Yaroslav the Wise metro station, Kharkiv
After several centuries of total russification of Ukraine by the Russian Empire, the reverse process – derussification – is finally taking place. Hundreds of thousands of names of cities, streets, metro stations, and brands are either returning their original Ukrainian names or getting new ones.
On 29 April 2024, the metro station Пушкинская (Pushkinskaya) in the city of Kharkiv was renamed to Ярослава Мудрого (Yaroslava Mudroho, in English: Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev in the XI century). In July 2024, Kharkiv Metropolitan employees installed eight sets of letters with the new name on the walls of the station.
For the inscription, the Kharkiv Metropolitan used Sealt, a font family developed by Michael Rafailyk in 2021. Sealt is inspired by the oldest saltworks in Eastern Europe, founded in 1250 in Drohobych, Ukraine. Sealt means salt in Old English, so most letters are rough and sharp like salt crystals and seem to be carved out of the rock.
