Putyvl
Encyclopedia
Putyvl or Putivl is a town in north-east Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, in Sumy Oblast
Sumy Oblast
Sumy Oblast is an oblast in the northeastern part of Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Sumy.Other important cities within the oblast include Konotop, Okhtyrka, Romny, and Shostka....

. Currently about 20,000 people live in Putyvl.

History

One of the original Siverian towns, Putyvl was first mentioned as early as 1146 as an important fortress contested between Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky principalities of Kievan Rus. The song of Yaroslavna on the walls of Putyvl is the emotional culmination of the medieval Lay of Igor's Campaign and Alexander Borodin
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...

's opera Prince Igor
Prince Igor
Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...

.

After the Battle of Vedrosha
Battle of Vedrosha
The battle on the Vedrosha River was a battle in the course of the Russo-Lithuanian war of 1500-1503 which ended with a decisive Russian victory and proved to be of strategic significance...

 in 1500, Putyvl was ceded to Muscovite Russia. During the Time of Troubles
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...

, the town became the center of Ivan Bolotnikov
Ivan Bolotnikov
Ivan Isayevich Bolotnikov was the leader of a popular uprising in Russia in 1606–1607 known as the Bolotnikov rebellion . The uprising was part of the Time of Troubles in Russia.-Biography:...

's uprising and briefly a base for the False Dmitry I forces.

Putyvl was part of Kursk guberniya
Kursk Oblast
Kursk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kursk.-Geography:The oblast occupies the southern slopes of the middle-Russian plateau, and its average elevation is from 177 to 225 meters . The surface is hilly, and intersected by ravines...

 of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 prior to the Bolshevik Revolution. During the Second World War Soviet partisans
Soviet partisans
The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....

 led by Sydir Kovpak
Sydir Kovpak
Sydir Artemovych Kovpak , June 7, 1887December 11, 1967) was a prominent Soviet partisan leader in Ukraine.-Biography:Kovpak was born to a poor peasant family in Ukrainian village near Poltava . For his military service in the World War I he was awarded two Crosses of St...

 started their guerrilla war
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...

 against the Germans in the forests all over the Northern Ukraine.

Architecture

The main architectural monument of Putivl is the Molchansky Monastery, which is largely of 17th century date. The foundations of its three-domed cathedral, dedicated to the Nativity of the Theotokos
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...

, belong to the 1590s, but the main part of the church is one of the earliest Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 structures in the region, described in its entirety by Paul of Aleppo
Paul of Aleppo
Paul Zaim, known sometime also as Paul of Aleppo was a Syrian Melkite clergyman and chronicler...

 in 1654. The cathedral displays strong influence of Muscovite architecture
Russian architecture
Russian architecture follows a tradition whose roots were established in the Eastern Slavic state of Kievan Rus'. After the fall of Kiev, Russian architectural history continued in the principalities of Vladimir-Suzdal, Novgorod, the succeeding states of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire,...

, especially in detailing and sculptural decor.

Apart from the monastery, Putivl also possesses the Cossack Baroque church of St. Nicholas (1735-37) and the Saviour Cathedral, a singular hybrid of Ukrainian and Russian church architecture, started in 1617 and incorporating such typically Muscovite features as onion dome
Onion dome
An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles the onion, after which they are named. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the drum upon which they are set, and their height usually exceeds their width...

s. Remaining parts of 17th-century fortifications are visible close at hand; these include the gates and several towers, one of which was built up into a belltower in 1700.
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