in Romanian) was part of Principality of Moldavia even since its establishment as a sovereign state in 1359 until 1774, when Habsburgs annexed the northern part of Moldavia and named it Buchenland (Bukovina).    

0662 UKRAINE - A Cossack kobzar

His name is Ostap Kindrachuk, was born in 1937 in Horodenka (a small town now in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine), and lives în Yalta (Crimea). He attempt to recreate the Ukrainian Cossack's image, which to transmit to the younger generations, and is also a bandurist, his repertoire including the national ballads, historical and folk songs and songs of today, sung not only in Ukrainian or Russian, but also in Polish, German, Tatar or Romanian.

0595 UKRAINE (Odessa Oblast) - Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater - part of Historic Center of the Port City of Odessa (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Opera and Ballet Theater is one of the most famous edifices in Odessa, together with Potemkin Stairs. The first opera house, designed by the Saint Petersburg architect Thomas de Thomon, was opened in 1810 and destroyed by fire in 1873, and the modern building was constructed by two Viennese architects, Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer in neo-baroque style and opened in 1887. The theatre was the first building in Odessa to employ the Edison Company with electric illumination.

UKRAINE (Odessa Oblast) - Historic Center of the Port City of Odessa (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

On terraced hills that descends to a small harbor on the Black Sea, located at 30km north of the estuary of the Dniester river, there were settlements from ancient times, firstly a Greek colony, and then a Tatar village, fallen under Ottoman rule in 1529, but the city of Odessa was founded only in 1794, by a decree of the Empress Catherine the Great, after the Ottomans, defeated in the Russo-Turkish War, ceded the region to Russian Empire. The city grew rapidly, and in the 19th century Odessa was the center of the General Government of Novorossiya (New Russia).