Myrhorod

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Myrhorod (Ukrainian: Миргород, Russian: , translit. Mirgorod) is an ancient city in the Poltava Oblast (province) of central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Myrhorodsky Raion (district), the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast, and is located on the picturesque river Khorol.

The current estimated population is around 42,700 (as of 2005).

History

The town was founded sometime in the twelveth or the thirteenth century as an eastern border fort of Kievan Rus. According to a legend the fort was a place of peace negotiations that gave it its name (literally the City of Peace).

Myrhorod was first mentioned in chronicles in 1575 when Stephen Bathory, King of Poland made it a regiment city. According to some historians there was an earlier mentioning of the city in 1530, when the city got its coat of arms - yellow cross over eight-point star, that suppose to mean victory of Christianity over Islam.

Myrhorod was the regimental base of the Myrhorod cossacks who were very active in several Ukrainian Cossack uprisings, particularly during the peasants'-and-cossacks' revolt of 1638 under the leadership of Hetman Yakov Ostrianytsia against the Polish nobility (Szlachta). The Myrhorod Cossack regiment was among the best units in the army of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Khmelnytsky uprising (1648-1654).

After the Treaty of Pereyaslav, the city became an uezd city, center for the Mirgorod regiment. In 25 km from city there is the place of famous Sorochinsk Fair.

The city went into history of world literature by cycle of stories Mirgorod by Nikolai Gogol. There also lived Taras Shevchenko, Vasily Kapnist, Vladimir Borovikovsky, Hryhori Skovoroda.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century Myrhorod became also known as a resort town for its underground mineral waters lodged inside the layer of the Jurassic era. Commercial drilling for this ecologically pure water started in 1927.

"Myrhorodska" (or "Mirgorodskaya") water is rated as "slightly mineralized chloride-natrium water". It is clear, and tastes a little bit salty. For it's unique health curative effects the "Myrhorodska" water is recommended by the doctors for the people with gastritis, colitis, and other disorders of digestive system. It is also used as the table water because it effectively quenches the thirst and produces the general health-beneficial effect. There are several health resorts in Myrhorod itself and the vicinity.

Since 1991 Myrhorod administration signed international agreements of mutual cooperation in the spheres of economics, commerce, and culture with four foreign partner-towns including Gorna Oryakhovitsa, Bulgaria (1991) and Randolf, Vermont, USA (1999).

In 1999 at Myrhorod School #9 there was established an English [Language] Resource Center , one of four such centers opened in Ukraine with the continuous help from Siena College since 1995. Other contributors to this project were such organizations as Americans for Democracy in Ukraine (ADU), Canadian Credit Bank, and Narodna Kasa from Montreal, Canada. In 1995 a group of Myrhorod teachers, former participants at the seminars conducted by methodologists from Siena College Teacher Training Institute, organized Poltava Oblast's English Teachers' Association. The Myrhorod English Resource Center is supervised by the local Myrhorod's Teachers' Association.

Sometimes the name of the city has figurative meaning as provincial, backward, e.g. Sergei Yesenin called United States Iron Myrhorod.

External links

[City portal] - English navigation, mixed Russian, Ukrainian and English content.
[City Info] - in Ukrainian

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