Chernihiv

Chernihiv stands on the high right bank of the Desna, the old capital of the Severian lands, whose Transfiguration Cathedral, begun in the 1030s, crowned its citadel. The Mongols destroyed the town in 1239 and it long remained in ruins; a wooden fortress was rebuilt only in the 1370s. It came under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1353, and Muscovy took it in 1503 and built a fortress at the edge of the citadel. Crimean Tatar raids ravaged it repeatedly in the late 15th century.

The Truce of Deulino in 1618 gave Chernihiv to the Commonwealth, which granted it Magdeburg law in 1623 and made it the seat of a voivodeship in 1635. In 1648 the Khmelnytsky Uprising made Chernihiv the base of a Cossack regiment, and Polish forces besieged it in the following years. Archbishop Lazar Baranovych brought his printing press to the city, and with the support of the Hetman's government the Trinity Cathedral and other monuments were rebuilt in Baroque style. The Chernihiv Collegium opened in 1700.