Chernihiv was first
mentioned in the Rus’-Byzantine
Treaty (907), but is considered to have
existed at least in the ninth century, as uncovered by archaeological
excavations. Towards the end of the 10th
century, the city probably had its own rulers. In the southern portion
of the
Kyivan Rus the city was the second by importance and wealth (after
Kyiv). From
the early 11th century it was the seat of powerful Grand Principality
of
Chernihiv, whose
rulers at times vied for power with
Kyivan Grand Princes, and often overthrew them and took the
primary seat
in Kyiv for themselves. The grand principality was the largest in
Kyivan Rus . The golden age of Chernihiv, when the city population
peaked at 25,000, lasted until 1239 when the city was sacked by the
hordes of
Batu Khan, which started a long period of relative obscurity.
The
area fell under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1353.
The city was burned again by Crimean kgan
Menhli I Girey in 1482 and 1497, and in the fifteenth to seventeenth
centuries
it changed hands several times between Lithuania, Moscovy ( 1408-1420
and
from 1503), and the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth (1618-48), where it was
granted Magdeburg rights in 1623. The area's importance increased again
in the
middle of the 17th century during and after the Khmentitsky Uprising.
In the
time of Hetman State Chernihiv was the city of deployment of Chernihiv
Cossack
regiment (both a military and territorial unit of the time).
With
the abolishment of the Hetmanate, the city became an ordinary
administrative
center of the Russian Empire and a capital of local administrative
units. The
area in general was ruled by the Governor-General from Saint-Petersburg
imperial capital.
Chernihiv's
architectural monuments chronicle two most flourishing periods in the
city's
history - those of Kyivan Rus (11th
and 12th centuries)
and of the Cossack Hetmanate (late 17th and early 18th centuries).
The
oldest church in the city and in the whole of