The postcard shows various important buidings in Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) on the eve of the first world war, when the city was the capital of the Bukowina, the most eastern province (Kronland) of the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. <br />In those days Chernivtsi had around 70.000 inhabitants, looking back on 150 years of rapid growth since it became part of the Habsburg Empire in 1774, when there were just 290 families living there. Chernivtsi was the only provincial capital (Landeshauptstadt) which was entirely built under the Austrian administration, which clearly shows both in the layout of the city and in the architecture. <br />The card shows: the headquaters of the state railways (Bahnbetriebsleitung) built in 1908; the seat of the provincial government (Landesregierung) buit in 1873; the theatre built in 1905 (Stadttheater); the town hall (Rathaus) finished in 1848; <br />the Children's Hospital (Kinderspital), a donation of Moses and Chaja Fischer in occasion of the 60th anniversary of Emperor Franz Josef's coronation 1908, which still serves as such; the big Jewish Temple (Isr. Tempel) inaugurated in 1877; the Habsburg coffeehouse (Cafe Habsburg) in Kobylyanska Street (Herrengasse); the Central Square with the Town Hall (Ringplatz mit Rathaus); the central railway station finished in 1909 (Haupt-Bahnhof); the entrance gate and the building of the Residence of the Greek-Orthodox Metropolitan (Residenz-Einfahrt, Gr.-or. Erzb. Residenz); and the primary school in L.Ukrainka Street (Altgasse) built in occasion of the 60th anniversary of Emperor Franz Josef's coronation 1908 (Kaiser Jubiläums Volksschule). <br /><em>Helmut Kusdat</em>