Chernivtsi is the old capital of Bukovina, tucked into southwestern Ukraine near the Romanian border. Its best streets feel closer to a small Habsburg city than to the industrial east: theatre squares, coffee houses, painted facades, and a university complex that looks like it was built for a vanished empire.
The city's history is unusually layered. Ukrainians, Romanians, Jews, Germans, Poles, and Armenians all left marks here, and the old names, Czernowitz and Cernăuți, still tell you something about how often the border moved. That mix is the real reason to come, more than any single monument.
The headline sight is the former Residence of the Bukovinian and Dalmatian Metropolitans, now Chernivtsi National University and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Give it time, then wander Olha Kobylianska Street and the theatre district. As with all travel in Ukraine during the war, check current security advice before planning a trip.