#transcarpathia

[pellinni-photo]

river runs through forest in mountain landscape. travel ukraine in summer. beautiful view with cloud on a hill under blue sky. scenery of tisza river valley

[bobemajses]

Synagogue in Khust, Ukraine, 1995

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

1914: Railway tracks in the snow in Kvasy, Transcarpathia, Ukraine.

[greenpostua]

🔥🔴У Карпатах вирує жахлива лісова пожежа площею 75 гектарів — триває ліквідація.

📸: ДСНС Закарпаття

[allethnicities]

Ethnonyms: Rusyns, Carpatho-Rusyns, Ruthenians, Lemko, Rusnaks

Total population: 1,097,850

Ethnolinguistic classification: Indo-European → Balto-Slavic → Slavic → East Slavic

Homeland: Transcarpathia

Regions with significant populations: Ukraine (Zakarpattia Oblast), the Slovak Republic (the Prešov Region, the Košice Region), the Republic of Poland (Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Podkarpackie Voivodeship), the Republic of Serbia (the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina), Hungary (Budapest, Pest County, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Heves county, Nógrád County), the Republic of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Romania

Languages and dialects: Rusyn, Prešov, Lemko, Subcarpathian, Pannonian Rusyn

Religion: the Eastern Catholic Churches, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church

Related ethnic groups: Ukrainians, Belarusians, East Slavs

Rusyns are an East Slavic people whose name, identity, and classification have been historically fluid: the ethnonym comes from Rus (Ruthenia), and in older sources “Rusyn” and “Ruthenian” could refer more broadly to Slavic Christians in the medieval and early modern lands of Kievan Rus’, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, while in modern usage it most often denotes the Carpatho-Rusyn population of the Carpathian arc. They are also known by regional or older labels such as Carpatho-Rusyn, Lemko, Rusnak, and Ruthenian, and their historical homeland—often called Carpathian Rus’ or Carpathian Ruthenia—spans the borderlands of today’s Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia, with important diaspora communities in North America that formed through large-scale emigration from Austria-Hungary before World War I. Linguistically, Rusyn refers not only to the people but also to an East Slavic language tradition and a 20th-century codified literary standard, which sits close to Ukrainian in the East Slavic continuum but is also treated by many speakers and scholars as a distinct language with regional varieties. Culturally and religiously, Rusyn identity developed in a mountain borderland shaped by shifting empires, local village life, and a strong Eastern Christian heritage; the community has long been associated with both Orthodox and Greek Catholic traditions, and the Union of Uzhhorod in 1646 became a major turning point in the religious history of many Carpatho-Rusyn communities by drawing them into communion with Rome while preserving the Byzantine rite. Their history is marked by repeated reclassification by states, alternating periods of recognition and suppression, and enduring debate over whether Rusyns should be regarded as a separate nationality or as a subgroup of Ukrainians—an argument that remains especially contentious in Ukraine, even though the term and tradition continue to survive in family memory, local culture, liturgy, and language across the wider Carpathian world.

[scavengedluxury]

Pokravskaya Orthodox Church, Uzhgorod, 1942. From the Budapest Municipal Photography Company archive.

[henk-heijmans]

Old Jew in a village in Transcarpathia, Ukraine, 1935s - by Roman Vishniac (1897 – 1990), Russian/American

[blueiscoool]

Very Rare Emperor Constantine Silver Ingots Saved From Illegal Sale

A man allegedly tried to illegally sell three rare Roman-era silver ingots that his great-grandmother reportedly found in her garden years ago.

Three "truly sensational" Roman-era silver ingots depicting Constantine the Great were nearly sold illegally on the internet, a new investigation finds.

An unnamed man alleged that his great-grandmother found the rare artifacts buried in the family's backyard in Transcarpathia (also known as Zakarpattia), a region in western Ukraine. Later, the man reportedly tried to sell one of the silver bars online, according to Public Uzhgorod, Ukraine's public broadcast station.

However, officials from the museum intervened by reporting the attempted illegal sale to local law enforcement. When officers searched the home, they discovered two additional ingots. Because the ingots have "special cultural value," Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General has taken over the case, according to a translated statement from the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv.

Each of the metal blocks, which are almost entirely pure silver, weighs more than 12 ounces (342 grams) and contains a coin-shaped impression of Emperor Constantine the Great on each side, according to the statement. Constantine, who ruled from A.D. 306 to 337, is known for ushering Christianity into the Roman Empire and moving his capital to "New Rome," which later became Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).

The ingots would have been used during the minting process to strike coins known as siliquae. The coins with Constantine's likeness would have been issued between A.D. 310 and 313 in Augusta Treverorum, a Roman city that today is Trier, Germany. At one time, the pieces would have been batched together with a thin, silver ribbon, which has since been lost, according to the statement.

"Three ingots fastened together were supposed to be a gift for a very high-ranking person," Maksym Levada, a curator at the museum, said in the statement. "The fact that they were found outside the Roman Empire on the territory of modern Ukraine makes them an invaluable source of our past."

Experts estimate the treasure's value at 3.5 million Ukrainian hryvnia, or about $84,800.

"But what makes them unique is not the cost, but the fact that only a few similar ingots have been found in Europe to date," Andriy Kostin, Ukraine's prosecutor general, said in the statement.

There are about 90 known Roman silver ingots in existence today, with only 11 containing mint stamp impressions, making the three ingots' recovery even rarer, according to the statement.

Kyrylo Myzgin, an archaeologist and faculty member at the University of Warsaw who initially examined the ingots, said in an email that the finding "can be considered truly sensational."

"It is excellent news that they ended up in a museum rather than on the black market for antiquities," Myzgin said. "Roman silver ingots with coin die imprints are incredibl\y rare and were virtually unknown outside the Roman Empire. It is likely that these ingots reached the territory of what is now western Ukraine as a result of interactions between the local population — possibly Germanic tribes or Dacians [people in what is now largely modern-day Romania] — and the Roman Empire in the early 4th century. However, the exact nature of these interactions has yet to be determined."

The ingots are now on display in the museum's "Salvated Treasures" exhibition, which contains a collection of rescued artifacts.

By Jennifer Nalewicki.