Vyshhorod (, ; ) is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Kyiv Oblast Kyiv Oblast (, ), also called Kyivshchyna (, ), is an Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in central and northern Ukraine. It surrounds, but does not include, the city of Kyiv, which is administered as a city with special sta ...

, central

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, situated immediately north of the capital

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, and part of the Kyiv metropolitan area. It is on the right (western) bank of the

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

river and, as the location of the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant, the northern part of the city is beside the Kyiv Reservoir. It is the administrative center of Vyshhorod Raion and hosts the administration of Vyshhorod urban hromada, one of the

hromada In Ukraine, a hromada () is the main type of municipality and the third level Administrative divisions of Ukraine, local self-government in Ukraine. The current hromadas were established by the Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine, Government of Uk ...

s of Ukraine. First mentioned in the 10th century, Vyshhorod is now a notable industrial center and a growing

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for Kyiv. Its population is approximately

Geography

Vyshhorod is located on a hilly right bank of the

river adjoining the dam of the Kyiv Reservoir.

History

The earliest historical mention of ''Vyshhorod'' (the name translates as " the town upstream") dates from as early as 946 when it was described as the favourite residence of Saint Olga. Also mentioned in '' De Administrando Imperio'', Vyshhorod served as the fortified castle and residence of the monarchs of

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

on the Dnieper from that time until 1240, when the Mongols sacked it. At Vyshhorod

Vladimir the Great Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych (; Christian name: ''Basil''; 15 July 1015), given the epithet "the Great", was Prince of Novgorod from 970 and Grand Prince of Kiev from 978 until his death in 1015. The Eastern Orthodox ...

(reigned 980 to 1015) kept a

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

of 300 concubines. After the Mongol invasion, the location does not appear in the records again until 1523 – and even then it was documented as a poor village. In 1934-37 and 1947, the archaeological remnants of the medieval town were excavated. The most striking find was the basement of the eight-pillared Church of St. Basil, founded by Vladimir the Great and named after his patron saint. As the church was one of the largest in Kievan Rus', it took twenty years to complete it. Before the Mongol invasion, the church housed the relics of the first East Slavic saints, Boris and Gleb, but their subsequent fate remains a mystery. The ancient Cossack military monastery, the Mezhyhirskyi Monastery, stood not too far away from the city. Vyshhorod grew considerably following the construction of the hydroelectric Kyiv power plant and was incorporated as a town in 1968.

Industry

Vyshhorod has more than 1,500 enterprises and companies, the most important being the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant, the Kyiv Pumped Storage Power Plant (both operated by Ukrhydroenergo) and a building materials factory owned by German firm Henkel.

Transportation

Vyshhorod is connected to Kyiv and other localities mainly by roads. There is also a non-electrified terminus rail connection to Kyiv used for both freight transport and peak hour commuter passenger service. The city's river port facilities are used for local industrial purposes only. Jitney buses run between Vyshhorod and the Heroiv Dnipra station of the Kyiv Metro's Obolonsko–Teremkivska line.

Sports

In 2011, Vyshhorod was the first Ukrainian city to host the F1 Powerboat World Championship motorboat race.

Twin towns – sister cities

Vyshhorod is twinned with: * Delčevo, North Macedonia * Eichenau, Germany * Kaniv, Ukraine * Lörrach, Germany *

Rakvere Rakvere is the administrative center, or county seat, of Lääne-Viru County in northern Estonia, about 100 km southeast of Tallinn and 20 km south of the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea. Rakvere boasts a distinctive architectural feature: th ...

, Estonia * Sens, France * Wyszków, Poland

References

External links

Unofficial page

Vyshhorod photo gallery
{{Coord, 50, 35, N, 30, 30, E, type:city_region:UA, display=title Cities in Kyiv Oblast History of Kievan Rus' 946 establishments Cities of district significance in Ukraine Populated places on the Dnieper in Ukraine