Vytachiv

openas of 2026-10-01957Naddniprianshchyna

Photo: Ivan Sedlovskyi · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

An old Rus port on the Dnipro where princes met in council in 1100.

A village on the high right bank 60 km from Kyiv. First mentioned in 957 — in Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus's treatise "On the Governance of the Empire" — as a stop for trade caravans on the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks". On Okip hill in the village's north lies a hillfort of the 10th–13th centuries; nearby in 1096 Sviatopolk Iziaslavych founded the town of Sviatopolch for settlers from ruined Yuriv — ramparts with three towers remain. On Kniazhyi Spyl a wooden chapel was raised in 1991 after a drawing by Shevchenko. On 12 January 2026 the foreign ministers Andrii Sybiha and Espen Barth Eide unveiled here a copy of the Alstad runestone — the 10th-century original is kept in Oslo. The runes read: "Engli raised this stone in memory of his son Thorald, who died in Vitaholm — between Ustaholm and Gardar". Vitaholm is Vytachiv itself, and Thorald died in the reign of Yaroslav the Wise. The copy was made by the Museum of Cultural History of the University of Oslo and the Hardraade viking ship association, funded by the Norwegian foreign and culture ministries. Ukrinform dates the unveiling to 12 January, Texty to the 13th.

Routes through this landmark

• Dnipro Bluffs
• The Bluffs by Bicycle
• Kyiv Region in Two Days