Welcome to Nikolaev!

Mykolaiv (Ukrainian pronounce), or Nikolaev (Russian pronounce) is arguably the main ship building center of the Black Sea. Aside from its three shipyards within the city, there are located a number of research centers specializing in shipbuilding such as the State Research and Design Shipbuilding Center, Zoria-Mashproekt and others. The city is an important transportation junction of Ukraine (sea port, commercial port, river port, highway and railway junction, airport) with a population about 500,000. Nikolaev is located on a peninsula in Ukraine's steppe region 65 kilometers (40 mi) from the Black Sea along the estuary of the Southern Bug river (where it meets the Inhul River).

The history of the city has always been closely connected to ship building. The town was founded in 1789 by the Russian Governor General of Novorossiya, Prince Grigory Potemkin, initially as a shipyard called simply a New Shipyard on the Ingul river. Prince Potemkin signed an order to construct a shipyard on 27 August 1789, which is considered to be the city's birth date. The shipyard was to undertake the repair of naval ships in the Russo-Turkish War. Later Potemkin ordered the shipyard to be named Nikolaev to commemorate the date when Ochakov fell to the Russian troops under his command on 6 December 1788, the feast day of Saint Nicholas (Nikolai) on the Russian Orthodox Churchcalendar. During the Crimean War Nikolaev became the main rear base to support Russia's efforts in the war. Most businesses that were created in the city belonged to the military industrial complex, and, in this regard, Nikolaev was closed to foreign visitors for many decades.

Russian Empire's Black Sea Navy Headquarters was in Nikolaev

for more than 100 years, and now you can touch the history!

So what you are waiting for?...