Lokhvytsia

Lokhvytsia [Лохвиця; Loxvycja]. Map: III-14. A town (2011 pop 11,965) on the Lokhvytsia River and a raion center in Poltava oblast. It is first mentioned in historical documents in 1320. In 1628 it was granted town status, and belonged to the Vyshnevetsky family. Lokhvytsia played an important role in the Cossack and popular uprisings of the 1630s. During the Cossack-Polish War in 1648–9 and in 1658–1781 Lokhvytsia was a company center in the Cossack Hetman state. In 1802–1923 it was a county center in Poltava gubernia. Today it has a sewing factory and a food-processing plant, the Lokhvytsia Sugar Refining Complex. Near Lokhvytsia archeologists have found several burial sites of the Cherniakhiv culture (2nd–5th century), a settlement of the Romen-Borshcheve culture (8th–10th century), and a medieval Kyivan Rus’ fortress which belonged to Pereiaslav principality.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]