Chernihiv of the XIX – the beginning of the XX century was a common principal city where patriarchal life with festivals, nobility and land meetings, balls and banquets predominated...

Then the city with suburbs was nearly 670 ha.

An economic revival of the city after the reform in 1861 led to gradual population increase: 1897 – 27716 people, 1913 – 35850 people.

Generally the development of Chernihiv was realized on the basis of plans of the XIX century. Statistics referred post-reform Chernihiv to the list of “…exclusively wooden city…”. Compulsory stone building area was limited by blocks around Red Square.

Streets, mostly central, were gaslit and only in 1895 electric light was put to use.

The only city means of transport was carting.

At the beginning of the XX century, because of Kyiv – Petersburg highway, stagecoaches ran constantly between Chernihiv and Homel’, Chernihiv and Kozelets’.

There was a post and telegraph office and telephone exchange which served 138 users in Chernihiv in 1912.

At the end of the XIX century bank branches were opened in the city. A city civil bank was founded in 1875. Rich citizens made use of a pawn shop, three savings banks and mutual loan society.

Major role in Chernihiv urban life was played by trade which was concentrated on Red (Market) Square where rows of stalls were built in the XX century. In Chernihiv trade fairs gathered four times a year and markets took place three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The number of trade institutions increased very fast: from 428 shops in 1901 to 734 in 1910.

15 hotels, 9 taverns and 3 pubs also operated in Chernihiv.

At the turn of the XIX century there were two hospitals in our city: zemstvo provincial and “The Sisters of Charity” community. At the beginning of the XX century the first two private preschool institutions appeared: two nurseries and a kindergarten.

Economics development encouraged the vocational education growth. At the beginning of the XX century three technical schools, two trade schools, a medical school and a religious school and a theological seminary operated in Chernihiv. In 1916 a teachers' training institute which gave an incomplete higher pedagogical education was opened.

According to the first general population census in 1897 nearly 53% of Chernihivites could read and write. A total number of pupils in Chernihiv reached 6,2 thousand on the eve of World War I. An admission of pupils to the first mixed gymnasium with Ukrainian language studying was announced in autumn 1917.

The events of World War I and the revolution interrupted the life of the provincial city of the XIX – XX centuries and it was the beginning of a different period in history of Chernihiv. But the monuments of that time remained and they remind us of Chernihiv hundred years ago.