Homyel
Homyel (
Belarusian and
Russian: Ð"омель,
Russian BGN/PCGN:
Gomel), also known as Homel or Gomel', is the second-largest city of
Belarus and the main city of
Homiel Province. It has a population of 481,000 (
2005 estimate). Gomel is situated in the southeastern part of the country, on the right bank of
Sozh river, close to the border to
Ukraine and to
Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Although it has been heavily contaminated following the 1986
Chernobyl disaster, people still continue to live in the city.
The exact date of the founding of Gomel is not known. It was first mentioned in chronicles from the first half of the
12th century; the officially accepted date is
1142. In
1854 Gomel merged with the neighbouring
Bielica town situated on the left bank of
Sozh River, which is now is a part of Gomel city and one of its four boroughs.
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View of the city, with the Paskevich Palace seen in the distance. |
Gomel contained about fifty thousand Jews (a third of total population) on the eve of WWII. Some Jewish residents escaped in the early months of the war but those who remained were later confined to ghettos and eventually executed by the Nazis, suffering the fate of millions of Jews who perished in the
Holocaust. Rabbi
Avraham Elyashiv was the Rabbi of this city of 24 synagogues before the Holocaust.
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Coat of Arms*
Photos on Radzima.org*
History of Homiel*
Statistical Information about Homiel
