Dnipro

Ukrainian: Дніпро [d⁽ʲ⁾n⁽ʲ⁾iˈprɔ] Russian: Днепр, romanized: Dnepr [dnʲepr] Novyi Kodak 1645–1784 Yekaterinoslav (also spelled Ekaterinoslav; Russian: Екатеринослав [jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnɐˈslaf]; Ukrainian: Катеринослав, romanized: Katerynoslav [kɐterɪnoˈslɑu̯]) 1784–1796 Novorossiysk (Russian: Новороссийск [nəvərɐˈsʲijsk]; Ukrainian: Новоросійськ, romanized: Novorosiisk [noworoˈs⁽ʲ⁾ijsʲk]) 1796–1802, briefly renamed during the reign of Catherine II's son, tsar Paul I; however, the previous name was restored by tsar Alexander I after his father's assassination Yekaterinoslav 1802–1918, called Catharinoslav on some nineteenth-century maps. …

Human settlements in current Dnipropetrovsk Oblast date from the Paleolithic era. According to archeological finds, in the Paleolithic period (7—3 thousand BC) human settlements appear near the Aptekarska brook in what is now Chechelivskyi District and on Monastyrskyi Island. A Neolithic stonecrafter's house has been excavated in one of Dnipro's city parks. In the Bronze Age the area was settled by diverse tribes. Traces of Cimmerian settlements during the Bronze Age have been found near today's Taras Shevchenko Park. The area of modern Dnipro was part of the Scythian empire from approximately the 1st century BC until the 3rd century BC. During the Migration Period (300–800) nomadic tribes of the Huns, Avars, Bulgarians, and Magyars passed through the lands of the Dnieper region, they came into contact with local agricultural East Slavs. …

The city is built mainly upon both banks of the Dnieper, at its confluence with the Samara River. In the loop of a major meander, the Dnieper changes its course from the north west to continue southerly and later south-westerly through Ukraine, ultimately passing Kherson, where it finally flows into the Black Sea. Nowadays both the north and south banks play home to a range of industrial enterprises and manufacturing plants. The airport is located about 15 km (9.3 mi) south-east of the city. The centre of the city is constructed on the right bank which is part of the Dnieper Upland, while the left bank is part of the Dnieper Lowland. The old town is situated atop a hill that is formed as a result of the river's change of course to the south. The change of river's direction is caused by its proximity to the Azov Upland located southeast of the city. …

Dnipro has a variety of theatres (Dnipro Academic Drama and Comedy Theatre, Taras Shevchenko Dnipro Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre and Dnipro Opera and Ballet Theatre), a circus (Dnipro State Circus) and several museums (Dmytro Yavornytsky National Historical Museum, Diorama "Battle of the Dnieper" and Dnipro Art Museum). There are also several restaurants, beaches and parks (Taras Shevchenko Park and Sevastopol Park). The major streets of the city were renamed in honour of Marxist heroes during the Soviet era. Following the 2015 law on decommunization these have been renamed. The central thoroughfare is known as Akademik Yavornytskyi Prospekt, a wide and long boulevard that stretches east to west through the centre of the city. It was founded in the 18th century and parts of its buildings are the actual decoration of the city. …

Dnipro is a major industrial centre of Ukraine. It has several facilities devoted to heavy industry that produce a wide range of products, including cast-iron, launch vehicles, rolled metal, pipes, machinery, different mining combines, agricultural equipment, tractors, trolleybuses, refrigerators, different chemicals and many others. The most famous and the oldest (founded in the 19th century) is the Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant (from 1922 until the time of decommunization in Ukraine, the plant was named after the Soviet Union statesman Grigory Petrovsky). Other notable industrial company of Dnipro is PA Pivdenmash, a heavy machinery and rocket manufacturer. Metals and metallurgy is the city's core industry in terms of output. Employment in the city is concentrated in large-sized enterprises. …

The main forms of public transport used in Dnipro are trams, buses and electric trolley buses. In addition to this there are a large number of taxi firms operating in the city, and many residents have private cars. The city's municipal roads also suffer from the same funding problems as the trams, with many of them in a very poor technical state. It is not uncommon to find very large potholes and crumbling surfaces on many of Dnipro's smaller roads. Major roads and highways are of better quality. In the early 2010s the situation was improving, with a number of new used trams bought from the German cities of Dresden and Magdeburg, and a number of roads, including Schmidt Street (now Stepan Bandera Street) and Moskovsky Street (now Volodymyr Monomakh Street) were being reconstructed with modern road-building techniques. …