Nizhyn is located along the Oster River, 150 km north-east of Kyiv. The earliest known references of Nizhyn go back to 1147. In the times of the Polist-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Nizhyn was granted Magdeburg rights (1625) as a self-governing town. Nizhyn was also the seat of a major Cossack regiment (until 1782) and of the thriving Greek community, which enjoyed a number of privileges granted by Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky.

In 1805, the Bezborodko Lyceum was established here; for some time it was named as Physical and Mathematical Lyceum. Architecturally Nezhin was shaped in the 18th century. Among its buildings, it must be mentioned its seven Baroque churches, among them the so-called Cossack Cathedral of St. Nicholas (1658), St. Michael's Church of the Greek community (1719). Other notable buildings include the Trinity Church (1730), the Greek magistrate (1785), and the Neoclassical complex of the Nizhyn Lyceum (designed by Luigi Rusca, built in 1805-17, expanded in 1876-79).