City and administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine
About Vinnytsia
Vinnytsia is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast in Ukraine. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also serves as the administrative center of Vinnytsia Raion, one of the six raions of Vinnytsia Oblast. It has a population of 370,814.
Name
The name of Vinnytsia appeared for the first time in 1363. It is assumed that the name is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "*věno" (вѣно), meaning "a bride price." This name can be explained by the fact that Vinnytsia and the surrounding land were captured by Lithuanian Duke Algirdas in the 14th century, and then, they were given to his nephews. In addition to the Ukrainian Вінниця (Vinnytsia), in other languages of the region, the name of the city is Russian: Винница, romanized: Vinnitsa, Polish: Winnica, Lithuanian: Vinica, German: Winniza, Romanian: Vinița and Yiddish: וויניצע, romanized: Vinitse. English sources used the Russian-derived Vinnitsa from the early 19th century until the 1990s and Winnica or Winnicza (from Polish) before that, reflecting the ultimate political authorities of those respective eras. …
History
Vinnytsia, known in Polish as Winnica, has been an important trade and political center since the fourteenth century, when Fyodor Koriatovych, the nephew of the Lithuanian Duke Algirdas, built a fortress (1363) against Tatar raiders on the banks of the Southern Bug. The original settlement was built and populated by Aleksander Hrehorovicz Jelec, a hetman under Lithuanian Prince Švitrigaila. Aleksander Jelec built the fort, which he commanded as starosta afterwards. In the 15th century, Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon granted Vinnytsia Magdeburg city rights. In 1566, it became part of the Bracław Voivodeship. Between 1569 and 1793 the town was a part of Poland. In 1648, Vinnytsia found itself at the epicenter of the Cossack uprisings led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. In February 1651, during the defense of the city, Ivan Bohun's Cossack regiment defeated a 20,000-strong Polish army. …
Geography
Vinnytsia is located about 260 km (160 mi) southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, 429 km (267 mi) north-northwest of the Black Sea port city of Odesa, and 369 km (229 mi) east of Lviv. It is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast (province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Vinnytsia Raion within the oblast. The city itself is directly subordinated to the oblast. The city has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb). A long-lasting warm summer with a sufficient quantity of moisture and a comparatively short winter is characteristic of Vinnytsia. The average temperature in January is −5.8 °C (21.6 °F) and 18.3 °C (64.9 °F) in July. The average annual precipitation is 638 mm (25 in). …
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