Home > Bukovina

1 Etymology

Bukovina is a term of Slavic origin derived from the word for beech; The German equivalent is Buchenland, meaning "beech land". Most likely, one of the names is the translation of the other.

2 History

This territory was populated since ancient Roman times by Dacian populations, the ancestors of Romanians. In the 5th century, the territory came under the rule of the Avars. By the 5th century, Slavic populations were forming in the region. In the 9th to early 14th centuries the province came under the control of Kievan Rus and later, its Ukrainian successor state of Halych-Volynia.

From the mid-14th century, this region became the nucleus of the Romanian Principality of Moldova with the city of Suceava being made its capital in 1388. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Painted Monasteries of Moldovita , Putna , Sucevita and Voronet were constructed under the patronage of Stefan cel MareStephan the Great (Romanian icon) Stefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great) was a voivod (prince) of Moldavia ( 1457- 1504), who won renown in Europe for his long resistance against the Ottoman Empire. With the help of the Wallachian prince Vlad III the Impaler. With their famous exterior frescoes, these monasteriesA monastery is the habitation of monks. Originally: a hermit's cell. Christian monasteries are also called abbey, priory, charterhouse, friary, and preceptory The habitation of nuns is also called a convent. The communal life of a monastery is called ceno remain some of the greatest cultural treasures of Romania, today.

In the 18th century17th century 18th century 19th century more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701- 1800; however, historians will sometimes specifically refer to the 18th Century as 1715- 89, Bukovina fell under the control of the Ottoman TurksThe Ottoman Turks were the ethnic subdivision of the Turkic people who dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were first known to the west in 1227, when they fled the Mongol Empire into the Seljuk Empire in what is now called Anato, then it was occupied by RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With in 1769Events Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen exhibits the " Mechanical Turk", a chess-playing machine May 14 Charles III of Spain sends Spanish missionaries, who found California missions in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Monterey and begin the settlem, and then by the Habsburg Austrians in 1774Events January 21 Mustafa III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid I. May 10 Louis XVI becomes King of France. June 2 Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to let British soldiers int. It remained under Austrian administration, while the neighboring province of Transylvania reverted to Hungarian rule.

In World War I several battles were fought in Bukovina between Austrian and Russian troops. Although the Russians were finally driven out in 1917, Austria would lose Bukovina with the war; the province, being majority Romanian, was reunited with Romania after the Treaty of St. Germain.

On June 28, 1940, northern Bukovina was occupied by Soviet troops as a consequence of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact between Hitler and Stalin. Almost the entire German population of the Bukovina emigrated into the Reich. It would change hands again during the course of World War II, notably when Petre Dumitrescu led the Romanian Third Army into the north. In the end, the northern half of Bukovina ended up in Soviet hands, while the southern half remained with Romania. During World War II, the Jewish community of the Bukovina was destroyed by the Germans.

A compact Romanian minority inhabits the southern Chernivtsi region of Ukraine. Main city: Chernivtsi (Cernauţi in Romanian; Чернівці, Chernivtsi in Ukrainian; Czernowitz in German; Chernovtsy or Cernovcy in Russian; Czerniowce in Polish).

Most of the historical Bukovina is now included in the counties of Suceava and Botosani, in north-eastern Romania.