Chernivtsi

Chernivtsi (Russian:Chernovtsi, Romanian:Cernauti, German:Czernowitz) is a city in Western Ukraine.

Culture and History

Ukrainian is nowadays the only official language in all of Ukraine (apart form Crimea) and it is also spoken by most of its population (about 70 percent speak it as their first language). Western Ukraine is also the part of the Ukraine in which Ukrainian is indeed the strongest language in everyday life. Notwithstanding most people you will come across in Chernivtsi will also speak Russian. If you leave to the surrounding villages this situation may change. Everyone understands Russian, but some may respond in Ukrainian, a language they feel more comfortable with. Ukrainian is only partially intellegible with Russian. If you speak Polish or Slovak you may try it as well since these languages are relatively similar to Ukrainian. There is also a Polish minority in Chernivtsi. As the entire Bukovina used to belong to Romania prior to WWII a large Romanian population in Northern Bukovina (about 20 percent!) still speaks Romanian. As with other Romanian speakers they can also understand Italian to a certain extent. English and German are the two most common foreign languages in the Ukraine (except Russian) although you should not expect finding many speakers of these languages around. Some Jews in Chernivtsi may speak Yiddish which is intellegible with German and there are some elderly native German speakers.

Travel to Chernivtsi - Visa Requirements

By Plane

Chernivtsi has its own small airport serving flights to Kiev, Athens, Istanbul and Naples among others. Other nearby airports are Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Lviv and Suceava (Romania).

By Train

You can get to Chernivtsi by train either from Romania or from the Ukraine.

Tours and Getting around Chernivtsi

The city centre is small and you can manage it all by foot.

Chernivtsi tourist attractions and sightseeing

The old town is mainly of Baroque style. Most of Chernivtsi's attractions are located within the historical centre. Some of the centre is a pedestrian zone.

• Main Square The town hall, the Museum of Arts, Shevchenko monument, the old post office.

• The German House [1]concentrated cultural activities of the German speaking inhabitants of the city. Now although their number decreased signifigantly it is still active.

• Theatre Square

• Old Synagogue now a cinema.

• Old Bristol Hotel now a medical student dormitory

• New Synagogue still active

• Old Court of Justice now a seat of state administration

• University used to be a regional Bishoporic, then the palace of the Governor of Bukovina. It is now open for visitors only in the after noon. You can also visit its garden and two churches.

• Roman Cathedral

• Russian Orthodox Church at the Russian Street

• Monument of the Red Army in WWII Nearby is the Regional Museum and Chernivtsi biggest Orthodox Church.

• Railway Station

• Armenian Church now a concert hall

• Saint Nikolay Orthodox Church, with twisted towers

Chernivtsi city tours

• Chernivsti Museum of Arts near the town hall. Exhibits local art from the 19th and 20th Centuries as well as regional applied arts.

• Chernivtsi Municipal Museum dedicated to local history and natural history.

• Ethnological Museum documenting rural life in Bukovina. This museum is located out the city centre.

• Museum of Ukrainian Diaspora This museum focuses on the Ukrainian emmigration from Bukovina, but also shows some cultural exponents from the German diaspora in Chernivtsi.

Chernivtsi souvenirs and shopping

Chernivtsi Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive

• Videnska Kava(Вiденськакава), vul. Kobylyanskoi. A coffee house with impressive dessert selection and wide variety of coffees and teas served. 

There is a good Sushi bar near the theatre.

Chernivtsi nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs

Chernivtsi cheap and luxurious hotels, youth hostels and lodging

• Bukovina Hotel.
• Hotel Turist.

Get out

Kamenets Podilskiy Used to be a county Capital and still has a well preserved castle. It is about an hour away from Chernivtsi.

The Painted Monasteries in Southern Bukovina a Unesco heritage in Romania. It is geographically only about a 100 km from Chernivtsi, however crossing the border may be very time consuming.

the Carpathians

Kolomyia a typical Gallician town which is now a centre of local crafts.

Khotyn is a fortification on the Dniester river.

This page was last edited by Peter Fitzgerald. Based on work by David and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. - Content on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license