The photo shows the Ringplatz (after the Polish “Rynek”) in Chernivtsi, called Piata Unirii in the Romanian times, Red Square in Soviet times and Central Square today. <br />

Chernivtsi was made the capital of the Bukowina after the annexation by Austria in 1775 and granted the status of a city in 1786. The first stone buildings were erected on the later Ringplatz in the 1790s. When Emperor Franz visited Chernivtsi in 1817, the square was already the center of town. In the second half of the 19th c. most houses were replaced by todays three-storey buildings. <br />

The houses in the background constitute the eastern side of the Ringplatz. <br />

The streetcar (in those days called tramway in Chernivtsi) shown on the photo is the line number 1 circulating between the Volksgarten raiway station and the river Pruth. It seems to be one of the cars purchased from the Grazer Waggonfabrik in 1908. <br />

The Central Square is the urban center of Chernivtsi, no less than seven streets meet here. Plans to give the square a modern and more attractive appearance and to solve the critical traffic situation are waiting to be implemented.<br /><em>Helmut Kusdat</em>