Rakhiv

Rakhiv (Рахів, ; see also other names) is a city located in Zakarpattia Oblast (province) in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Rakhiv Raion (district). Population:

Rakhiv's date of the foundation is often taken to be 1447, although a written mentions of this settlement are attested since AD 910.

Names
There are several alternative names used for this city: Рахово; Rahó; Rahău; Рахов; Рахаў; ראחוב or Rakhyv; Rachov; Rachiw; Rachów.

Demographics
According to the 2001 census, the majority of Rahau's population spoke Ukrainian (92.08%), with Hungarian (4.8%) and Russian (2.28%) speakers in the minority. As of 2017, the city population was inhabitants.

Geography
In the village Dilove of Rakhiv rural district of Transcarpathia there is the geographical center of Europe. 1887 there was installed stone column on which it was written in Latin: “Permanent, precise, eternal place. Very accurate, with a special device, manufactured in Austria-Hungary, on a scale of meridians and parallels, set the center of Europe. Year 1887″. The village is located 190 km from Uzhgorod and 140 miles from Ivano-Frankivsk. From Uzhgorod minibuses go here 10 times a day. The first run is from the bus station – at 6.30, the last – at 14.20. Length of trip is 5.5 hours

Features
Rakhiv, or more precisely, the village Dilove located close to it, is one of several European locations vying for the symbolic right to be Geographical centre of Europe. The sign in Dilove, the point calculated in 1887 by the Austro-Hungarian geographers, carries a Latin inscription: "Locus Perennis Dilicentissime cum libella librationis quae est in Austria et Hungaria confectacum mensura gradum meridionalium et paralleloumierum Europeum. MD CCC LXXXVII."

There was Thomas Garrigue Masaryk in his stay to study a situation on the Romanian front during World War I in Hotel "Ukraina" on the winter 1917 - 1918, which remind the memorial desk there.

The Headquarters of Carpathian Biosphere Reserve are located in Rakhiv.

With an elevation of 430 meters above sea level, Rakhiv is Ukraine's highest city.

Climate
The climate in Rakhiv is a mild/cool summer subtype (Köppen: Dfb) of the humid continental climate.

Twin town

 * 🇵🇱 Bielsk Podlaski, Poland
 * 🇭🇺 Szeged, Hungary

Notable people

 * Mickola Vorokhta, the Ukrainian artist was born here.