# Beryslav

Beryslav (Ukrainian: Берислав, IPA:) is a city in Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Beryslav Raion, housing the district's local administration buildings. Beryslav hosts the administration of Beryslav urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: 11,895 (2022 estimate).
The city is located on the right-bank of the Dnieper River across from Kakhovka on the opposite bank. Until the creation of the Kakhovka Reservoir, the city contained one of a historical crossing over the Dnieper.
By the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of July 26, 2001, No. 878, Beryslav was included in the List of Historical Settlements of Ukraine as the oldest settlement in the Kherson region.

## History

One of the oldest settlements in the Kherson Oblast, in the late 14th century Beryslav was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Grand Duke Vytautas built a castle here. It served as a Lithuanian customs point, as the lower Dnieper formed the Lithuanian border.
Later on it was known as the Turkish fortress of Kizikermen or Kazikermen (Gazikermen). Kazikermen and Islamkermen and Sahinkermen nearby were primary fortifications in the lower Dnieper area starting in the 15th century. According to legend, chains were stretched across the Dnieper between the fortifications to control river traffic. Here was also one of the fords providing access across the Dnieper known as Tawan crossing. At the end of August of 1695, Kazikermen was sacked by the Zaporizhia Host Cossacks of Ivan Mazepa and the Sloboda Ukraine Cossacks of Boris Sheremetev during the so called Azov-Dnieper campaigns.
By the 1700 Treaty of Constantinople, the Ottomans disbanded the fortifications. Later in the 19th century, ruins of the Kazikermen fortress were completely cleared away. After its 1784 re-establishment, the settlement was renamed Beryslav.
On 16 December, 1918, Hetman of Ukraine Pavlo Skoropadsky signed a telegram in Beryslav addressed to Kyiv where he officially resigned from his post.
Beryslav was occupied by German forces on August 23, 1941. On September 22 about 400 Jews then living in Beryslav were murdered near the town by the members of Einsatzgruppe D. Another 35 Jews from Beryslav were shot in early October 1941. Beryslav was liberated by the Red Army on March 11, 1944.
Since August 2016, the city has hosted the revived Ukrainian Premier League and UEFA Europa League football club, Tavriya Simferopol.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beryslav was one of many settlements occupied by the Russians, but was recaptured by the Ukrainian military during the southern counteroffensive on 11 November.

## Demographics

Ethnic makeup of the town according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:
Ethnic groups in Beryslav
percent
Ukrainians
89.43%
Russians
8.71%
Roma
0.53%
Belarusians
0.39%
Armenians
0.20%
Moldovans
0.19% :
Native language according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:
Languages in Beryslav
Languages
percent
Ukrainian
89.5%
Russian
10.1%
Armenian
0.1%
Belarusian
0.1%
others
0.2% :

## Sights

* Holy Presentation Church, a wooden church from 18th century.

## Gallery

* Siege of Kazikermen in 1695 by united forces of Ivan Mazepa and Boris Sheremetev, engraving by Tarasiewicz
* Fragment of the New Servia map by Chez le Rouge (Paris, 1769)