About Berdichev
Berdichev is a city in Zhytomyr oblast (province), northwestern Ukraine. Berdichev is situated on the Hnylopyat River. Founded in 1482 as a Lithuanian fortress, Berdychiv was Polish from 1569 until 1793. During the 18th century, Berdychiv was an important Ukrainian commercial city and a center of Jewish Hasidism. It is a rail junction and the industrial and trade center of an area where sugar beets are raised. Engineering, sugar refining, tanning, and the manufacture of foodstuffs are the major industries. Landmarks include a fortified Carmelite monastery (17th cent.) and the Roman Catholic church in which the French novelist Honore de Balzac married Eveline Hanska, a wealthy Russian widow, in 1850 after an 18-year courtship.
