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Founding
Founding of Vinnytsia
capital city of Vinnytsia Oblast in western Ukraine
- 1363
- Europe
Founding
capital city of Vinnytsia Oblast in western Ukraine
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Vinnytsia ( VIN-it-s(y)ə, VEEN-; Ukrainian: Вінниця, IPA: [ˈwinːɪtsʲɐ] ⓘ) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast in Ukraine. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also serves as the administrative center of Vinnytsia Raion, one of the six raions of Vinnytsia Oblast. It has a population of 370,814 (as of July 2026, Vinnytsia urban hromada).
The city's roots date back to the Middle Ages. It was under Lithuanian and Polish control for centuries. From 1653 to 1667, Vinnytsia was a regimental city of the Hetman state, and in 1793, it was ceded to the Russian Empire. During the 1930s and early 1940s, the city was the site of massacres, first during Stalin's purges and then during the Holocaust in Ukraine and the Nazi occupation. A Cold War–era airbase was located near the city. Currently, Vinnytsia is developing as one of the most comfortable cities for life in independent Ukraine.
The name of Vinnytsia appeared for the first time in 1363. It is assumed that the name is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "*věno" (вѣно), meaning "a bride price." This name can be explained by the fact that Vinnytsia and the surrounding land were captured by Lithuanian Duke Algirdas in the 14th century, and then, they were given to his nephews.
In addition to the Ukrainian Вінниця (Vinnytsia), in other languages of the region, the name of the city is Russian: Винница, romanized: Vinnitsa, Polish: Winnica, Lithuanian: Vinica, German: Winniza, Romanian: Vinița and Yiddish: וויניצע, romanized: Vinitse. English sources used the Russian-derived Vinnitsa from the early 19th century until the 1990s and Winnica or Winnicza (from Polish) before that, reflecting the ultimate political authorities of those respective eras. According to the official transcription of DSTU 9112:2021 (1 April 2022), Вінниця should be rendered as Vinnycja in the Ukrainian Latin alphabet.
Vinnytsia is located about 260 km (160 mi) southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, 429 km (267 mi) north-northwest of the Black Sea port city of Odesa, and 369 km (229 mi) east of Lviv.
It is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast (province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Vinnytsia Raion within the oblast. The city itself is directly subordinated to the oblast.
The city has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb).
A long-lasting warm summer with a sufficient quantity of moisture and a comparatively short winter is characteristic of Vinnytsia. The average temperature in January is −5.8 °C (21.6 °F) and 18.3 °C (64.9 °F) in July. The average annual precipitation is 638 mm (25 in).
Over the course of a year there are around 6–9 days when snowstorms occur, 37–60 days when mists occur during the cold period, and 3–5 days when thunderstorms with hail occur.
On 1 July 2026, Vinnytsia City Council announced the Vinnytsia Green Deal by signing the Declaration and approving the roadmap of measures for the implementation of its principles and approaches within the community.
Vinnytsia, known in Polish as Winnica, has been an important trade and political center since the fourteenth century, when Fyodor Koriatovych, the nephew of the Lithuanian Duke Algirdas, built a fortress (1363) against Tatar raiders on the banks of the Southern Bug. The original settlement was built and populated by Aleksander Hrehorovicz Jelec, a hetman under Lithuanian Prince Švitrigaila. Aleksander Jelec built the fort, which he commanded as starosta afterwards.
In the 15th century, Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon granted Vinnytsia Magdeburg city rights. In 1566, it became part of the Bracław Voivodeship. Between 1569 and 1793 the town was a part of Poland. In 1648, Vinnytsia found itself at the epicenter of the Cossack uprisings led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. In February 1651, during the defense of the city, Ivan Bohun's Cossack regiment defeated a 20,000-strong Polish army. Vinnytsia was part of the Hetman state until 1667, and during 1672-1699 was a part of the Ottoman Empire. Under Polish rule, Vinnytsia was a royal city. On 18 March 1783, Antoni Protazy Potocki opened the Polish Trade Company in Vinnytsia. The 1st Infantry Regiment of the Polish Crown Army was stationed in the city in 1788 before it was relocated to Piotrków Trybunalski.
After the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 the Russian Empire annexed the city and the region. Russia moved to expunge the Roman Catholic religion. Catholic churches in the city, including what is currently the Transfiguration Cathedral, were converted to Russian Orthodox churches.
In the Russian census of 1897, Vinnytsia had a population of 30,563. It was the third largest city in Podolia region after Kamianets-Podilskyi and Uman. After railway connections were completed in 1871, Vinnytsia developed rapidly economically and infrastructurally. The city architect Hryhorii Artynov erected a number of buildings (a water tower, a theater, churches, hotels and mansions), which still shape the city image.
During the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1920, Vinnytsia was chosen three times as the seat of government structures of the Ukrainian People's Republic. The residence of the Directory was Savoy Hotel, which turned the city into a de facto capital. On 6 March 1918, Vinnytsia became the seat of Bratslavshchyna, a newly established zemlia of the Ukrainian People's Republic, which was disbanded on 29 April 1918 by Hetman of Ukraine Pavlo Skoropadsky, who brought back old governorate divisions of the Russian Empire. On 16 May 1920, a meeting was held in Vinnytsia between the heads of Ukraine and Poland, Symon Petliura and Józef Piłsudski. After 1920, it was the capital of the Podolia Governorate of Ukraine.
Soviet Vinnytsia became an industrial giant with an emphasis on sugar production, but in the shadow of its prosperity it experienced a devastating man-made famine occurred in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933.
In 1936, part of the Polish population was expelled by the Soviets to Kazakhstan. The Vinnytsia massacre was the mass execution of between 9,000 and 11,000 people in Vinnytsia by the Soviet secret police NKVD during the Great Purge in 1937–1938.
Vinnytsia was occupied by German troops on 19 July 1941 during World War II. While Vinnytsia had a pre-war Jewish population of over 34,000, only 17,000 of these Jews remained, with the rest of them successfully being evacuated to the interior of the Soviet Union beforehand. Virtually all of the Jews who remained in Vinnytsia under Nazi occupation were murdered in the Holocaust. Nazi atrocities were committed in and near Vinnytsia by Einsatzgruppe C. The neighborhood of the Jewish quarter of Yerusalimka was subsequently depopulated and underwent significant wartime damage.
Related to that period is an infamous photo, known as The Last Jew of Vinnytsia. Recent research has suggested that the photograph was probably made in another town, Berdychiv, and not Vinnitsya The Last Jew in Vinnitsa is a photograph taken during the Holocaust in Ukraine showing an unknown Jewish man—probably on 28 July 1941—about to be shot dead by a member of the Einsatzgruppen, a mobile death squad of the German SS. The victim is kneeling beside a mass grave already containing bodies; behind, a group of SS and Reich Labor Service men watch.
Adolf Hitler sited his eastern headquarters, Führerhauptquartier Werwolf or Wehrwolf, at the Wehrmacht headquarters near the city. The complex was built in 1941–1942 by Russian prisoners of war. Many of them were killed. Hitler's accommodation consisted of a log cabin built around a private courtyard with its own concrete bunker. The complex included about 20 other log buildings, a power station, gardens, wells, three bunkers, a swimming pool, and wire and defensive positions.
Hitler spent a number of weeks at Wehrwolf in 1942 and early 1943. The few remains of the Wehrwolf site, described in one report as a "pile of concrete" because it was destroyed by the Nazis in 1944, can be visited. Plans to create a full-fledged museum had not come to fruition as of August 2018.
The Germans operated several forced labour camps in the city.
After the end of World War II, Vinnytsia was the home for major Soviet Air Forces base, including an airfield, a hospital, arsenals, and other military installations. The headquarters of the 43rd Rocket Army of the Strategic Rocket Forces was stationed in Vinnytsia from 1960 to the early 1990s. The 2nd Independent Heavy Bomber Aviation Corps, which later became 24th Air Army, was stationed in Vinnytsia from 1960 to 1992.
The Ukrainian Air Force Command has been based in Vinnytsia since 1992. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the command center was significantly damaged by Russian cruise missiles on 25 March 2022.
On 14 July 2022 the center of the city was attacked with three Russian cruise missiles. Missiles hit the local NeuroMed clinic and House of the Officers, which was currently used as a concert hall. Due to the strike 27 people were killed (three children among them), 80 were hospitalized. The next day the Russian Ministry of defense said that the target was top-ranking Ukrainian military officers and representatives of foreign military industry companies.
On 12 October 2022, a pilot Vadym Voroshylov (call sign Karaia) destroyed 5 "Shahed 136" drones near Vinnytsia. Due to damage to the plane, Vadym ejected in Vinnytsia oblast, having previously diverted the fighter jet from the settlement. For this, he was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.
In 2023, the city of Vinnytsia opened a representative office to the European Union, becoming the fourth Ukrainian sub-national administration or organisation to take up an offer to use office space in the European Committee of the Regions (CoR).
On the night of 15-16 July 2025, Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine, using an Iskander-M ballistic missile, about 400 Shahed strike drones, and various types of simulator drones. Two companies were hit by the attack: the Polish Barlinek Group and the Ukrainian Green Cool. There were no fatalities at Barlinek, but eight people were injured, two of them seriously burned. Shops and equipment were damaged, causing production to be suspended for several months. Green Cool also suffered damage to its production facilities. Four residential buildings near the companies were also damaged.
Vinnytsia is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast (region) and Vinnytsia Raion (district) within it. Until 14 February 2012, the city was divided into three urban districts: Leninskyi, Staromiskyi, and Zamostianskyi.
Vinnytsia is considered the long-time political base for Ukrainian oligarch and former President Petro Poroshenko. He owns a local confectionery (as part of the Roshen Corporation) and was elected member of parliament from the local constituency for several convocations. However, contrary to some speculations, Poroshenko has never lived in the city.
Volodymyr Groysman, the former Ukrainian prime minister (2016–2019), is from Vinnytsia.
As of 1 July 2026, the population of Vinnytsia is 370,814 people.
By population, among cities of Ukraine Vinnytsia ranks among the 10 largest cities (excluding the temporarily occupied territories).
As of the Ukrainian census in 2001, Vinnytsia had a population of 356,665 inhabitants. As of the census, Ukrainians accounted for the overwhelming majority of the population, making up 87% of the population, while people of Russian descent accounted for 10%. Smaller minorities were Jews, Poles and Belarusians. According to a study of the Ukrainian research institute Rating conducted in 2017, the share of ethnic Ukrainians in the city increased to 94%, while the share of ethnic Russians dropped to 4%.
Exact distribution of the population by ethnicity according to the 2001 census:
Distribution of the population by native languages according to the 2001 census:
According to a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute in April–May 2023, 85% of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 15% spoke Russian.
Educational institutions of the city of Vinnytsia:
Text from the Wikipedia article “Vinnytsia”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.