5 Hryven The Ostroh Academy

The Ostroh Academy, founded in 1576 by Prince Vasyl-Kostiantyn Ostrozky, was one of the earliest institutions of higher learning in Eastern Europe — predating the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy by several decades. It produced some of the most significant Orthodox scholars and polemicists of the late 16th century, including contributors to the Ostroh Bible of 1581, the first complete printed Bible in Church Slavonic. The academy declined in the 17th century after the Ostrozky line died out, and the institution was only revived as a modern university in 1994, just three years before Ukraine issued this coin.