Abstract
The article is an attempt of a semiotic interpretation of the phenomenon of Ukrainian city, Chernivtsi. The methodological context is the tradition of the cultural semiotics (especially the Tartu-Moscow school of semiotics), as well as its current continuations (e.g. sociosemiotics or visual studies). Thanks to the combination of these perspectives, the analysis of the city as a sign system is not limited to its history, but also to the completely contemporary situation of the city, which would like to play anew role of an important multicultural center of Europe and engage various entities for this purpose (politicians, artists, inhabitants, tourists but also city researchers). The central concept of considerations is palimpsest, understood as a multi-layered text of the city, but above all as a vivid text. The semiotic analysis of the city-palimpsest is based on reading the signs of its past, but also on the interpretation of the continuous writing of new signs, visible both in urban space and narratives about the city created today – touristic, marketing, political or literary (with particular emphasis on The International Poetry Festival “Meridian Czernowitz”). The city-palimpsest is thus a city understood as a work of art, which on the one hand requires the interpretation of senses encoded in it, and on the other hand it updates these senses in a different way in the process of rebuilding its brand.