Kam’yanets-Podilskyy

Kam'yanets-Podilskyy

Kam’yanets-Podilskyy, Russian Kamenets-Podolsky, Polish Kamieniec Podolski, city, western Ukraine, on the Smotrych River. The city is one of the largest and oldest in the Dniester River basin, dating to at least the 11th century. Lying at a superbly defensible site where the river forms a loop, it was long a frontier fortress and centre of the Podolia (Podillya) region. The original town was destroyed about 1240 by the Mongols. It later came under Lithuanian and then (from 1430) Polish control. Kam’yanets-Podilskyy subsequently grew into a major trade centre, the second largest in Ukraine at that time. Its population included Ukrainians and Armenians as well as Poles and Jews. The city went into economic decline when it was briefly under Turkish rule (1672–99), after which it was returned to Poland. The coming of the railway in the 19th century revived the town, which had been absorbed by Russia in 1793. In the 20th century it became a varied industrial centre with food, building-material, and scientific industries, as well as technical colleges and teacher-training and agricultural institutes. A large cement plant built in the 1970s led to substantial population growth. The city’s old town is the site of numerous architectural monuments. Pop. (2001) 99,610; (2005 est.) 99,398.