Poltava

Poltava stands on the Vorskla, on the high western bank above its meadows. Its name first appears in the Hypatian Chronicle in 1174 as Ltava, a fortress on the steppe edge of the Pereyaslavl land. The Mongol invasion of 1239–40 left no trace of destruction there, but the old fort is thought to have perished in 1399 after the great battle on the Vorskla between Vytautas and the Horde. In 1630 it was granted as a deserted settlement to a royal secretary, and from 1646 it belonged to Jeremi Wiśniowiecki.

In 1648 the Khmelnytsky Uprising made Poltava the military and administrative centre of a Cossack regiment in the Hetmanate, and the Holy Cross Monastery was founded there in 1650. In 1709 Peter I defeated Charles XII of Sweden and Hetman Mazepa outside the town in the Battle of Poltava, ending Mazepa's hope of an independent Ukraine. In 1802 Poltava, then a town of 8,000, became the centre of a governorate, and the Round Square was laid out to mark the centenary of the battle.