Kamianka, Cherkasy Oblast
Kamianka (Ukrainian Кам'янка; Russian Каменка / Kamenka ) is a Ukrainian provincial town with about 14,000 inhabitants (2007 ) and the administrative center of the homonymous Rajon in the center of Ukraine.
Geographical location
Kamianka is located about 300 km southeast of Kiev, Cherkassy Oblast. Smila located 34 km north-west and Olexandriwka 15 km southeast of the city. The Oblastzentrum Cherkassy located 61 km north of Kamianka.
History
Its name is derived from the word Kamen ( slaw, stone '). Although to date back to the ancient archaeological cultures and proto- Slavic settlements in this area the primal history of the city, the actual development begins in the 17th century saw to the fleeing peasants. In 1649 the place for King Casimir the Kosakenhhetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky was given away. 140 years later sold Polish magnate Lubomirski - the then Lord of Kamianka - the future city on the Russian generals, Prince of Tauris and Catherine favorites Grigori Potemkin.
Kamianka is known by the artists colony in which, inter alia, the Russian national poet Alexander Pushkin, the composer Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky, freethinkers and war heroes from the time of the Napoleonic wars had. In addition, this village was one of the most important centers of the secret Dekabristenbewegung. Here are the plans of the rebellion against the Tsar were forged and fully discussed the program of the future republican social order. In the 1820s originated in Kamianka some masterpieces of poetry Pushkin. Here Pushkin also completed his poem Prisoner in the Caucasus and wrote on ancient Ukrainian folk songs, which he later used in poetry Poltava; The city is mentioned in the 10th chapter of the epic poem " Eugene Onegin. Tchaikovsky worked in Kamianka on piano cycle The Seasons, 2nd Piano Concerto, on the 2nd Symphony and at such famous musical stage works as Mazeppa, Eugene Onegin, Orleanskaja deva ( The Maid of Orleans) and liver Dinoe ozero ( Swan Lake ). In the years 1865-91 Tchaikovsky spent almost every summer in Kamianka.
Economy and Transport
According to hypotheses Kamianka was at a crossroads of trade routes, possibly to a branch of the little-explored continuation of the old historic Via Regia. From Smila - the important railway junction of Ukraine - Kamianka is only a few kilometers away and has a railway station on the railway route Kyiv - Dnipropetrovsk. Here a groundwater source was discovered in 1820. The water, which has the unique natural properties, it soon started in the production of vodka products in the local liquor factory - one of the first in the region, a. After a reconstruction in the 1920s they became the leading operation of the branch. For the production of vodka the water from the 220 -meter-deep column is used with the following multiple cleaning.
Attractions
Thanks to their spectacular history, many historical, cultural and natural monuments the city is sometimes referred to as " Weimar Ukraine ". The park by the river Tjasmin also certain similarities with the Park an der Ilm in Weimar. In the immediate vicinity is the legendary forest Cholodny Jar (, The Cold Canyon '), including known through the work of the Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko. The emergence of the gorge is attributed to the impact of the comet on the diameter in 2.5 kilometers. About deliveries to this area was already inhabited in ancient times. The oldest safe Fund - the so-called "Amazon graves " - one dated to the 4th century BC Later stationed here by the Mongolian army before his European campaign. The historical and cultural open-air museum of Kamianka, which is one of the most important international Tchaikovsky and Pushkin memorial, includes several listed buildings, collections, parks and has the status of a national protected area. One of the main exhibits is an original preserved Tchaikovsky wings, built around 1875 by the Stuttgart Company Schiedmayer & Sons. In the 1990s, the museum was under-funded, making it difficult to care of the stock. Help came, inter alia, from Germany through volunteer work, donations search and related actions of the multipliers. The museum was, inter alia, supported by the European Cultural and information center in Thuringia, radio accent, pianist Rolf Plagge and Elianne Schiedmayer ( Schiedmayer Celesta GmbH).