Drohobych

Drohobych ( uk, Дрого́бич, ; pl, Drohobycz; yi, דראָהאָביטש;) is a city of regional significance in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Drohobych Raion and hosts the administration of Drohobych urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. In 1939–1941 and 1944–1959 it was the center of Drohobych Oblast.

The city was founded at the end of eleventh century as an important trading post and transport node between Kyiv Rus' and the lands to the West of Rus'. After extinction of the local Ruthenian dynasty and subsequent incorporation of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia into the Polish Kingdom by 1349, from the fifteenth century the city was developing as a mercantile and saltworks centre. Drohobych became part of the Habsburg Empire in 1772 after the first partition of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the mid-nineteenth century it became Europe's largest oil extraction center, which significantly contributed to its rapid development. In the renascent, interwar Poland it was the center of a county within the Lwów Voivodeship. In the outcome of World War II the city was incorporated into the Ukrainian part of the Soviet Union, which in 1991 became the independent Ukraine.

The city was the birthplace of such well-known personalities like Elisabeth Bergner, Yuriy Drohobych (Kotermak), Ivan Franko and Bruno Schulz. The city has several oil refineries. The Drohobych saltworks are considered to be the oldest in Europe. The estimated population of the city is

Administrative status

As the administrative center of Drohobych Raion (district), Drohobych itself is a city of oblast significance, subordinate directly to the ''oblast'' authorities, rather than to the ''raion'' administration located in the city itself.

History

While there are only legendary accounts of it, Drohobych probably existed in the Kievan Rus' period. According to a legend, there was a settlement, called ''Bych'', of salt-traders. When Bych was destroyed in a Cumanian raid, survivors rebuilt the settlement in a nearby location under its current name which means a ''Second Bych''. In the time of Kievan Rus', the Tustan fortress was built near Drohobych. However, scholars perceive this legend with skepticism, pointing out that Drohobych is a Polish pronunciation of Dorogobuzh, a common East Slavic toponym applied to three different towns in Kievan Rus'.

The city was first mentioned in 1387 in the municipal records of Lviv, in connection with a man named Martin (or Marcin) of ''Drohobych''. Furthermore, the same chronicler's ''List of all Ruthenian cities, the farther and the near ones''А СЕ ИМЕНА ГРАДОМЪ ВСЂМЪ РУССКЫМЪ, ДАЛНИМЪ И БЛИЖНИМЪ
in PSRL, Т. VII. Летопись по Воскресенскому списку. — СПб, 1856. — с. 240–41. in Voskresensky Chronicle (dated 1377–82) mentions "Другабець" ''(Druhabets')'' among other cities in Volhynia that existed at the same time such as Холмъ ('' Kholm''), Лвовъ Великій ('' Lviv the Great'').

In 1392 Polish king Vladislav II ordered the construction of the first Roman Catholic municipal parish church (Polish: ''Kosciół farny''), using the foundations of older Ruthenian buildings. In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city was the center of large rural starostvo (county within the Ruthenian Voivodeship).

Drohobych received Magdeburg rights some time in the 15th century (sources differ as to the exact year, some giving 1422 or 1460, or 1496 but in 1506 the rights were confirmed by King Alexander the Jagiellonian). The salt industry was significant in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.

From the early seventeenth century, a Ukrainian Catholic brotherhood existed in the city. In 1648, during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Cossacks stormed the city and its cathedral. Most of the local Poles, as well as the Greek Catholics and the Jews, were murdered at the time, while some managed to survive in the Bell tower not taken in the raid. The 1772 partition of Poland gave the city to the Habsburg monarchy. In the 19th century, significant oil resources were discovered in the area, making the city an important center of the oil and natural gas industries.

After the World War I, the area became part of the short-lived independent West Ukrainian People's Republic (''Zakhidnoukrayins’ka Narodna Respublika''; ZUNR). The ZUNR was taken over by the Second Polish Republic in the event of Polish–Ukrainian War and Drohobych became part of the Lwów Voivodeship in 1919. In 1928 the still extant Ukrainian private gymnasium (academically oriented secondary school) opened in the center of the city. The population reached some 40,000 in the late 1920s, and its oil refinery at Polmin became one of the biggest in Europe, employing 800 people. Numerous visitors came there to view the wooden Greek Catholic churches, among them the Church of St. Yur, which was regarded as the most beautiful such construction in the Second Polish Republic, with frescoes from 1691. Drohobych was also a major sports center (see: Junak Drohobycz).

In September 1939, as a result of German and Soviet invasion of Poland the city was annexed to Soviet Ukraine when the territory of the interwar Poland was divided between the Nazi Germany and the USSR according to the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement. After the invasion Nazi Germany wanted to incorporate the city into its General Government as the result of its oil fields, but the USSR refused and annexed it. In Soviet Ukraine, Drohobych became the center of the Drohobych Oblast (region). Its local Polish boy scouts created the White Couriers organization, which in late 1939 and early 1940 smuggled hundreds of people from the Soviet Union to Hungary, across the Soviet-Hungarian border in the Carpathian Mountains. In early July 1941, during the first weeks of the Nazi invasion of the USSR, the city was occupied by Nazi Germany.

Pre-war Drohobych had a significant Jewish community of about 15,000 people, 40 % of the total population. Immediately after the Germans entered the city, Ukrainian nationalists started a pogrom, lasting for three days, supported by the Wehrmacht. During 1942 there were several selections, deportations, and murders in the streets, again led out by German troops and Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. In October 1942, Drohobych ghetto with approximately 10,000 people imprisoned was established, also with Jews brought from neighboring localities. In June 1943, the German administration and troops liquidated the ghetto, only 800 Jews from Drohobych survived.Israel Gutman u. a. (Hrsg.): ''Enzyklopädie des Holocaust''. München und Zürich 1995, , vol. 1, p. 371. On 6 August 1944, the German occupation ended with the Red Army entering the city. Despite the large Jewish population prior to the war, a current resident stated that he was one of only two Jews who came back to his village to live after the war. After the war, the city remained an oblast center until the Drohobych Oblast was incorporated into the Lviv Oblast in 1959. In Soviet times, Drohobych became an important industrial center of Western Ukraine with highly developed oil-refining, machine building, woodworking, food, and light industries.

Until 18 July 2020, Drohobych was designated as a city of oblast significance and belonged to Drohobych Municipality but not to Drohobych Raion even though it was the center of the raion. As part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Lviv Oblast to seven, Drohobych Municipality was merged into Drohobych Raion.

Demographics

The population of Drohobych over the years was:
*1931 – 32,300
*1959 – 42,000
*1978 – 65,998
*1989 – 77,571
*2001 – 79,119
*2010 – 78,368
*2022 – 73,682

Drohobych district

In 1931, the total population of the Drohobych district was 194,456, distributed among various languages:
*Polish: 91,935 (47.3%)
*Ukrainian: 79,214 (40.7%)
*Yiddish: 20,484 (10.5%)

In January 2007, the total population of the metropolitan area was over 103,000 inhabitants.

Climate

Economy

Industries currently based in the city include oil-refineries, chemicals, machinery, metallurgy, and food processing.

Sights

* St. George's Church, Drohobych (c. 1500)
* St. Bartholomew Church, Drohobych (1392–16th century)
*its bell tower, former castle tower (late 13th century and 15th century)
* Ascension Church, Drohobych (late 15th century)
* Holy Cross Church, Drohobych (early 16th century)
* Choral Synagogue (1842–1865)
* Progressive Synagogue, Drohobych
* City Hall, Drohobych (1920s)
* St. Peter's and Paul's Monastery, Drohobych
* Drohobych Museum

File:Drohobych - church.jpg, St. George's Church, 16th–17th centuries
Дрогобыч. Церковь Воздвижения Честного Креста..jpg, Church of the Holy Cross, 1613–1661
File:Костел Вознесіння Господнього, вул.Т.Шевченка,1, м.Дрогобич.JPG, Brick Gothic St-Bartholomew Church (14th–16th centuries) and its bell tower
File:Дрогобич - Ратуша-1.jpg, Town Hall
Drohobych2.JPG, Basilian monastery of Saints Peter and Paul, 1825–1828
Pohribets.jpg, A historic building in Drohobych
Drohobycz ulica stryjska 2008.jpg, Mazepy Street in Drohobych
4 Osmomysla Street, Drohobych (1).jpg, Osmomysla Street, Drohobych
Палац з парком 2.jpg, Villa of Raymond Jarosz
Палац з парком м. Дрогобич.JPG, Bianchi Palace
Дрогобыч. Фрагмент центра города..jpg, Shevska Street, Drohobych
46-106-5003 Drohobych Park RB 18.jpg, Drohobych City Park ХІХ st.
Drohobych_Synagogue2018.jpg, Until 1918, Choral Synagogue had been the central synagogue of Galicia and Lodomeria
Церква Пресвятої Трійці в Дрогобичі.jpg, Holy Trinity Cathedral
Дрогобыч. Перекрёсток..jpg, A historic building in Drohobych

Notable people

Politics

*Zenon Kossak, Ukrainian military and political leader (born here)
* Andriy Melnyk, Ukrainian military and political leader (born near Drohobych)
*David Horowitz (economist), Israeli economist and the first Governor of the Bank of Israel.
*Leon Reich (1879–1929), lawyer and member of the Sejm of Poland (born here)

Arts

*Ivan Franko, Ukrainian poet and writer, born in Nahuievychi, near Drohobych
*Irene Frisch, Jewish-Polish writer and memoirist
*Leopold Gottlieb, Jewish-Polish painter
*Maurycy Gottlieb, Jewish-Polish painter
*Diana Reiter, Jewish-Polish architect, victim of Holocaust
*Ephraim Moses Lilien

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases