Monastyrskyi Island (Ukrainian: Монастирський острів) is an island within the boundaries of the Sobornyi district of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro near the right bank of the Dnipro river.

Monastyrskyi Island

Native name: Монастирський острів
Monastyrskyi Island with a church and steep cliffs
Geography
Location	Dnieper River
Area	0.4 km2 (0.15 sq mi)
Highest point	N/A
Administration
Ukraine
Dnipro
Demographics
Population	0

It is covered with granite rocks to the west which gradually turns into a sandy spit in the east of the island.

Part of the island belongs to the Taras Shevchenko city park. The island is connected to the city by a pedestrian bridge in its northern part.

History

According to archeological finds, in the Paleolithic period (7—3 thousand Anno Domini) human settlements appear on the island.[1] In 1961 there were found several scraps and sharpener of ancient Stone Age by archaeologists.[2]

The island got its name in the ninth century because of an unconfirmed belief that in that century Byzantine monks founded a monastery on the island, which in 1240 was destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars.[3]

In 1747 Ukrainian Cossacks did build a monastery on the island.[3]

The first monument to Taras Shevchenko on the island appeared in the mid-1920s (the exact year is unknown).[4] In the 1930s the island had an "allée of writers" where several busts of prominent Ukrainian and Russian writers were located, including a simple gypsum bust of Shevchenko.[4] These two monuments did not survive the heavy fighting in Dnipropetrovsk during World War II.[4] A new monument to Shevchenko was opened in 1949, only the pedestal has survived from this monument.[4] The main alley on the island in the 1950s was completed by a monument to Joseph Stalin in the middle of a large flowerbed.[4] In 1958 a new monument to Shevchenko was installed on the island that was unveiled on 5 November 1959.[4][5] This monument is several times larger than its 1949 predecessor.[4] This 1949 monument was then reinstalled in the Shevchenko neighborhood in Dnipro's Samarskyi District where it was located until October 2007, when it was destroyed.[4] (The 1959 monument has become one of the city's most recognized landmarks.[4])

There is also a memorial cross to the Byzantine monks, erected in 1994.[6]^{[unreliable source?]}

In 1999 an Orthodox church of St. Nicholas was built on the northern part of the island.[3]

From 17 October 1929 until 24 November 2015 the island was officially named Komsomolsky Island (Ukrainian: Комсомольський острів), after the Komsomol political youth organization of the Soviet Union.[7][3][nb 1] It was renamed to its current name in order to comply with decommunization law.[7]

Gallery

• 
  2019 aerial photograph of Monastyrskyi Island
• 
  Monument to Taras Shevchenko on Monastyrskyi Island
• 
  Monastyrskyi Island beach
• 
  St. Nicholas church on Monastyrskyi Island
• 
  Waterfall on one of the island's steep cliffs

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monastyrskyi Island, Dnipro.

На других языках

[de] Klosterinsel

[fr] Île aux monastères

[ru] Монастырский (остров, Днепр)