Yelets Assumption Monastery

The Transfiguration Cathedral was founded around 1036 and is, therefore, one of the oldest cathedrals in Kievan Rus. In 1239, the church was partially destroyed by the Mongol army of Batu Khan. Further damage was caused in 1611 during the Polish-Lithuanian conquest of Chernihiv. After being rebuilt in 1675, the church was again severely damaged by fire in 1750 but was restored between 1770 and 1799. The façade was plastered and the interior was renovated in the Baroque and Classical style.

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.