Oster (, ; ) is a city in

Chernihiv Raion Chernihiv Raion () is a raion (district) of Chernihiv Oblast, northern Ukraine. Its administrative centre is the city of Chernihiv. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Chernihi ...

Chernihiv Oblast Chernihiv Oblast (), also referred to as Chernihivshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv. There are 1,511 sett ...

, Ukraine. It is located where the

Oster River The Oster () is a river in the northern Ukrainian oblast of Chernihiv. The river is a left tributary of the Desna River. It is approximately 199 km long and its basin area is 2,950 km2. It is connected by canals and streams with the T ...

flows into the Desna. Oster hosts the administration of

Oster urban hromada Oster (, ; ) is a city in Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located where the Oster River flows into the Desna. Oster hosts the administration of Oster urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is Today O ...

, one of the

hromada In Ukraine, a hromada () is the main type of municipality and the third level Administrative divisions of Ukraine, local self-government in Ukraine. The current hromadas were established by the Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine, Government of Uk ...

s of Ukraine. Its population is Today Oster is a river port with a cotton-textile factory and a food industry. Some parts of the old fortress in Oster have been preserved, as have the remains of the Saint Michael's Church, constructed in 1098 and the only preserved church of the medieval principality of

Pereiaslav Pereiaslav is a historical town in Boryspil Raion, Kyiv Oblast, central Ukraine. It is located near the confluence of the Alta and Trubizh rivers some southeast of the capital Kyiv. It was one of the key regional centers of power during the ...

History

Oster was founded in 1098 by

Vladimir II Monomakh Vladimir II Monomakh (; Christian name: ''Vasily''; 26 May 1053 – 19 May 1125) was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1113 to 1125. He is considered a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and is celebrated on May 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics), May 6 ...

as Gorodets, a fortress belonging to the Pereiaslav principality, which was later inherited by his son

Yuri Dolgorukiy Yuri I Vladimirovich (; ; c. 1099 – 15 May 1157), commonly known as Yuri Dolgorukiy (, ) or the Long Arm, was a Monomakhovichi prince of Rostov and Suzdal, acquiring the name ''Suzdalia'' during his reign. Noted for successfully curbing t ...

. In 1240, it was destroyed by the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire, the Mongol Empire (1206–1368), which by 1260 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

, after which it remained in ruins for a century. After the destruction of the fort, a village was built in its place, named Stary Oster or Starogorodkaya. In the beginning of the 14th century, a newer settlement arose closer to the Desna, named Oster. From 1356 Oster was under control of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

, and from 1569 under the

Union of Lublin The Union of Lublin (; ) was signed on 1 July 1569 in Lublin, Poland, and created a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest countries in Europe at the time. It replaced the personal union of the Crown of the Kingd ...

which was part of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. In 1648, it became part of an

uyezd An uezd (also spelled uyezd or uiezd; rus, уе́зд ( pre-1918: уѣздъ), p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context () was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the R ...

(county) of the

regiment. In 1622, King Jan II Casimir granted Oster the

Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (, , ; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages gr ...

and a coat of arms. After harsh battles of the

Khmelnytsky Uprising The Khmelnytsky Uprising, also known as the Cossack–Polish War, Khmelnytsky insurrection, or the National Liberation War, was a Cossack uprisings, Cossack rebellion that took place between 1648 and 1657 in the eastern territories of the Poli ...

, Polish rule was again established in Oster, but in February 1664, with support from the local population, the Poles were driven back by

Cossacks The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic languages, East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borde ...

and the Russians. In 1803, the city became an uyezd center of

Chernigov Governorate Chernigov Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. It was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Little Russia Governorate (1796-1802), Little Russia Governorate and had its capital in Cher ...

. Until 18 July 2020, Oster belonged to

Kozelets Raion Kozelets Raion (, ) was one of the 22 administrative raions (a ''district'') of Chernihiv Oblast in northern Ukraine. Its administrative center was located at the urban-type settlement of Kozelets. Its population was 61,636 in the 2001 Ukrainian ...

. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Chernihiv Oblast to five. The area of Kozelets Raion was merged into Chernihiv Raion.

Notable people

Sergey Poyarkov Sergey Volodymyrovych Poyarkov (; born 18 October 1965) is a Ukrainian illustrator who rose to prominence after winning the 1991 Writers and Illustrators of the Future Gold Award. Known for blending artistic expression with philosophical insight ...

(born 1965), artist and public figure

References

{{Authority control Cities in Chernihiv Oblast Cities of district significance in Ukraine Populated places on the Desna in Ukraine