A view of the Trukhaniv island and the church of St. Elizabeth from the side of the Dnieper. The first settlements on the Trukhaniv island were founded as early as the times of Kyivan Rus. Departments of the Dnieper steamship company were created there in the second half of the nineteenth century. There were a school, workshops, a yacht club, the “Ermitazh” park on the island. It was connected by a telephone line with the estate of the “shipping king”, David Margolin.

The church of St. Elizabeth was built in 1909-1910 and named in honour of both general governor Trepov’s wife and the saint who was considered the patroness of the construction. In 1908 the population of the village of Trukhaniv numbered 6 thousand people who were mainly workers of the shipyard and their families. In the Empire time the Trukhaniv island was not a part of the city, so its usual ways were a bit different from those of the city itself. In view of the fact that the village was not included in the city limits, a large number of Jews lived there (there was no need for them to obtain a special permission for residence).

Olga Martyniuk