Baida Island is a small island located in the old channel of the Dnieper River, between the Arched and Preobrazhensky Bridges. It can be admired from the gazebo "Swallow's Nest", located near the sanatorium of PJSC "Zaporizhstal".
The island was formed as a result of a major flood in the spring of 1843. Prior to this, it was connected to the mainland by a sandy isthmus. Its area is 6.54 hectares. On the island, monuments of the III-I millennia BC and the 12th-18th centuries AD have been discovered and studied.
In 1556, Prince Dmytro Vyshnevetsky built a "wooden-earth town" here and maintained 300 Cossacks there. From his fortress, the prince repeatedly attacked the Tatar and Turkish fortresses in the lower reaches of the Dnipro River. In 1558, the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey unexpectedly approached the shores of Khortytsia. The prolonged siege forced Vyshnevetsky to abandon his outpost. The Cossack "town" was burned down by the Tatars.
In Ukrainian folk tales, Dmytro Vyshnevetsky is associated with the legendary Cossack Bayda. That is why the island has been named after him in recent years. The word "Bayda" means a free, unmarried, and carefree man.