CZERNOWITZ (Rum. Cernauti), a city of Rumania, capital of the Bukovina (q.v.), and situated on the main Lemberg-Bu charest railway. Pop. (1930) 111,122. The trading circles are exclusively Jewish, the peasants Ruthenian, the official circles Rumanian, and there is also a German colony. Czernowitz lies on an eminence on the right bank of the Pruth. Its most conspicuous building is the archiepiscopal palace of the Greek orthodox metro politan of the Bukovina—a notably ugly erection in the Byzantine style. The Orthodox cathedral, completed in 1864, is modelled on the church of St. Isaac in Leningrad. The Armenian church, in mixed•Gothic and Renaissance style, was • consecrated in The university, opened in 1875, was formerly a brilliant outpost of Germanic culture in the extreme east of the Austrian empire. The language of instruction is now Rumanian. The main Austrian monument, a statue of Maria Theresa, was wrecked in 1918. An active trade is carried on in agricultural produce, wood, wool, cattle and spirits. The market-place, with its Ruthenian peasantry, is a very picturesque sight.
At the time of the Austrian occupation (1775), Czernowitz was an unimportant village, but the Austrian colonization of the Bu kovina made of it a centre of some importance. It was created a town in 1786.