Transfiguration Cathedral

The Yelets Assumption Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest monasteries in Ukraine, founded in 1060 by Prince Sviatoslav II of Kiev. It was destroyed in 1239 during the Mongol invasion. In 1623 it was restored under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and handed over to the Greek Catholic Church. In 1649 it was taken over by the Orthodox and was completely rebuilt in the Ukrainian Baroque style between 1669 and 1688.

St Nicholas Cathedral is an early Baroque Orthodox cathedral. The present church, which probably dates from 1650-1660, was built on the site of an earlier wooden church at the expense of Ivan and Vasyl Zolotarenko. The Baroque cathedral became an architectural model for other churches of the same style throughout Ukraine. From 1920 to 1939, the cathedral was used as a warehouse. After 1946, until 1990, it housed a local cultural centre.

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. Given the oldest tombstone dates to the early 19th century it can be inferred the cemetery was founded in that era. It first appears on Russian maps of the region from the 1870s.

The town was home to such famous Jewish figures as: Soviet actor and singer Mark Naumovich Bernes (whose real name was Menakhem-Man Neukh-Shmuylov Neumann), who was born in Nizhyn in 1911; Yiddish-language poet Mani Leib (born Mani Leib Brahinsky), who was born in Nizhyn in 1883; and Boris Aronson, American theatre artist, painter, sculptor.