Fortechna 1a, Near the Dniester River - +380 3731 22932

Khotyn is a city in Chernivtsi Oblast of western Ukraine, and is the administrative center of Khotyn Raion within the oblast, and is located south-west of Kamianets-Podilskyi. According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, it has a population of 11,124.

First chronicled in 1001, the town is located on the right (southwestern) bank of the Dniester River, and is part of the historical region Bessarabia. Important architectural landmarks within the city include the Khotyn Fortress, constructed in the 13-15th centuries (new fortress started in 1325, major improvements in the 1380s and 1460s), and two 15th century constructions by Moldavia's ruler Stephen the Great: the Prince's Palace (Palatul Domnesc) and the city's clock tower.

Historically, the town was part of the Principality of Moldavia, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. Subsequently, it was part of the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire, Moldavian Democratic Republic, Romania, the USSR and now Ukraine.

Thus Khotyn was conquered and controlled by many different states, resulting in many name changes. Other name variations include Chotyn, or Choczim (especially in Polish).

In the first Battle of Khotyn in 1621, an army led by Osman II, advanced from Adrianople towards the Polish frontier. The Turks, following their victory in the Battle of Cecora, had high hopes of conquering Polish controlled Ukraine. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth commander Jan Karol Chodkiewicz crossed the Dniester in September 1621 with approximately 35,000 soldiers and entrenched the Khotyn Fortress, blocking the path of the Ottoman march. The arrival of 40,000 Ukrainian Cossack forces under their hetman Petro Konashevych was helpful in that anti-Ottoman victory. The Commonwealth hetman held the sultan at bay for a whole month, until the first snow of autumn compelled Osman to withdraw his diminished forces. But the victory was also dearly purchased by Poland: a few days before the siege was raised, the aged grand hetman died of exhaustion in the fortress on September 24, 1621. The Commonwealth forces held under the command of Stanislaw Lubomirski. The battle, described by Waclaw Potocki in his most famous work Transakcja wojny chocimskiej, marked the end of the long period of Moldavian Magnate Wars.

In 1673, the Polish hussars again fought a major battle on this site (second Battle of Khotyn). This time Polish forces under the command of soon-to-be-king Jan Sobieski defeated the Ottomans on November 11, 1673. In this battle, rockets of Kazimierz Siemienowicz were successfully used. This brilliant victory was a prelude to the Battle of Vienna 1683.

In the Russo-Turkish War, the fortress was taken by Russian field marshal Burkhard Christoph von Munnich on August 19, 1739. This victory is remembered primarily through the Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks, composed by the young Mikhail Lomonosov. This ode has a place in the history of Russian literature: its sonorous iambic verse is often taken as a starting point of the modern Russian poetry.