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Novgorod-Seversky is a historic town in the Chernigov region of Ukraine, on the bank of the Desna River, only 45 km south from the Russian border. Its population was 13500 in 1974.
The town was first chronicled in 1096 as the capital of the Severskoe principality, which served as a buffer zone againt incursions of the Cumans and other steppe peoples. One of numerous campaigns of local princes against the Polovtsy gave birth to the great monument of early East Slavic literarure, the Tale of Igor's Campaign.
After the town's destruction by Mongols in 1239, it passed to the princes of Bryansk and then to the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. Muscovy obtained the area following the Battle of Vedrosha in 1503, but had to return it back to Poland after the Time of Troubles. The town finally passed to Russia under terms of Andrusovo armistice (1667). It was made a capital of a separate namestnichestvo in 1782-97. Thereafter its importance steadily declined.
The main point of interest in the town is the former residence of the Chernigov metropolitans, the monastery of the Saviour's Transfiguration. It features a ponderous Neoclassical cathedral (1791-96, design by Giacomo Quarenghi), 17th-century stone walls, and several ecclesiastic foundations, also dating from the 17th century. Other landmarks include the baroque Assumption cathedral, a triumphal arch (1787), and the wooden church of St Nicholas (1760).
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