Kherson is a
city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast
(province), and is designated as its own separate raion (district) within the
oblast. Kherson is an
important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major
shipbuilding industry. The current estimated population
is 329,000 (as of 2007).
Until 1774, the region belonged to the
Crimean Khanate. Grigori
Aleksandrovich Potemkin founded Kherson in 1778, on the orders of Catherine the
Great. The city was built under the supervision of
General Ivan Gannibal on the site of a small fortress called Aleksanderschanz.
The name Kherson is a contraction of Chersonesos, an ancient Greek colony
founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimea. One of
the first buildings in the Kherson Fort was the Church of St. Catherine where
Potemkin was eventually buried. The last tarpan was caught near Kherson in
1866.
Garden of Ukraine In the Kherson region has all conditions for the development of
vegetable production. Perhaps it is time the region competes not just for the
title of "Garden of the country”, and become "the garden of
Europe"? Tourists visiting Kherson are known to call it the “Capital
of Watermelon and Tomatoes”.
The picture on the card is of the Railway
Station at Kherson, and it was sent to me from there by Anna.
