Kherson

Kherson [Херсон; Xerson]. See Google Map; see EU map: VII-13. A city (2018 pop 291,428, 2022 pop 279,131), the capital of Kherson oblast, an economic-industrial and cultural center with a large sea and river port on the right bank of the Dnipro River (25 km from where it empties into the Dnipro-Boh Estuary of the Black Sea), a railway node and transshipment terminal, on two main highways (Odesa–Kherson–Melitopol–Mariupol–Rostov-na-Donu [M 14 or E 58] and Kherson–Kerch [M 17 or E 97], and the Kherson International Airport. The city consists of 3 administrative sections (urban raions), established in 1965. Invaded by the Russian Federation and taken by the Russian forces on 2 March 2022, it was liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on 12 November 2022; since then and as of January 2025 an active front extends along the Dnipro River.

History. The area was inhabited since the Paleolithic Period. In the Bronze Age it was the domain of the Yamna archeological culture complex, and later the Catacomb culture. By the Iron Age, it was inhabited by the Cimmerians, then Scythians (5th–1st centuries BC, as evidenced by a recently discovered Scythian burial mound [4th–3rd centuries BC] in the Kherson Fortress Park), who traded with the neighboring Pontic Greek city state of Olbia on the Dnipro-Boh Estuary 52 km west of the present-day Kherson. Olbia was sacked by the Getae, then restored (50–180 AD) by the Romans, but later migrations of Goths (250 AD) and Huns (375) destroyed what remained of ancient Olbia. In the Middle Ages, downriver from present-day Kherson in the land of the Cumans, the Kyiv principality had its port of Oleshia (end of 11th to early 13th centuries), taken by the Mongols (1223) who, known as the Golden Horde, occupied this area, then granted Oleshia to the Genoese, who fortified and re-named it Illiche (ca 1440–75). As the Genoese were driven out by the Ottoman Turks, Illiche declined. The present-day Kherson area became contested between the Crimean Khanate with its Kipchak steppe herders and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with its Rus’ frontiersmen (later Zaporozhian Cossacks), but then came under control of the Ottoman Empire (1526). To the north the land of the Zaporizhia passed to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569), and later became part of the de facto independent Cossack Hetman state (1648–54). At that time, the Cossack transit salt trade settlement, Bilikovychi, appeared on or near the site of present-day Kherson (on the map of Ukraine by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan, 1648). The Zaporizhia became a joint protectorate of Muscovy and Poland (1667–86), followed by that of the Ottoman Empire (the Prut Treaty of 1711) when, to escape Tsar Peter I’s vengeance following the Battle of Poltava, the Zaporozhian Sich (headquarters) were moved downstream to Oleshky (the Oleshky Sich, 1711–28, on the Crimean Tatar territory), then back upstream, on the west bank of the Dnipro River, to its new Sich (headquarters) in Kamianka (1729–34).

During the Russo-Turkish War of 1735–39, the Russian Empire had the northeast border of the Zaporizhia fortified with the so-called ‘Ukrainian Line’ (1731–39, manned by Russian servitors), got the Zaporozhian Cossacks to join the campaign and to build fort Aleksandr-Shanets (aka Fort St. Aleksandre) in 1737–9. The Russian Empire annexed the Zaporizhia (Treaty of Belgrade, 1739) as a self-governing dependency, colonizing it in the northwest (New Serbia, Nova Svoboda Cossack Regiment [1764]) while the Zaporozhian Inhul Palanka advanced to Perevizka (16 km upstream from Aleksandr-Shanets on the Dnipro River and the Prohnoivska Palanka to the Kinburn Peninsula of the Black Sea coast (1774). After the Russian Empire destroyed the Zaporozhian Sich (1775) and incarcerated its Hetman Petro Kalnyshevsky for life, it re-named the western part of the territory the New Russia guberniia (1764) and within it the southernmost part Kherson county (1776), drafted some of the remaining Zaporozhian Cossacks into the Kherson Settlement Picket Regiment (1776) to protect and help build the city of Kherson, admiralty, and shipyard (1778–83). Then the Black Sea Cossacks, led by the otamans Sydir Bilyi, Zakharii Chepiha, and Anton Holovaty, were united with the Boh Cossack Army (1790–2) to front the Ottoman Empire with settlements on the left bank of the Dnipro River in the Oleshky Sands area, along the Boh River and west of it. In 1792–4 the Black Sea Cossacks were transferred for frontier duty to the Kuban region.

Kherson, with its fortress, admiralty, and shipyard, was part of Empress Catherine II’s ‘Greek Project.’ Founded in 1778 (decreed by Catherine on 18 June), the city was named after the ancient city of Chersonese Taurica. Its construction (administered by Prince Grigorii Potemkin and supervised by General Ivan Hannibal [granduncle of Aleksandr Pushkin], who re-fortified the Aleksandr-Shanets fortress), was completed rapidly using thousands of conscripted sailors, laborers, soldiers, prisoners, and serfs. The location and construction of the shipyard was supervised by Vice-Admiral Aleksei Seniavin (commander of the Sea of Azov Fleet), the organization of the Black Sea Fleet by Admiral Nikolai Mordvinov, and the construction of battleships by Admiral Fedor Ushakov. In 1783 the first warship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet (the 66-gun ‘Glory of Catherine’) was launched there.

In 1784 Kherson became a county center and in 1803 a guberniacapital. Shipbuilding, commerce, and shipping (particularly the export of grain and lumber to Western Europe) became the cornerstones of its economy. Inadequate depth (2.6m at the wharf) for large ships compelled the relocation of naval shipbuilding to the newly-built Mykolaiv (1794) and the expansion of foreign trade through Odesa (1797). Although both Mykolaiv and Odesa outgrew Kherson, they remained part of the Kherson gubernia and subordinated to the governor in Kherson. With the deepening of the Dnipro-Boh Estuary waterway at the turn of the 20th century (5.5m by 1905 and 7.3m by 1908), Kherson’s role as an export port increased. A railway link was established via Mykolaiv in 1907 (other railway links were added later). The city’s manufacturing sector (food industry, wool processing, woodworking, pig-iron founding, shipbuilding and agricultural machine building) remained secondary, but was enhanced by an electric power-generating station in 1908.

The city’s population grew from 2,000 in 1799 to 23,650 in 1846, 43,900 in 1859, 59,100 in 1897, and 81,000 in 1913. By the mid-1850s, according to church census records (V. Kabuzan), the ethnic make-up (in percent) of the city’s 21,354 residents was mostly Jews (41.4) and Ukrainians (40.3), with a significant Russian (16.7) national minority and some European aristocrats. Yet by the 1897 census, the main languages spoken by its 59,100 residents were (in percent): Russian (47.2), Yiddish (29.1) and Ukrainian (19.6). By 1910 the city’s population reached 72,000 and by 1914 exceeded 80,000.

In the second half of the 19th century, Kherson became an educational and cultural center. Specialists were trained in agricultural, marine, medical and commercial schools. There was a teacher's seminary and public library (1872), an archeological museum (est 1890 by the Kyiv-born archeologist and museologist Viktor Hoshkevych), a gubernia scholarly archival commission (1898), a people's home and a branch of the imperial music society (1905), and the daily newspaper Iug (est 1897, edited by Hoshkevych). The Ukrainian writers Dniprova Chaika, Mykola Cherniavsky, and Ivan Karpenko-Kary lived and worked in the city.

During the Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20), Kherson was initially governed by the Provisional Government governor and the city council, but contested by the Council of Worker’ and Soldier’ Deputies, the Ukrainian Council (June 1917, chaired by Volodymyr Chekhivsky) supported by the Ukrainian political organization Ukrainska Khata (the Ukrainian House) which promoted Ukrainian statehood in the Kherson region; by 10 December 1917 the city council proclaimed it part of the Ukrainian National Republic. All political parties in the city were legalized: Ukrainian National Democrats, Socialist Revolutionaries, the Constitutional Democratic (kadet) party, Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, etc.

Kherson was briefly occupied by the Bolsheviks (captured on 18 January 1918, when it was proclaimed part of the Odesa Soviet Republic). Liberated by the Austro-Hungarian 11th Division and the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (6 April 1918), it rejoined the Ukrainian National Republic and then the Ukrainian State governed by Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky. During this time, with A. Hrabenko as governor, Ukrainian institutions began to flourish: the establishment of the Prosvita society, the Ukrainska Knyharnia publishers, the consumers’ society ‘Ukraina’, the association ‘Dumka’ and several Ukrainian student organizations. Schools began to teach courses in Ukrainian and about Ukraine. A Ukrainian theater functioned here, featuring the actor Yurii Shumsky.

After the departure of the Austro-Hungarian forces, the city was occupied by the French-Greek forces of the Entente (29 January 1919) (which denied the possession of the city by the Directory of the Ukrainian National Republic led by Symon Petlura), then fell to the Ukrainian anarchist revolutionaries led by Nykyfor Hryhoriiv (8 March 1919), to the Red Army (June 1919), to the Volunteer Army of Southern Russia led by General Anton Denikin (13 August 1919) and finally to the Red Army (3 February 1920). The local Soviet government, established on 16 April 1920, imposed the rules of War Communism on private enterprises and religious institutions.

As a consequence of several years of war and destruction, the city’s population fell to 74,500 in 1920, but then, as a result of the famine of 1921–3, declined radically to 41,300 in 1923.

In the Soviet period, the city first became part of the Odesa gubernia (1920, subordinated to a bigger city where the proletariat was more numerous), then of Mykolaiv gubernia (1921) and again Odesa gubernia (1923). Following administrative restructuring into okruhas, it became the capital of Kherson okruha from 1923 to 1932. After restructuring into oblasts, it became a city and raion center within Odesa oblast (1932–7) and then within the newly-formed Mykolaiv oblast (1937–44).

Industries were revitalized with a confectionery plant (1928), a new section of ship repair works (1931), a grain elevator (1931), a cannery (1932), an electric machinery plant (1932), a motor factory (1933), a cotton-ginning plant (1933), and a petroleum refinery (1935). The Kherson port also expanded its operations, attaining 1 million tons of freight in 1939, almost reaching the 1.1 million tons of freight it handled back in 1913.

Kherson’s population partly recovered to 58,800 in 1926, when its ethnicity (in percent) was evenly split between Russians (36.0) and Ukrainians (35.9), with a large minority of Jews (25.4). Despite lives lost to political repressions (6,330 Kherson citizens from the Famine-Genocide of 1932–3 [1933], over 2,000 from the Yezhov terror [November-December, 1937]), the population of the city grew to 96,987 in 1939. With in-migration from the rural areas, its ethnic composition (in percent) shifted to predominantly Ukrainian (60.9), with significant Russian (19.4) and Jewish (16.6) minorities.

During the Second World War, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the partition of Poland (1939), Kherson was one of the sites of ‘the Katyn massacre’ (1940) of Polish officers and intelligentsia committed by the Soviets. On the eve of German invasion in 1941, an airport was opened in the city, where pilots were trained for the military. The city had 3 hospitals and 4 polyclinics. Following German invasion of the USSR (22 June 1941), in August Kherson’s oil refinery, engine plant, and ship repair works were evacuated. After the battle for Kherson (15–18 August), Nazi Germans took the city, making it a major transit point for its southern army (by ferry, then by newly-built railway bridge) to the Crimea and the Caucasus Mountains. Administratively, the city was in the Generalbezirk Nikolajew (Mykolaiv oblast), part of the Reichkomissariat Ukraine.

The German occupation lasted from 19 August 1941 to 12 March 1944. It had to contend with both Soviet and Ukrainian nationalist (the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) underground cells. The Kherson district leadership of the OUN(R) was headed by Bohdan Bandera (brother of OUN(R) leader Stepan Bandera). Based in Music School No. 1, it furtively propagated Ukraine’s independence among 2,000 sympathizers until the arrest of its members by the Nazis in 1942. The Soviet partisans (see Soviet partisans in Ukraine, 1941–5) led by Omelian Hirsky harassed the occupiers; its youth cells, led by Illiia Kulyk, spread leaflets and committed sabotage to free captive prisoners of war; they were discovered and eliminated by November 1942.

The Nazi German occupation reduced the population of Kherson. Some 17,000 citizens were killed and 15,000 taken to Germany for slave labor as Ostarbeiter. Of those killed, the Jewish population was decimated, mostly in 1941: on 7 September a ghetto was established and Jewish police organized; on 24–25 September the Einsatzkommando 11a murdered 8,000 men, women, and children in anti-tank ditches west of the village of Zelenivka. Later, Jews found hiding were executed, and in February 1942 some 400 children of mixed marriages were killed.

Postwar recovery. Seventeen days after its liberation by the Red Army, led by General Vasilii Margelov, on 30 March 1944 Kherson became the capital of Kherson oblast. After the war the city was re-populated and its economy rebuilt and expanded. Its industry focused on shipbuilding and repair, machine building, textiles, vegetable canning, and food processing. Some 40 percent of the work force was employed in production for the military. Transport infrastructure improved with the introduction of trolleybuses (1960) and the construction (1977–85) of the Antonivka Road Bridge across the Dnipro River to Oleshky and beyond.

Kherson’s population grew from 134,000 in 1956 to 158,000 in 1959, 261,000 in 1970, 318,900 in 1979 and 355,400 in 1989. Its ethnic composition changed, with continued increase of Ukrainians and a major decline in Jews, particularly since the Second World War. In 1926, 1939, 1959, and 1989 the percentage of Ukrainians was, respectively, 35.9, 60.9, 63.0 and 66.0; of Russians, 36.0, 19.4, 29.0 and 29.2; of Jews, 25.4, 16.6, 6.0 and 1.9.

Following the 1991 Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence, Kherson retained stability during the economic transition through hyperinflation to market economy and privatization. Some large Kherson enterprises formerly dependent on state orders were successfully restructured: the shipbuilding firm garnered sales abroad, its petroleum refinery found investors in the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan. The closure of some enterprises was offset by the establishment of new ones (polystyrene foam making, combine harvester assembly Skif). The city’s airport became International Airport Kherson (2006).

Aging demographics resulted in the slow-down of growth and then a decline in the city’s population. From 355,379 in 1989, the population peaked at 371,000 in 1993, then declined to 328,360 (2001), 316,000 (2006), 302,500 (2011), 297,600 (2014), 291,400 (2018) and 279,100 (2022).

The revitalization of religion brought about the restoration of some closed houses of worship (the Holy Dormition Cathedral, the Roman Catholic Church) or the construction of new ones (the Lutheran Church).

Following Russian annexation of the Crimea in 2014 and war in the Donbas, Kherson hosted the evacuated Office of the President’s Representative for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (since 17 May 2014) and the Ukrainian flag used by the Crimeans opposing the Russian invaders. The city also provided housing for some of the refugees from the Crimea and the Donbas. In 2015–6, during decommunization, some of its streets and nearby settlements were renamed. In the old part of the city most of the original street names were returned. In its last free elections in the city in 2020, the pro-Russian Euro-skeptic parties received a minority vote, getting 20 of the 54 seats on the city council.

The Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine (beginning 24 February 2022) and the ensuing Russo-Ukrainian war first led to the capture of most of Kherson oblast, including the city of Kherson (2 March). Then Russian forces got Volodymyr Saldo, the former mayor of Kherson (2002–12), to serve in its administration. After a staged referendum (23–27 September), the Russian Federation declared (30 September) the annexation of 4 Ukrainian oblasts: Luhansk oblast, Donetsk oblast, Zaporizhia oblast, and Kherson oblast. By October 2022, however, the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine broke through Russian front in the north-west of Kherson oblast and re-captured the right bank of the Dnipro River, including the city of Kherson (12 November 2022). Before retreating from the city and destroying its infrastructure (water, heat, electricity, communications, TV tower, and bridges), Russian forces looted Kherson’s main museums: the Kherson Regional Studies Museum and the Kherson Art Museum. The taken items were transported to Crimean museums. In addition, Russian army took away monuments to Aleksandr Suvorov, Fedor Ushakov, Vasilii Margelov, Grigorii Potemkin, and the remains of the latter from the city’s Saint Catherine’s Cathedral. Since then, the front was held along the Dnipro River, with Kherson suffering from Russian artillery and drones. Catastrophic flooding, caused by Russian detonation (6 June 2023) of the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station, resulted in destruction and the loss of many lives. Evacuation from danger reduced the city’s population to some 71,000.

Economy. Kherson was an important industrial and shipping center. Of its 56 large enterprises in the 1980s, the most important were the Kherson Shipbuilding Complex (est. 1951, oceanic tankers, freighters, container ships, ice breakers, and docks), the Comintern Shipbuilding and Repairs Complex, the Kuibyshev Ship Repair Complex, the Petrovsky Combine Plant (‘Khersonets’ corn combines) and the Kherson Cotton Textile Manufacturing Complex (one of the largest textile plants in the former USSR, now in ruins). Kherson’s port facilities handled a large volume of exports and imports from many countries around the world.

The leading branches of industry in 2007, by value of production (in percent), were food processing (38.1), machine building (23.3), electricity, gas and water supply (21.8), metallurgy (6.0), chemical and petrochemical (4.3), paper and printing (2.2), and light industry, like textiles, clothing and footwear (1.2). The machine building and metal-working enterprises, having lost government orders, became corporate entities or privatized and adjusted production to market their goods. They included 3 shipbuilding or repair plants (the Kherson Shipyard [during Ukraine’s independence, built about 25 different ships, including 13 tankers for ship owners in Norway, Denmark, the Russian Federation, two Arctic supply vessels for clients in South Africa and China, and four multi-purpose dry cargo ships for the Philippines and Norway], the Comintern shipbuilding and ship repair works [tankers], and the VVV-Spetstekhnika suction dredger factory [est 2006]), an electric machine-building plant, a drive shaft plant, and agricultural machine-building (the Petrovsky plant, now maker of the Skif grain combines, as well as cultivators, seed drills and trailers). Electricity was provided locally by the Kherson Thermal-Electric Power Station (est 1960). Food processing never lost production and grew in relative importance. Its enterprises included the Kherson cannery, grain and oil seed mill, macaroni plant, bakery, meat packer, fish processor, a dairy, and a winery. Light industry lost to international competition; it was represented by the Kherson cotton plant (built in 1954, largest in Europe, bankrupt [2013], closed and demolished), a garment factory (closed [2016]) and several leather-footwear factories. The Kherson petroleum refinery continued operating on crude oil piped in from the Russian Federaton. There was also a glass foundry and reinforced concrete fabrication plant.

Shipping was the principal commercial activity. The Kherson port system had a total of 10 berths and a capacity to handle 8 million tons per year. The Kherson Commercial Sea Port, with 4 berths and 10 cranes for general and bulk cargoes, handled (2010–15) some 1.5 to 3.1 million T annually, including grain, fertilizer and scrap, mostly for export to many countries, but largely to Turkey. The Kherson River Port had an 800 m line of berths with 7 cranes, for trans-shipment and export. The Kherson Port Elevator, with its 250 m berth, handled grain and vegetable oil export. The Dnipro River barge terminal had 3 berths with floating cranes to service river barges. The Kherson oil terminal had 22 storage tanks and 3 berths.

The transportation of freight (by trains or trucks to processing plants or docks) and of people (by trolleybuses [within the city], buses [beyond city limits], trains [7 suburban stations] and ferries to places of work) was well integrated. Flights from Kherson International Airport connected to Kyiv and Istanbul, and seasonal charters to Antalya, and Sharm El Sheikh.

Education and sport. Kherson was also a significant administrative (for city and Kherson oblast), educational (postsecondary education) and research (irrigation farming) center. Before the full-scale Russian invasion of 2022 there were 5 universities: 1) the Kherson State University, started in 1917 with the faculty of Yuriv pedagogical institute evacuated from Tartu, reorganized into a pedagogical institute in 1920, expanded in 1967, became a pedagogical university in 1992 and state university in 2002, evacuated to Ivano-Frankivsk in 2022); 2) the Kherson National Technical University (est 1956, university since 1997, national university since 2006, evacuated to Khmelnytsky in 2022); 3) the Kherson State Agrarian University (est 1874 as the Kherson zemstvo agricultural school, 1920 agricultural tekhnikum, 1928 Kherson Agricultural Institute, 1998 Kherson State Agrarian University, evacuated to Kropyvnytsky in 2022); 4) the Kherson State Maritime Academy (est by decree in 1834 as a school for commercial navy, 1920 tekhnikum of water transport, 1944 marine transport school of the Ministry of Marine Fleet of the USSR, 1996 re-organized into the Kherson Maritime College of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, subsequently re-named institute and then academy, has many international partners, including University of Plymouth [UK, 2022]); and 5) the International University of Business and Law (est after 1991, relocated to Mykolaiv in 2022). Moreover, 5 km NE of the city limits is the Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Irrigation Agriculture of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine.

In the 1980s there were 12 secondary vocational schools and tekhnikums, notably vessel-mechanical, machine-building, hydro meteorological, medical, and two in marine vocations. Some of them, like the one for marine and oceanic fishing (est 1932, now the Kherson Marine Professional College of Fishing Industry), were re-named colleges. After the 1991 Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence, 10 small postsecondary institutions or their branches were established: 1) the Kherson Economic-Legal Institute, 2) the Kherson Institute of the Inter-regional Academy of Human Resources Management; 3) the Kherson Judicial Institute of the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, 4) the Kherson branch of the Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, 5) the Kherson branch of the European University, 6) the Kherson branch of the National University of the Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, 7) the Kherson branch of the Odesa Marine Training Center, 8) the Kyiv-based Open International University of the Human Development ‘Ukraine,’ 9) the Kherson branch of Kyiv state courses of foreign languages, and 10) the Kherson branch of the private, Kharkiv-based International Slavic University.

The city’s school system in 2008 had 59 schools and 33,000 pupils, including 4 lyceums: the Academic Lyceum at Kherson State University, the Kherson Lyceum of Journalism, Business and Law, the Kherson Physical-Technical Lyceum, and the Kherson Oblast Lyceum.

Sport was an important aspect of education and socialization (Kherson city youth sports school No. 3 and Kherson Advanced School of Physical Culture). The city was proud of its men’s football club ‘Krystal’ (began in 1921 as Spartak Kherson, debuted in the 1936 Football Championship of the Ukrainian SSR [tier 3], advanced in 1947 to tier 2, admitted to the USSR Class B in 1958, changed names several times [Maiak Kherson, 1961–2, Budivelnyk Kherson, 1963–4, Lokomotyv Kherson 1965–75, Krystal Kherson 1975–92, Tavriia Kherson 1992–4, Vodnyk Kherson 1995, Krystal Kherson 1996–9, SC Kherson 2000–03, Krystal Kerson 2003–6; dissolved in 2006, revived in 2011 to compete in Ukrainian Second League] with its home Krystal Stadium [built in 1962, brought up to FIFA standards, capacity 11,000, seats 3,400); the men’s floor football club ‘Prodeksim’, the women’s handball team ‘Dniprianka’ (multiple bronze title winner in Ukraine), and its new hockey club ‘Dnipro’ (est 2018).

The city had 7 large public libraries, 4 of which were Kherson oblast libraries (the Oles Honchar Scientific Library, the Medical Library, the Youth Library, and the Dniprova Chaika Children’s Library) and 3 large city library branches (the Lesia Ukrainka Central Library, Branch 9 for adults, and the Ivan Bahriany [Branch 23] for youth). Each university also had its own library.

Media in the city in 2010 included 20 newspapers and journals (mostly in Russian), 5 television/radio companies and 18 FM radio stations.

Culture. Kherson had many cultural venues: 1) the Mykola Kulish Oblast Music-Drama Theater (built 1883–9 [design based on the Odesa Opera House, architect V. Dombrowski], destroyed in 1944, re-built in 1962 and named after Mykola Kulish in 1992); 2) the Kherson Oblast Palace of Culture (1906, a cultural heritage community hall which in 1918–20 housed the Ukrainian National Theater); 3) the Kherson Oblast Philharmonic Orchestra (est 1944); 4) the Kherson Oblast Puppet Theater (began in 1971, with its own building since 1986); 5) the Jubilee Movie and Concert Hall (1987) 6) the Kherson Regional Studies Museum (founded in 1890, based on the collection of ancient historical and cultural artifacts of archaeologist Viktor Hoshkevych, with about 145,000 exponents: a collection of coins from the Greek ancient states on the northern Black Sea coast, Scythian gold jewelry, and weapons of the 15th–20th centuries), 7) the Kherson Art Museum (built in 1897 as the municipal council building, became an art, icon, and rare coin gallery in the 1920s, with a grand opening in 1978 [featuring the works by Oleksii Shovkunenko], purloined by the Russian Federation in 2022), and 8) a planetarium.

Among its 316 cultural and historical monuments other than churches are 1) the remnants of the fortress walls and gates (1780s, its walls dismantled in 1835), 2) the naval armory (aka Admiralty Arsenal, 1784), and some civic buildings, like 3) the Kherson Art Museum (built in 1897 as the Kherson city hall), 4) the Kherson Registry Office (built in 1897, in the style of an ancient Greek temple, as the city library), 5) the Kherson Oblast Palace of Culture (1906), 6) the Karabelesh Kherson City Clinical Hospital (1914, Empire style). Contemporary versions of classicism after the Second World War include 7) the Mykola Kulish Theater (1962, architects Oleh Malyshenko and Oleksandra Krylova), 8) the City Hall and 9) the Ukraina movie theater (both 1950s). An iconic example of modernism is 10) the Jubilee Movie and Concert Hall (1970).

Of historical significance is the Ukrainian National Building—a community establishment of the city at the time of the Ukrainian National Republic. Built in the beginning of the 19th century, it briefly housed the gubernia gymnasium [1818–22], but in 1918 served as the Ukrainian National Building, when it accommodated 1) the Kherson branch of the Prosvita society, 2) the Ukrainska Knyharnia publishing house, 3) the Ukrainian National School Committee, 4) the Ukrainian Teachers’ Union, 5) the Student Society, 6) the society of Free Cossacks, 7) the Ukrainian Revolutionary Council, 8) the editorial office of the newspaper Dnipro and other Ukrainian organizations. In this building were prepared and published, for the first time in the Kherson region, the first Bible in the Ukrainian vernacular and Taras Shevchenko’s Kobzar. Presently it houses the Tykha Havan Hotel (corner of Mykhailo Hrushevsky and Soborna streets)

The revival of open religious worship following the 1991 Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence led to the reopening of historic churches or the construction of new houses of worship. In 2018, of the 36 Orthodox churches and chapels, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate held 22. Of the 9 historic ones, it had 7: 1) the Saint Catherine’s Cathedral (replaced the wooden Saint Michael’s Church in the Aleksandr-Shanets fortress, built [1781–6] of local sandstone in Russian empire style [architect I. Starov], consecrated in 1786, upon her visit Catherine II gifted the cathedral and gave it an alternate name, the Savior Cathedral [1787], curated by and then contained the crypt of Prince Grigorii Potemkin [1791] and a pantheon of officers from the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–91, the Bolsheviks took precious items [1922], closed [1930] and turned it into Museum of Atheism, the Germans re-opened it to the faithful [1941], but the Soviets closed it [1962] and converted it for log storage, the Ukrainian state returned it to the faithful in 1991); 2) the Dormition of the Mother of God Cathedral (built in 1798, on the initiative of Kherson merchants, in neoclassical style, closed and converted into a gym [1931], reopened under German occupation [1941], converted to gym [1945], returned to faithful [1991] with renovations [2001–6]), 3) the Holy Spirit Cathedral (built 1810–36 of brick in classical style [architect I. Yaroslavsky] funded by the Kherson merchants, Bolsheviks requisitioned precious items [1922], imposed control by revisionists [1926], then closed [1937] and converted to flour storage, Germans re-opened it for religious service [1941], Soviets returned it to the faithful [1944], gained status of cathedral [1947]); 4) the Saint Nicholas Church (initially wooden, built [1819] in the Zabalka suburb near a navy hospital, replaced [1840–42] with a masonry church in classical style, funded by the college assessor Yakiv Doroshenko, expanded [1904] with additions on two sides, Bolsheviks requisitioned precious items [1922] and bells [1929], closed [1932] and converted it into a granary and repair shop, Germans re-opened [1942] it, where two priests, Tymofii Zakrytsky and Mykola Nikolaichenko, conducted religious-patriotic work, after German retreat they called for the support of the Red Army and were allowed restoration of the church [1949–54] and its uninterrupted operation, it regained status of the navy church [2007], has 3 Sunday schools), 5) the Greek Sophia Church (officially, the Holy Birth of the Mother of God Church, the oldest in the city, built in 1778 [the year Kherson was founded] by 3 Greek refugee priests as a wood frame and clay finish basilica, re-built [1780] in masonry, all prayers were in Greek, the Bolsheviks did not pillage or close this house of worship for geopolitical reasons, so its contents were saved), 6) the All Saints Church (built [1792] as a chapel on the Old City Cemetery, re-built [1804-8] as masonry church in classical style, Bolsheviks requisitioned all precious items [1922] and bells [1929], and closed [1932], its priests arrested, tried and shot [1932, 1937], returned to faithful [1991], refurnished and with a Sunday school), and 7) the Birth of the Most Holy Mother of God ‘Nunnery’ (established in 1792, had school for women, functioned until 1930, closed and converted into a gym and shop of School No. 34, later a sports club, returned to church in 2000).

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (formerly, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church) had 14, including two historic ones; 1) the Meeting of Our Lord Cathedral (built 1889 in neoclassical style, with school for unprivileged [1893], Bolsheviks closed school [1918], pillaged [1922] and closed [1930] the cathedral, destroyed the dome and bell tower [1938], converting the rest into a warehouse, re-opened for worship [1941], was to be closed [1962], but worshipers prevailed to keep it open, introduced religious studies for adults [1989] and children [1992], and modern Russian language in liturgy [1994, thus making it most popular in Kherson], rebuilt the dome and belfry [1995], but with disapproval of language change by UOC-MP, switched to UOC-KP [1997], then became Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Kerson [2018]); 2) the Holy Martyr Oleksandra Church (built 1898–1902 in eclectic style [architect Casimir Quinto] for the women’s gymnasium, in 1921 of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church, then closed [1930] and part of the Kherson Pedagogical Institute, housing a workshop, returned [1992] to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church, re-registered [1997] as part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate, with liturgy in the Ukrainian language).

The faithful of Ukrainian Catholic church attained the priest Isydore (Honchar) of the Basilian monastic order in 1993, secured 1.3 ha at an abandoned airfield (1998), used portables and then built (2009–15) their Saint Volodymyr the Great Monastery and the adjacent Saints Cyril and Methodius Church.

The Roman Catholics recovered their historic Sacred Heart Church (originally wooden, built in 1787 by the Jesuit Elizum Shatz, its tower added [1792], replaced by a masonry church [1820, rebuilt 1840], also used by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church [1918], closed by the Soviets in 1931 and converted to a workshop and movie theater, returned to the faithful in 1994, then reconstructed, with bell and cross installed on the tower).

There were also newly-established Golgotha Baptist Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church (in the Zabalka neighborhood) and 2 Evangelist Orthodox Churches (in the villages of Kyselivka and Oleksandrivka).

Of the 26 synagogues that existed in Kherson in the beginning of the 20th century, most, including the Great Choral Synagogue of Kherson, were converted to other uses or demolished; only the Habad Synagogue (built 1895, torched during Nazi German occupation, restored as residence for workers of the Petrovsky plant [1952], returned to the Jewish community [1990], repaired [1999] and restored [2003–5]) serves as a Jewish Community House. A Mosque was planned to be built in 2018.

Of monuments and memorials, most were erected in the Soviet period. Only two were from the Imperial Russia period: 1) to Prince Grigorii Potemkin (unveiled in 1836, concealed with a tarpaulin by the Bolsheviks after the Revolution of 1917, removed to the Kherson History and Archeology Museum in 1927, re-mounted with some adaptations on the occasion of 225th anniversary of the founding of the city in 2003, and 2) to Dr. John Howard (English physician and reformist [who came to Kherson in 1789, helped to overcome the typhus epidemic by treating the sick at his own expense, but himself became infected and died in January 1790], 1820). Monuments built in the Soviet period include the Communist Party leaders: Vladimir Lenin (3), Joseph Stalin (2), Lenin and Stalin, Stalin and Maxim Gorky, Grigorii Ordzhonikidze and Feliks Dzerzhinsky; for 2 military leaders of the imperial period: 1) General Aleksandr Suvorov (1950) and 2) Admiral Fedor Ushakov (1957); to the first warship ‘Glory of Catherine’ built in Kherson (1972), to the First Komsomol obelisk complex (1959), at least 10 to the heroes of the ‘Great Patriotic War’ (1950s–70s), the memorial complex ‘Alley of Glory’ (1989) and to the Bard of Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko (1971). After 1991, monuments were added to the Victims of Totalitarianism (1992), the 50th anniversary of the victory in the Second World War (1995), the grieving mother in honor of soldiers-internationalists (1999), to victims of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster (2001), the ‘Pectoral’ (symbolizing the Slavic goddess Lada, 2005), the ‘Mother of God’ sculpture on the site of a destroyed church (2009), a memorial to the Heavenly Hundred of the Euromaidan Revolution (2014) and to the Kherson Heroes-Patriots defending Ukraine in 2014 (nd), but also to Vsevolod Zabotin, director of Kherson Shipbuilding Complex, 1961–86 (2009) and to General V. Margelov (2010) who liberated Kherson from the Nazis. During de-Stalinization, the monuments with Stalin were removed in the 1950s; during de-Sovietization, the monuments to Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, and Ordzhonikidze were removed in 2015.

Kherson’s parks include: 1) the Kherson Fortress Park, 2) the Taras Shevchenko Park, 3) the Park of Glory, 4) the Dnipro River Park, 5) the Shumen Park, 6) botanical garden of the Kherson State University (nature preserve since 1972), 7) dendrological park of the Institute of Irrigation Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (est. 1965), 8) dendrological park of the Kherson State Agrarian University (est. 1950), 9) hydropark with a beach and its Malyi Vilkhovyi Island with a small zoo.

City plan. Kherson occupies an irregular triangle, with its SSE base (16 km along the Dnipro River from the Antonivka Bridge in the E to include Ostriv, the eastern part of Karantynnyi Island, and Verevchyna River in the W) and its apex (7.5 km from the base to the village of Stepanivka just NNW of the city), an area of 76 sq km.

The Kherson city council or Greater Kherson includes the city plus 4 towns and rural areas to the west and north. In 2005, it occupied 314 sq km, when its base extended 20 km along the SE bank of the Dnipro River from Prydniprovske in the E to Ostriv and Verevchyna River in the W and then W along the Koshova River to Lake Bile. Its western limit at Lake Bile excludes the town of Bilozerka, but reaches 10 km NNW to Highway M 15 or E 58, then 12 km back towards the city, excluding the large village of Chornobaivka and then, including Stepanivka, its western border extends 20 km N of the city to the border with Mykolaiv oblast. Its eastern border extends 10 km N from the Dnipro River to the W bank of the Inhulets River and Highway M 15 or E 58 then along the railway line 14 km N to the border with Mykolaiv oblast. In 2020 the area was enlarged to include the floodplains on the south shore of the Dnipro with its cottages (its S border along the Kinka distributary) and the islands of Kruhlyk, Velykyi Vilkhovyi and Karantynnyi. This, plus the remaining strip along the west bank of the Inhulets River, added 123 sq km for a total of 437 sq km.

Greater Kherson’s total population in 2020 was 324,602. It included the city of Kherson (286,958), the towns of Antonivka (on its E side, 12,752), Komyshany (on its W side, 6,828, with the Kherson International Airport N of that town), Naddniprianske (8 km to the NE of the city, 1,070) and Zelenivka (on the NNE side of the city, 5,757), and the villages: on the W side, Pryozerne and Zymivnyk (until 2015, Kuibysheve), on the N side, Stepanivka and on the E side, from S to N, Prydniprovske, Sadove, Inzhenerne (until 2015, Zhovtneve), Molodizhne, Soniachne, Bohdanivka, and Petrivka with a total rural population of 11,237.

Historically, Kherson was laid out in 3 grids using the Dnipro River and the Koshova Distributary as base lines. At the end of the 19th century, it consisted of two parts: eastern (administrative-military) and western (commercial-institutional). The central NNW-SSE arterial called Postal (or Howard) Street divided the two: to the west was the commercial-institutional part of the city; to the east was the fort (with its governor-general’s palace, the admiralty and fortification walls before they were dismantled) and a military suburb east of it. Leading from the Dnipro River inland, Postal Street reached the city limits at 2.3 km (marked by a gate and the city cemetery on its E side), thence continuing as the road to Mykolaiv. The built-up area by 1897 (mostly residential) occupied 11.8 sq km.

Present-day Kherson is almost 7 times larger by area, having expanded east, north, west, and onto the Karantynnyi Island. The city is divided into 3 administrative sections (urban raions, established in 1965, two of which were re-named in 2023 to complete de-Communization/de-Russification of the city). Distinguished, in part, by the alignment of their street grids (the orientation of arterials perpendicular to the river base is shown), they are, from E to W, Dniprovskyi (NW-SE), Tsentralnyi (NNW-SSE, formerly Suvorovskyi), and Korabelnyi (NNE-SSW, formerly Komsomolskyi). Of the city’s area (76 sq km), about 85 percent is built up and 15 percent open fields, parks, and water courses. Of the built up area, about 30 percent is industrial and 10 percent institutional, with 60 percent residential (mostly individual homes, but some old downtown and seven newer outlying areas with multi-story apartment buildings).

From the city, single-track non-electrified rail lines lead in 3 directions: 1) WNW to Mykolaiv (completed in 1907), 2) NNE to the Snihurivka node (1911, with links to Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhia, and through the Kakhovka local railway node to points east), and 3) E across the Dnipro River at Prydniprovske (1954) to the Crimea. Within Kherson they merge to form a single E-W corridor (with up to 24 tracks and the Kherson passenger station) opened in 1907, then in the N outskirts, now the geographic center of the city.

Railways serve most industries in the city: in the NW the Kherson Oil Refinery; along the multi-track corridor, from W to E (S side), the Kherson furniture factory, the Kherson freight terminal, the Kherson main passenger station, and the Petrovsky Machine-building Plant. A western spur bypasses the old city S to its port facilities, past the Kherson oil depot, and divides at the Koshova Distributary into 3 branches: 1) E up the Koshova Distributary to the Kherson Port passenger station (opened 1907) and the Kherson River Port, then past the Kherson Passenger Port onto the Kherson Marine Commercial Port on the Dnipro River and finally E along the Dnipro River to the Kherson Grain Elevator Port; 2) S across the Koshova onto the island to serve the shipbuilding enterprises; and 3) W down the Koshova towards Verevchyna River mouth to service plants in the Dniprovskyi Tekhnopark. East of the multi-track corridor, a former spur S served the Kherson Cotton Combine (now in ruins) and an active short spur S to the Kherson Thermal Electric Power Station; farther east are two spurs: 1) a long spur S, along the E side of the newer built-up part of the city, to the Dnipro barge terminal with warehouses, a cannery, a rubber products plant and a building supplies depot, and 2) a short spur on the S side leading to the Kherson bakery.

Arterials from the city’s center lead to connect to highways both E and W. From Kherson’s central Independence Avenue (originally Postal, then Ushakov), two main routes lead out: 1) W via the Hetman Passage (formerly Puhachov Passage) to NNW as the Mykolaiv Highway, aka M14 or E58, and 2) ENE from the northern end of Independence Avenue at the Kherson Passenger Station via the Beryslav Highway (aka M14 or P47), with a clover leaf exit to E97. On the W side of the city center, Stritenska Street (formerly Rosa Luxemburg Street) leads from its intersection with the Mykolaiv Highway at Victory Square WSW, then along Poltava Street W to Bilozerka and beyond (as local highway T1501). From the old city center Perekop Street leads NE and then E to Antonivka and the Antonivka Bridge (now destroyed, part of Highway E97 to the Crimea). To avoid urban traffic congestion, an east-west bypass was built north of the city, which is part of Highway E58 and M14; at its E end it leads into and becomes E97.

The old city has some of its pre-First World War buildings preserved or restored. Within 2.5 km of the Dnipro River, it includes (from east to west) the south-western eighth (the Viiskove neighborhood) of the Dniprovskyi raion, the southern third of the Tsentralnyi raion (south of the railway station, along Independence Avenue), and the eastern quarter of the Korabelnyi raion.

The western part of the old city spans the border of Korabelnyi raion and Tsentralnyi raion. Its southern point is where the Koshova Distributary branches off from the Dnipro River, marked by the Kherson Passenger Port, an off-shore entry point to the city. Presently, the passenger port has 4 piers, a berth and a hotel, and access (over the tracks) to Odesa Square. From the square, Ratushna (formerly Kommunarov) Street, leads NNW into the heart of the old city. Presently, it serves as a border between Korabelnyi raion (W side) and Tsentralnyi raion (E side). On the W side, up the Ratushna Street, the next street inland, backing the Kherson River Port, is Mykhailivska (Petrenko in the Soviet period) Street. It leads WNW to the limits of the old city at a gully beyond which is the old suburb, Zabalka. On the next street inland, Bohorodytska (Krasnoflotskaia, of the Soviet period) Street leads out of the predominantly old residential westward, past the Kherson Marine Professional College of Fishing Industry (N side) to a large traffic circle in Zabalka.

Up the Ratushna Street, lined with old 3-storey residential buildings, there are significant landmarks on both sides. On its E side are: 1) the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God ‘Nunnery’ on the S side of Bohorodytska Street), 2) the Kherson Regional Studies Museum (between Viktor Hoshkevych and Soborna streets), 3) the former city hall, now the Kherson Art Museum (on the NE corner of Soborna Street), and next to it, 4) the Gagarin Planetarium (former synagogue). Farther NNW, on its W side 4) the Sacred Heart Church (on N side of Katolytska Street), on E side 5) the former city library, now the Registry Office (E side of Torhova Street facing Staroobryadnytska Street, in a park setting), on W side 6) the Khabad Synagogue (on S side of Teatralna Street) and 7) the Holy Spirit Cathedral (at the W terminus of and facing Preobrazhenska Street). Beyond this point, Ratushna becomes Robocha Street and continues 0.6 km to a ravine, which it crosses to the NW, out of the old city (marked by Forstadt Street) into the northern part of Zabalka.

In the old Zabalka and the Sukharne suburb west of it, their distinct street grid pattern with mostly individual homes and some landmarks remain. In the midst of Zabalka stands the Saint Nicholas Naval Cathedral (1842) with the Zabalka market next to it; 0.6 km west of the cathedral, beyond another ravine, is the large Zabalka Cemetery and 0.2 km W of it, in the Sukharne suburb on the W side of Stritenska Street, is the Meeting of Our Lord Cathedral (1889). At Zabalka’s northern periphery, a semiconductor factory complex replaced the old Black Sea Hospital (built 1803–10, architect A. Zakharov). West of the semiconductor factory along Robocha Street (Sukharne suburb) the former vacant areas now have high rise apartments. South of the apartments, on the E side of Stritenska Street, is the campus of Kherson State Agrarian University (perimeter 1.45 km) with its dendrological park (2.4 ha, est. 1950). The SE corner of Zabalka has a large modern traffic circle (the Korabelna Square) where streets from the east, Bohorodytska and Teatralna meet with Kuznetska (NE), Kachelna (NW), Chaikovskoho (WSW) and connect to Ostriv Highway, south across the Kosheva River to Ostriv.

The current city center with its main institutions is found in the southern third of the Tsentralnyi raion. Centered on the Independence Avenue, it extends from Ratushna Street in the west to include the Kherson Fortress Park in the east. This area may be considered as consisting of three parts, from west to east.

Part 1: Between Ratushna Street and the Independence Avenue corridor, N of the Marine Commercial Port, are old churches, institutional buildings, theaters, commercial entities, and hotels. In the SW corner is the Hotel Kherson. Proceeding north along Hrushevsky Street is the Greek Sophia Church; 1 block N, on Hoshkevych Street, is the Kherson Hydrometeorological Tekhnikum of the Odesa State Ecological University; W of Hrushevsky Street is the Dormition of the Mother of God Cathedral; on the SW corner of Soborna Street, the former Ukrainian National Building, now the Tykha Havan Hotel; the newly-built Trade Center is on W side of Hrushevsky Street at Yevropeiska Street (N side) and the State Finance Office of Kherson Oblast (in a heritage building) is 2 streets W, on S side of Staroobriadnytska Street; between Staroobriadnytska and Teatralna streets, Hrushevsky Street is displaced west by the Hrushevsky Square (formerly Potemkin Square [with its Grigorii Potemkin monument until its removal by Russians in 2022]) and with the Mykola Kulish Oblast Academic Music and Drama Theater on its W side; N of the theater, across Teatralna Street, is the Oblast Commercial Court, and 2 blocks W, the Kherson Oblast Philharmonic Orchestra Hall. Four blocks north of Teatralna Street is the Central Farmers Market with a hotel on its SE corner and the pectoral sculpture in front of its E entrance; on the E side, a park-like boulevard, adorned with sculptures, leads to a movie theater; on the market’s N side (N side of the Prymachenko Street) is a bus depot; on NE corner across from the market, a police station; east of it, on Prymachenko Street, the City Courthouse, and N of it, on S side of Hirsky Street, the Diligence Hotel. North of Hirsky Street is the Elektromash factory, and on the N of Red Cross Street, the Kherson Oblast Hospital. Facing the hospital campus is the Lesia Ukrainka Central Library. From here, blocks of post-Second World War apartment buildings and schools extend N beyond the intersection with the Hetman Passage (E side) and Mykolaiv Highway (W side) to the railway corridor fronted by Zaliznychna Street lined with shops.

Part 2: The central corridor. Independence Avenue served as a divide, where the E-W streets on its W side were given one name and on its E side another, a practice retained till the present. Extending from Odesa Square (re-named October Square in the Soviet period) on the Dnipro riverside to the north, the avenue was truncated at 3.4 km by the construction of the Kherson railway station in 1907. The Independence Avenue corridor contains the most important administrative offices, some institutions, shops and parks in the city. Proceeding north from the Dnipro River, the square at the river is adorned with a fountain. West of it is the commercial port and NW of it, the polygraph plant. East of the square is a small park with a chapel, and on the riverbank promenade stands a monument to the first sailing ship launched there. North of the park is the Frigate Hotel, N of the hotel, across Port Street, the Kherson Branch of the Sea Port Administration of Ukraine, and N of it, a small park fronting the city’s psycho-neurological clinic. Beyond the next block, (E side) is Taras Shevchenko Park (formerly, Lenin Park, which was the city’s main park in 1892) with a children’s theater, playgrounds, tennis courts, a chapel-monument to emergency workers killed in service and a plaque to soldiers killed in the Anti-Terrorist Operation of 2014. Facing the park, from the S side of Lutheran Street among other apartments, is the new, small Petro Mohyla Church (of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine) and E of it, in a beautiful heritage building, Music School No. 1. On the W side on the avenue, from Yevropeiska Street, on its N side, are: Gymnasium No. 16, then a polyclinic; then across Staroobriadnytska Street, the 3rd building of Kherson State Maritime Academy and W of it, the Kherson perinatal center. Overlooking the park from the N side, from the corner of Independence Avenue, is the 2nd building of the Kherson State Maritime Academy, the Holy Martyr Alexandra Church (1902), the old Kherson State University building (former gymnasium), the National Bank of Ukraine in Kherson Oblast (former Military Hospital), and the Oblast Palace of Culture (1906) with the ‘Spartak’ Stadium behind it. On the W side of Independence Avenue, at the corner of Teatralna Street, is the Kherson Seamen’s Club and N of it, beyond a mix of commercial buildings, between Preobrazhenska and Yaroslav the Wise streets, is the City Hall and the Kherson Oblast Archives, then the larger Kherson School of Music No. 2 and the Main Post Office. On the E side of Independence Avenue, facing City Hall is Building 1 of the Kherson State Maritime Academy, N of it the Karabelesh Kherson City Clinical Hospital (1914), and N of it a 4-story apartment block with a kindergarten and high school behind it. North of this apartment block is Freedom Square with a monument to the Heavenly Hundred of the Euromaidan Revolution (formerly Lenin Square with the monument of Vladimir Lenin), which contains the Kherson Oblast Administration building and behind it, the Kherson Oblast Appellate Court. North of this along the way to the railway stations are a department store, the Elektromash Factory, the Kherson Oblast Hospital (W side), more multi-story apartment blocks with schools and the monument to John Howard (E side) and behind it, by way of Memorial Lane leading to the Old City Cemetery with the All Saints Church at its entrance; then more multi-story apartment blocks, schools, including the Kherson Cooperative Economic and Legal College; behind them, extending to the E, is the Petrovsky Machine-building Plant. At the Kherson railway station (W side) is the Angelina Hotel and nearby (E side) a market.

Part 3: The Kherson Fortress area. North of the Kherson Grain Terminal (designed by Albert Kahn Associates [Detroit]), built 1930–32, on the site of former warship launches 150 years ago), beyond an old residential area with the Kherson Bakery is the city’s sports complex featuring the Krystal Stadium (with a second football field on its E side) and, to its W, the Kherson Higher School of Physical Culture with its gym and velodrome; in the NW corner of this complex is the former governor-general’s residence (built in 1866, in neoclassical style), now a youth palace. North of the sports complex are the remains of the Kherson Fortress. They comprise the preserved two gates to the fortress, Saint Catherine’s Cathedral and the Armory (Arsenal). Other structures NE of the cathedral were dismantled. They included the administration palace (built in the 1780s for the governor-general of the New Russia gubernia and founder of the city, Grigorii Potemkin, later used as a school for military medics and in 1911 as officers’ club). After the Second World War, other structures replaced them: two transmission towers and two radio-TV studios. On the remaining open space on the N side of Perekop Street, the Lenin Komsomol Park was created, re-named Kherson Fortress Park after 1991. Bordering the park stands the Jubilee Theater, next to the fort’s southeastern Ochakiv Gate, then Saint Catherine’s Cathedral and then the transmitter tower and radio-TV studios. Facing the cathedral is an Evangelist youth center; E of it, the Armory (Arsenal), most of it used as the Kherson jail (correctional prison colony No. 61), and S of it, the Seafaring Institute of post-diploma studies. In the NW part of the park, the fort’s moat was made into Swan Lake. In the NE the Moscow (originally called Peterburg) Gate was preserved and S of it, the powder keep was reconstructed. East of the park’s center (and NE of the transmission towers) stands an obelisk monument to the first members of the Communist Youth (1959). It is accessed by a concourse from Perekop Street, adorned with fountains, where later a monument to the victims of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster was installed (2001). East of this concourse in the park is a playground for children with a Ferris wheel, E of it, an ice rink, and beyond it is the Kherson oblast office of the National Council of Ukraine for TV and Radio Broadcasting. Across Perekop Street the concourse from the Fortress Park continues S to the Dnipro River through the Park of Glory. At the entrance to the latter is tank T-34 and a monument to the ‘Soldiers Internationalists’, farther down, a monument to the ‘Grieving Mother’, and near the riverbank, a memorial complex to the liberators: a square with eternal flame, plaques with a tall column topped by a girl with a wreath, symbolizing the glory of liberation. Later, on W side, a small memorial was added to the Kherson patriots killed in the 2014 Russian incursion. From there a set of stairways descend to the Dnipro fishing quay. East of the ‘Park of Glory’ square (at the easternmost part of Tsentralnyi raion) is the Oles Honchar Kherson Oblast Universal Scientific Library. North of the Kherson Fortress Park the area, formerly known as Mlyny (for their windmills) is mostly residential; 4 story apartments occupy the first two rows of blocks, the easternmost of which is the 4th building of the Kherson State Maritime Academy. East of it is the University Square and N of it, Kherson State University, E of it the Shumsky Park, and S of it is the Kherson Oblast Puppet Theater. Two blocks N of the Kherson State University is the Kherson Oblast Children’s Hospital. To the west, bordering on the Old Cemetery near the Independence Avenue corridor, there is a newer multi-story apartment neighborhood with a kindergarten and a children’s clinic. North of it and on the north side of the Illiia Kulyk Street, is the huge (3.7 km perimeter) Petrovsky machine-building plant. East of it (N side) is Bakery No. 3, and (S side) the campus of the Taras Shevchenko Gymnasium (Kherson Oblast Council).

Beyond the old city center points of interest are described outward by segments in counter-clockwise fashion. Dniprovskyi raion is covered in 2 segments.

Segment 1: Along Perekop Street, ENE: first through the old former Military suburb, along 1.7 km, with some shops, the Greenstone Hotel and behind them mostly individual houses, with a school, city archives, and city vocational guidance center on Tserkovna Street. Farther ENE is the Prydniprivka apartment block residential district. Along 1.4 km of Perekop Street (N side) are 4 blocks of apartment neighborhoods, divided by a park with a Taras Shevchenko monument; similar apartment neighborhoods with schools extend NNW 1.76 km to the Beryslav Highway; in the center of this residential area is the Dnipro Market, on the NE side of it, the Start Stadium and E of it, the Luchansky Medical Center. On S side of Perekop Street is Dniprovskyi Park with its Youth and Student Palace facing the promenade park to the NNW, and E of the park, across Peace Street, is the Kherson Creamery and the Kherson Basic Medical College; behind the park, to the Dnipro riverbank, are individual homes and NE of them, accessed by Peace Street, is the monument to the Danube Flotilla (armored cutter, 1979), a small beach, and the Panorama Hotel-Restaurant complex. East of Prydniprivka, beyond the treed Zalaeherseh Boulevard (N side), are a number of industries and residential areas: multi-story apartments with a school, beyond which to the NW is the trolleybus depot and then the ruins of the Kherson Cotton Textile Manufacturing Complex. On the S side of Perekop Street is the Dnipro barge terminal with warehouses, a cannery, a rubber products plant and a building supplies depot. Beyond the railway spur and former city limits (2006), Perekop Street becomes Viacheslav Chornovil (formerly Kindiika [2006]) Highway as it traverses the suburb of Kindiika, with a cluster (S side) consisting of several high-rise apartment buildings, the Kherson Oblast Oncology Dispensary, several schools and a soccer pitch. Beyond this cluster and a traffic circle, the arterial continues past residential neighborhoods with a school, passes under the Antonivka Bridge, past the current city limits and becomes the main street of the town of Antonivka, with its town hall, school and Dnipro Stadium; then, the road passes on N side of Prydniprovske and its railway bridge across the Dnipro River (now destroyed) where it crosses the former eastern limits of Dniprovskyi raion and Greater Kherson, to the village of Sadove at the confluence of the Inhulets River and the Dnipro.

Segment 2: Along Beryslav Highway (P47), parallel to and on the SE side of the railway corridor, E of Petrovsky factory and proceeding NE from Chornomorska Street in the Dniprovskyi raion. On the NW side of the highway, abutting the railway corridor, are many services and stores; on the SE side, newer residential neighborhoods of high-rise apartments and schools, the Kherson National Technical University, then (S side) the Fabrika Mall (on the site of the northernmost part of the former cotton textile plant), the Kherson Thermal Electric Power Station, the Ahroprodukt Kherson grain and oilseed mill, a vehicle service center and farm machinery dealership. Across and NW of the railway tracks is the extensive Tekstylne single house neighborhood with its stores, post office, stadium (neglected), school with its football field, and an Evangelist church. Beyond this, the city extends as a narrow strip along the N side of the highway for 1 km to include a variety of wholesale outlets and, at Kherson East commuter railway station, the Danone yogurt plant. From the city limits (but within the council) to the NE are the village of Inzhenerne (1.5 km, SE side, surrounded by irrigated field crops), the bypass (M14, E97) cloverleaf (4.2 km), and the town of Naddniprianske (5.3 km, NW side of P47), comprising the research campus of the Institute of Irrigation Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, with its dendrological park and test-plots to the north. West of it (1km), N side of the bypass highway (M14) is the village of Molodizhne, surrounded by vineyards, and 2.5 km SW of it, S side of the bypass highway (M14), is the town of Zelenivka, with irrigated grain fields to its N and S.

The northern part of Tsentralnyi raion extends 3 km NE and 3.8 NNW from the central railway corridor to the city limits. It has mostly residential districts with schools, institutions and commercial and industrial uses, parks and a large vacant area in the east, bordering on Tekstylne in the Dniprovskyi raion. From the south, on the N side of the railway corridor is a belt of warehouses and services on both sides of the parallel Parovozna Street. North of it is its main ENE-WSW thoroughfare, the National Guard of Ukraine (formerly, Zhdanov) Avenue. It connects to the Mykolaiv Highway in the west; in the east, it turns south and across the railway tracks, to the Beryslav Highway. On the N side of it are predominantly residential neighborhoods. They are described in 3 segments (3, 4, and 5).

Segment 3: The largest area of multi-story residential buildings is located north of the eastern half of the National Guard of Ukraine Boulevard and borders on an open area to the east. It consists of 5 large blocks, called the Tavriiskyi neighborhood, with a market, schools, two clinics, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Church (Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, opened in 2001), and Tavriiskyi Park (on its E side). The vacant area to the E and N, twice the size of the Tavriiiskyi neighborhoods, was in part an abandoned airfield. On its W periphery is the campus of the Ukrainian Catholic Saint Volodymyr the Great Monastery with the Saints Cyril and Methodius Church (built 2009–15), and 660 m NNW of it, the heat plant for the Tavriiskyi neighborhood. The northern quarter of the open space is covered with an array of solar panels comprising the Kherson solar electric power plant; in front of it is a monument to victims of the Holocaust; behind it, the northernmost point of the city limits, is the Kherson waste recycling center, a power plant, and the site of Nazi execution of their victims near the road to Zelenivka.

Segment 4: West of the Tavriiskyi neighborhood, single homes prevail. There are, however, 2 exceptions. 1) A belt of blocks extending SSE-NNW on the W side of the neighborhood, between Kashtanova and Vyshneva Streets. They contain, beginning at the National Guard of Ukraine Avenue, the Forty Sebastian Martyrs Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine) and the Kherson oblast traffic police building, then going north, a fire station, commercial establishments, a polyclinic, Ministry of Internal Affairs office for Kherson oblast, a mix of commercial and multi-story apartments, the ‘Living Spring’ Church of the Fifth Day Evangelists, a school with a stadium, a polyclinic, the Kherson Tavriia Lyceum of Arts, then 3 blocks of high rise apartments with services, like kindergartens, ending with a commercial block at Rocket Street. 2) A belt of blocks ENE-WSW along both sides of the Bicentennial of Kherson Avenue, which serves as a collector at the traffic circle in the middle of Tavriiskyi neighborhood and leads west to the Mykolaiv Highway. At the northern end of this segment are two grain processing and storage plants, and to the west, the Northern Corrective Colony.

Segment 5: The western frame of this section is defined by the NE side of the Mykolaiv Highway with a belt 2 blocks wide of mixed residential apartments, commercial and institutional uses. These include (S to N) the offices of State Social Insurance, the Kherson High School of Commerce, the former daily Naddniprians’ka pravda and 3 hospital campuses: the Railway Hospital, the Oblast Infectious Diseases Hospital, and the Oblast Tuberculosis Dispensary. In a wedge between Mykolaiv Highway and the Colonel Kedrovsky Street (from S to N) the Kherson bus depot, the Dubky Park with the Saint Volodymyr Church (Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate), the Leo Gym and the Golgotha Baptist Church. North of it is Anserglob polystyrene foam manufacturing plant (opened 2016). From the Mykolaiv Highway a road forks N, past the Kherson transformer station (E side), through the village of Stepanivka (where it crosses the Verevchyna River), then across the Kherson bypass and out of the Kherson Council area, passing the villages of Vysuntsi and Muzykivka (E side) to Mykolaiv oblast.

Korabelnyi raion beyond the old city is described in 4 segments (6, 7, 8 and 9).

Segment 6: to the airport. The NE border of the Korabelnyi raion is defined by the Mykolaiv Highway. In the wedge between the Mykolaiv Highway and the railway line to Mykolaiv, going NNW from the point where the highway passes under the railway, the uses are: an agricultural warehouse, the botanical garden of Kherson State University (14 ha), the Kherson post office warehouse, and an office building with the Solar Lab office. At the railway bridge over the highway to the N, the highway leaves Kherson and enters the village Chornobaivka in the Bilozerskyi (rural) raion. At the W end of Chornobaivka, route T2215 goes SSW 2.8 km to the Kherson International Airport Terminal; on the NW side of the airport and its runway was the military helicopter airport of the 11th Aviation Regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; presently, because of war and the nearby front, both are non-functional.

Segment 7: to the Petroleum Workers Settlement. From the Victory traffic circle intersection, the Mykolaiv Highway turns N under 2 railway bridges, the Naftovykiv Street goes NNW under its 2 railway bridges, and Stritenska Street goes WSW. West of the traffic circle, on WSW side of Naftovykiv Street and close to the railway tracks is the Kherson furniture factory. Beyond the tracks, in the Petroleum Workers Settlement, are (on SSW side) the Kherson Biological Factory (farm animal medications) and (NNE side) building materials suppliers. Farther WNW, delimited by the railway track to the N, the Verevchyna River in the W and on the NNE side of Naftovykiv Street is the Kherson Petroleum Refinery (perimeter 7 km, area 2.5 sq km), fronted by housing and shops; on SSW side of Naftovykiv Street, the Petroleum Workers Palace of Culture, School No. 8, Buzkovyi Park, New Line Hypermarket, and a tanker truck depot with repair shops; SSW of this are 8 blocks of individual housing. Beyond the Verevchyna River and the city limits, along Naftovykiv Street (N side) are auto storage garages, beyond them, a sand pit, and farther W, the Geologists Cemetery; on S side, the Kherson greenhouse, its field of solar panels, the village of Zymivnyk.

Segment 8: South of the Petroleum Workers Settlement is the Shumenskyi residential district. Defined by the southern rail spur (E side) and the Verevchyna River (W side) it is served by 3 thoroughfares connecting Naftovykiv Street in the north to Poltavska Street in the south. Shumenskyi has apartment blocks on its NW and W sides and center, with individual houses on its E and SE sides. In the center of Shumenskyi are 4 schools with sports fields, Christ the Savior Church, a market, a library and a post office. The Shumenskyi Park occupies a block in its NW corner, facing the Verevchyna River. South of Poltavs’ka Street is the Kherson Scientific Liceum with its sports field and park (nature preserve since 1975); south of it, towards the Kosheva Distributary, is the industrial Dniprovsky Tekhnopark. From Shumenskyi residential district, Poltavska Street, as highway T1501, leads W across the Verevchyna River out of the city limits of Kherson (Korabelnyi raion) through the S end of Zymivnyk (as Mostova Street), the Komyshany Cemetery, the northern half of Komyshany, and the N side of Pryozerne, all within the Kherson Council. The highway exits the Kherson Council as it crosses into the town of Bilozerka (2021 pop. 9,364, the former administrative center of former Bilozerka raion, but since 2020 part of Kherson raion). South of Bilozerka a road leads to the settlement of Romashkove with its vineyards, Dniprovske and Yantarne with their sturgeon hatchery, and west through Veletenske and Kizomys at the mouth of the Dnipro River. The highway through Bilozerka continues west past Tomyna Balka and Novodmytrivka, to the coastal settlements of Sofiivka, Shyroka Balka, Stanislav and Oleksandrivka, with several local coastal nature preserves: the Botanical Preserve ‘Sofiivskyi’, the Stanislav Landscape Preserve, and Oleksandrivka Landscape Preserve.

Segment 9: From the traffic circle in SE Zabalka the Ostriv Highway crosses the Koshova Distributary onto the Island (Ostriv). Only the eastern part of the Island is in the city. The western part, Quarantine Island, is separated by narrow channels and the Pohorile Pershe Lake, and is prone to flooding. Of the Ostriv area (in percent) most (55) is industrial, then (30) residential, (10) natural parkland and (5) parks. The Kherson Shipbuilding Complex with its 2 dry docks is centered on its SE shore of the Dnipro channel, with other shipbuilding and repair enterprises to its north or SW. Two multi-story apartment neighborhoods, Korabel 1 and 2, are across the Ostriv Highway to the WNW, with 2 schools (one with a stadium, another with a sports field), a clinic, shopping facilities, a hotel and 2 churches: the Holy Protectress Church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Kasperiv Icon of the Mother of God Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. North of it, along the Kosheva River, is a park and natural open spaces, and west of it, across railway tracks connecting to industries, are car storage garages, and on the shore of Pohorile Pershe Lake, a marina for boaters and a yacht club. Farther SW, along the Ostriv Highway are (SE side) shipbuilding industries and (NW side) the Kherson Professional Shipbuilding Lyceum and farther SW, a sports school backing onto Lake Midne. The Ostriv Highway ends at the traffic circle, with the riverside Marine Infantry Street servicing residential individual housing. The larger western area (Fifth Settlement), with side streets, also has some luxury homes, shops and the Saint Michael’s Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine). At its western end is the Kherson petroleum shipment terminal, accessed by Naftohavan Street. South of the traffic circle is the Hydropark. From the shore of that park a pedestrian bridge connects it south to the Malyi Vilkhovyi Island for access to its beaches, alder groves, and a small zoo.

South of the Dnipro River on the riverbank at the foot of the Antonivka Bridge is the settlement of Dachi (part of Greater Kherson) and a string of cottages along the shore facing Kherson and, facing the Kherson Commercial Sea Port, 3 basins for docking. Backing them, along the Dnipro floodplains from Kakhovka to the Dnipro-Boh Estuary, including (within the Kherson Council) the islands of Kruhlyk, Velykyi Vilkhovyi, and Karantynnyi, is part of the marshy Lower Dnipro National Nature Park (conceptualized 2008–13, established in 2015, 80,177.8 ha).

Beyond the Kinka distributary (the southern limit of Greater Kherson) and within commuting distance of Kherson are two small cities: Oleshky and Hola Prystan. Some 8 km SE of Kherson, on Highway M14 or E97 and 4 km S of Dachi, Oleshky (2021 pop 24,383) is located on the S bank of the Kinka. Called Tsiurupynsk from 1928 to 2016 and administrative center of Tsiurupynsk/Oleshky raion, Oleshky lost that function in 2020 when it became part of Kherson raion. The city has the Kherson cellulose and paper factory, the Amethyst machine-building plant, a fish-processing plant, a juice-making factory, and a winery. To its E, S and SW are 7 areas of the Lower Dnipro Sand deposits (see Oleshia Sands) and nearby ponds that support pine forests and meadows, protected in part as the Tsiurupynsk Pine Forest (est 1972, 200 ha, on S side of city, re-named Oleshky Pine Forest in 2020), the Sahy Landscape Preserve (est 1977, 500 ha, 4 km E of the city, NE of the village of Sahy), and the Oleshky Sands National Nature Park (est 2010, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, 11,671 ha in 4 areas, the largest [about 8,000 ha] 20 km ESE of Oleshky).

Hola Prystan (2021 pop 13,760) is located 11 km SSW of Kherson, on the S bank of the Kinka River and accessed by the local highway P57, 19 km WSW of Oleskhy. It served as an administrative center of the Hola Prystan raion from 1923; since 2020 it is part of the enlarged Skadovsk raion. It is a historic Cossack settlement (est 1709) as part of the Oleshky Sich, attracts visitors for its traditional crafts such as barrel-making, houses the Melon Agricultural Research Station and the office of the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve (est 1927, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, covering 109,254.8 ha, of which 94,435 ha is water and 14,819.8 ha land).

Between the two cities are villages (Kardashynka, Kokhany, Velyka Kardashynka, and Mala Kardashynka) with many hot houses for growing vegetables. Also nestled between them is the 146 ha tourist heritage park ‘Zeleni Khutory Tavrii’.

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Ihor Stebelsky

[This article was updated in 2025.]