Kamyanka

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Kamyanka
Кам'янка
Kamjanka Coat of Arms
Kamjanka (Ukraine)
Kamyanka
Kamyanka
Basic data
Oblast : Cherkasy Oblast
Rajon : Kamyanka district
Height : 127 m
Area : 152.3 km²
Residents : 14,291 (January 1, 2007)
Population density : 94 inhabitants per km²
Postcodes : 20800
Area code : +380 4732
Geographic location : 49 ° 1 ′  N , 32 ° 6 ′  E Coordinates: 49 ° 1 ′ 0 ″  N , 32 ° 6 ′ 0 ″  E
KOATUU : 7121850100
Administrative structure : 1 city
Address: вул. Героїв Майдану, 37
20800 м. Кам'янка
Statistical information
Kamjanka (Cherkasy Oblast)
Kamyanka
Kamyanka
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Kamjanka ( Ukrainian Кам'янка ; Russian Каменка Kamenka ) is a Ukrainian city ​​with about 14,000 inhabitants (2007) and the administrative center of the raion of the same name in central Ukraine.

Geographical location

Kamjanka is located about 300 km southeast of Kiev in the Cherkassy Oblast . Smila is 34 km northwest and Oleksandrivka 15 km southeast of the city. Cherkasy Oblast Center is located 61 km north of Kamyanka.

history

The name of the village is derived from the word Kamen ( Slav , 'stone'). Although the prehistory of the city is said to go back to the ancient archaeological cultures and proto-Slavic settlements in this area, the real development only begins in the 17th century: the peasants who fled took care of that. In 1649 the place was given away by the Polish king Casimir to the Cossack hetman Bogdan Khmelnitski . 140 years later, Polish magnate Lubomirski - the then landlord of Kamjanka - sold the future city to the Russian general, prince of Tauria and Katharina's favorite Grigori Potjomkin .

Kamjanka is known for the artist colony in which u. a. the Russian national poet Alexander Pushkin , the composer Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky , free thinkers and war heroes from the time of the Napoleonic Wars worked. In addition, this place was one of the most important secret centers of the Decembrist movement . Here the plans for the uprising against the tsar were forged and the program of the future republican social order was discussed. In the 1820s several masterpieces of Pushkin's poetry were created in Kamjanka. It was here that Pushkin completed his poem Prisoner in the Caucasus and wrote down old Ukrainian folk songs that he later used in the poetry of Poltava ; the city is mentioned in the 10th chapter of the epic verse Eugene Onegin . Tchaikovsky worked in Kamjanka on the piano cycle Die Jahreszeiten , on the 2nd piano concerto , on the 2nd symphony as well as on such famous musical stage works as Mazeppa , Eugene Onegin , Orleanskaja deva ( The Maid of Orléans ) and Lebedinoe ozero ( Swan Lake ). In the years 1865-1891 Tchaikovsky spent almost every summer in Kamjanka.

Economy and Transport

According to hypotheses, Kamjanka was at a crossroads of trade routes, possibly on a junction of the little-explored continuation of the old historical street Via Regia . Kamjanka is only a few kilometers away from Smila - an important railway junction in Ukraine - and has a train station on the Kiev - Dnipro railway line . A groundwater source was discovered here as early as 1820 . The water was soon used in the production of vodka products in the local liquor factory - one of the first in the region. After a reconstruction in the 1920s, it became the leading company in the branch. For the production of the vodka, the water from the 220 meter deep crevice is used, followed by multiple cleaning.

Attractions

In the immediate vicinity of Kamjanka is the legendary forest Cholodny Yar ('The Cold Gorge'), u. a. known from the work of the Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko . The formation of the gorge is attributed to the impact of a comet. According to tradition, this area was already settled in ancient times. The oldest sure find - the so-called “Amazon graves” - dates back to the 4th century BC. Later, the Mongolian army stationed here before its European campaign. The historical and cultural open-air museum of Kamjanka, which is one of the internationally most important Tchaikovsky and Pushkin memorials, includes several listed buildings, collections and parks and has the status of a state reserve. One of the main exhibits is an original Tchaikovsky grand piano, built around 1875 by the Stuttgart company Schiedmayer & Sons . In the 1990s the museum was underfunded, which made it difficult to maintain the holdings. Help came u. a. from Germany through the voluntary commitment, through the search for donations and related actions of the multipliers. The museum was u. a. supported by the European Culture and Information Center in Thuringia, by Radio Akzent, the pianist Rolf Plagge and by Elianne Schiedmayer (Schiedmayer Celesta GmbH).

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