Taras Hill

Taras Shevchenko's statue at his burial place.

Taras Hill or Chernecha Hora (Ukrainian: Чернеча гора; literally, Monk's Hill) is a hill on the bank of the Dnieper near Kaniv in Ukraine, where the remains of the famous Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko have been buried since 1861. The original site of Shevchenko's burial is the Smolensky Cemetery in St. Petersburg. The hill formerly belonged to Kaniv's Orthodox monastery. The monastery was the burial place of several hetmans of Ukraine.

Taras' hut

It was on the Taras Hill that Oleksa Hirnyk burned himself to death in protest of Soviet suppression of the Ukrainian language, culture and history in 1978.^[1] It happened on the 60th anniversary of the initial declaration of Ukrainian independence in 1918.

At present, the mount belongs to the Shevchenko National Preserve dedicated to the poet and is a place of mass visits from all over the country and abroad. A Church in memory of Taras Shevchenko (Tarasova Cerkva) is planned to be built here.

Chernecha Hora is considered to be a historical, natural and cultural monument of All-Ukrainian importance and national relic of Ukraine.

References

1. ^ Crimes of Communism Against Ukraine And Her People, Art Ukraine web-site

External links

• Pictures on Chernecha hora travels on Kobzar Web Site