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17th century Poltava had nothing to do with church traditions.




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I am very surprized at your mention of Poltava. Poltava is not a significant city or even area in Ukrainian Orthodox Church tradition.



I am rather surprised that anyone who knows much Ukrainian Church history would not know at least something about the 40 plus saints (among them St. Paissius Veychkovsky - certainly very significant) and at least five wonderworking icons that have come from the Poltava region.
http://www.pravoslavie.poltava.ua/

It would rather seem an insult to the Ukrainian spiritual tradition and contribution of those people to say it is "not a significant city or even area in Ukrainian Orthodox tradition". And that does not even touch the rich cultural tradition with Hohol, hetmanska and Kozak history, etc.

It is still unknown when the city was founded. Baltavar Kubrat's grave was found in its vicinity, and its name derives from the title he, his predecessors and his successors bore. Though the town was not attested before 1174, municipal authorities chose to celebrate the town's 1100th anniversary in 1999, for reasons unknown. The settlement is indeed an old one, as archeologists unearthed a Paleolithic dwelling as well as Scythian remains within the city limits.

The present name of the city is traditionally connected to the settlement Ltava which is mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle in 1174. The region belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 14th century. The Polish administration took over in 1569. In 1648 Poltava was captured by the Ruthenian-Polish magnate Jeremi Wiśniowiecki (1612-51). Poltava was the base of a distinguished regiment of the Ukrainian Cossacks. In 1667 the town passed to the Russian Empire.

In the Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709 (Old Style), or 8 July (New Style), tsar Peter the First, commanding 45,000 troops, defeated at Poltava a Swedish army of 29,000 troops led by Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld (who had received the command of the army after the wounding of the Swedish king Charles XII on June 17). "Like a Swede at Poltava" remains a simile for "completely defeated" in Russian. The battle marked the end of Sweden as a great power and the rise of Russia as one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poltava

Sights
The centre of the old city is a semicircular Neoclassical square with the Tuscan column of cast iron (1805-11), commemorating the centenary of the Battle of Poltava and featuring 18 Swedish cannons captured in that battle. As Peter the Great celebrated his victory in the Saviour church, this 17th-century wooden shrine was carefully preserved to this day. The five-domed city cathedral, dedicated to the Exaltation of the Cross, is a superb monument of Cossack Baroque, built between 1699 and 1709. As a whole, the cathedral presents a unity which even the Neoclassical belltower has failed to mar. Another frothy Baroque church, dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos, was destroyed in 1934 and rebuilt in the 1990s.

Regarding the 17th century, I assume you have heard about Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Poltava was the headquarters of one of his chief regiments (I believe it was Pushkar's). I've already mentioned St. Paissy Velychkovsky, and many more saints also came from that region. I believe it was also Pushkar who established the famous Holy Cross Monastery there (which would have been 17th century).