Kovel
Kovel
| Kovel Ковель |
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| — City — | |||
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| Coordinates: 51°13′0″N 24°43′0″E / 51.216667°N 24.716667°ECoordinates: 51°13′0″N 24°43′0″E / 51.216667°N 24.716667°E | |||
| Country |  Ukraine |
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| Oblast |  Volyn' region |
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| Raion | Kovel City Municipality | ||
| Founded | 13th century | ||
| Magdeburg law | 1518 | ||
| Government | |||
| - Mayor | Serhiy Kosharuk | ||
| Area | |||
| - Total | 47.3 km2 (18.3 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2009) | |||
| - Total | 65,777 | ||
| - Density | 1,400/km2 (3,626/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) | ||
| - Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) | ||
| Postal code | 45000 | ||
| Area code(s) | +380 3352 | ||
| Website | Municipal official site in Ukrainian | ||
Kovel (Ukrainian and Russian: Ковель, translit. Kovel’, Polish: Kowel, Hebrew: כהואל) is a city located in the Volyn Oblast (province), in north-western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Kovelskyi Raion (district), the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast. The current estimated population (as of 2009) is around 65,777.
Kovel is the north-western hub of the Ukrainian rail system, with six rail lines radiating outward from the city. The first of these was built in 1873, connecting the city with Brest-Litovsk and Rivne. In 1877 Kovel was first linked by rail with Lublin and Warsaw in Congress Poland.
Kovel gives its name to one of the oldest Runic inscriptions which were lost during World War II. The Kovel spearhead, unearthed near the town in 1858, contained text in Gothic language (illustration).
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History
Kovel (Kowel) was first mentioned in 1310. It received city rights from the Polish king Zygmunt Stary in 1518. In 1547 the owner of Kowel became Bona Sforza, Polish queen. In 1564 starost of Kowel became Kurbski (d. 1584).
After the Partitions of Poland the town fell into the Russian Empire for over a hundred years. During the First World War, the city was a site of the Battle of Kovel between the Central Powers and the Russian Empire. In the interwar period, Kovel served as the capital of Kovel County in Volhynian Voivodeship of the Polish Republic. In World War II, following the Nazi German invasion of Poland and subsequently, their Operation Barbarossa the Germans murdered 18,000 Jews in Kovel, mostly during August and September 1942. Later on, in March and April 1944, Kovel was a site of fierce fighting between the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking and the Red Army. In 1945, at the insistence of Joseph Stalin (following the Tehran Conference of 1943) Poland's borders were redrawn, the Polish population was forcibly resettled and Kovel was incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It has been a part of sovereign Ukraine since 1991.
People from Kovel
- Lesya Ukrainka (1871–1913), famous Ukrainian poet who lived near Kovel in childhood
- Abraham Zapruder (1905–1970), naturalized American manufacturer of women’s clothing who filmed the assassination of John Kennedy in 1963.
- Rabbi Meir Auerbach (1815–1877), first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.
- Israel Friedlander, rabbi, educator and biblical scholar
Sister cities
Kovel is twinned with
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Notes
- ^ "Municipal official site in Ukrainian". http://kovel.osp-ua.info/index.php?ch=1&fl=vizitka.
- ^ "Supreme Council of Ukraine Ukrainian: Верховна Рада України". http://gska2.rada.gov.ua:7777/pls/z7502/A005?rdat1=20.10.2003&rf7571=5056.
- ^ Photograph from the Boris Feldblyum Collection
- ^ a b c d Rąkowski, Grzegorz (2005). Wołyń. Pruszków: Oficyna Wydawnicza "Rewasz". p. 85. ISBN 83-89188-32-5.
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