Drohobych ( uk, Дрого́бич, ; pl, Drohobycz; yi, דראָהאָביטש;) is a
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
of regional significance in
Lviv Oblast
Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a relational adjective—in English translating to a noun adjunct w ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
. It is the administrative center of
Drohobych Raion and hosts the administration of
Drohobych urban hromada, one of the
hromada
A hromada ( uk, територіальна громада, lit=territorial community, translit=terytorialna hromada) is a basic unit of administrative division in Ukraine, similar to a municipality. It was established by the Government of Ukra ...
s 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
, conventional_long_name = Principality of Galicia–VolhyniaKingdom of Galicia–Volhynia
, common_name = Galicia–Volhynia
, status = Vassal state of the Golden Horde (from 1246)
, era = Middle Ages
, year_start = 1199
, year_end = 1349
, ...
into the
Polish Kingdom
The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to:
Historical political entities
*History of Poland during the Piast dynasty#The reign of Bolesław I and establishment of a ...
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
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
.
The city was the birthplace of such well-known personalities like
Elisabeth Bergner
Elisabeth Bergner (22 August 1897 – 12 May 1986) was an Austrian-British actress. Primarily a stage actress, her career flourished in Berlin and Paris before she moved to London to work in films. Her signature role was Gemma Jones in '' Esca ...
,
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
An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located.
In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...
of
Drohobych Raion (
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...
), 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'
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas o ...
period. According to a legend, there was a settlement, called ''Bych'', of
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
-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
The Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles (, abbr. ''PSRL'') is a series of published volumes aimed at collecting all medieval East Slavic chronicles, with various editions published in Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and Russian Federati ...
, 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
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
municipal parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
(Polish: ''Kosciół farny''), using the foundations of older Ruthenian buildings. In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
, the city was the center of large rural starostvo (county within the Ruthenian Voivodeship
The Ruthenian Voivodeship (Latin: ''Palatinatus russiae'', Polish: ''Województwo ruskie'', Ukrainian: ''Руське воєводство'', romanized: ''Ruske voievodstvo''), also called Rus’ voivodeship, was a voivodeship of the Crown o ...
).
Drohobych received Magdeburg rights
Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...
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
Alexander Jagiellon ( pl, Aleksander Jagiellończyk, lt, Aleksandras Jogailaitis; 5 August 1461 – 19 August 1506) of the House of Jagiellon was the Grand Duke of Lithuania and later also King of Poland. He was the fourth son of Casimir IV Jagie ...
). 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 Khmelnytsky Uprising,; in Ukraine known as Khmelʹnychchyna or uk, повстання Богдана Хмельницького; lt, Chmelnickio sukilimas; Belarusian: Паўстанне Багдана Хмяльніцкага; russian: � ...
, 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
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tow ...
not taken in the raid. The 1772 partition of Poland gave the city to the Habsburg monarchy
The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
. 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
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, 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
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...
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
Polmin (English: State Factory of Mineral Oils, Polish: Państwowa Fabryka Olejów Mineralnych) was an interwar Polish petroleum company. The company was founded in 1909 and nationalized in 1927. Crude run in 1930 reached over 731 thousand barrels ...
became one of the biggest in Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, 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 fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plast ...
es 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
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
when the territory of the interwar Poland was divided between the Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and the USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...
according to the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement. After the invasion Nazi Germany wanted to incorporate the city into its General Government
The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...
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
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
). Its local Polish boy scouts
Boy Scouts may refer to:
* Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement.
* Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement.
* An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are t ...
created the White Couriers organization, which in late 1939 and early 1940 smuggled hundreds of people from the Soviet Union to Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...
, across the Soviet-Hungarian border in the Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretche ...
. 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
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
. 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
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
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
An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdo ...
center until the Drohobych Oblast was incorporated into the Lviv Oblast
Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a relational adjective—in English translating to a noun adjunct w ...
in 1959. In Soviet times, Drohobych became an important industrial center of Western Ukraine
Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austr ...
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
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 h ...
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
A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...
, metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
, and food processing
Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex in ...
.
Sights
*St. George's Church, Drohobych
St. George's Church in Drohobych is one of the oldest and best preserved timber churches of Galicia. The church is a monument of Galician wooden architecture of the late 15th – early 16th centuries, one of the best preserved and one of the bes ...
(c. 1500)
* St. Bartholomew Church, Drohobych (1392–16th century)
*its bell tower, former castle tower (late 13th century and 15th century)
*Ascension Church, Drohobych
Ascension or ascending may refer to:
Religion
* "Ascension", "Assumption", or "Translation", the belief in some religions that some individuals have ascended into Heaven without dying first
* Ascension of Jesus
* Feast of the Ascension (Asce ...
(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
Brick Gothic (german: Backsteingotik, pl, Gotyk ceglany, nl, Baksteengotiek) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resourc ...
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
Zenon Kossak (April 1, 1907 – 1939) was an activist in the Ukrainian militant nationalist movement for independence from interwar Poland.
Kossak was born in Drohobych in Galicia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now in Ukraine). He s ...
, 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 Leon Reich (July 11, 1879 – December 1, 1929) was a Polish Zionist leader, lawyer and politician. Life
Reich was born on July 11, 1879 in Drohobych, Galicia, Austria-Hungary. His parents were wealthy merchants and Orthodox Jews. He attended a h ...
(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
Maurycy Gottlieb ; 21/28 February 1856 – 17 July 1879) was a Polish realist painter of the Romantic period. Considered one of the most talented students of Jan Matejko, Gottllieb died at the age of 23.
Career
Gottlieb was born in Drohobycz ( ...
, Jewish-Polish painter
* Diana Reiter, Jewish-Polish architect, victim of Holocaust
* Ephraim Moses Lilien, Jewish-Zionist painter
* Alfred Schreyer, Jewish-Polish vocalist and violinist
* Bruno Schulz, Polish-Jewish writer, graphic artist, and literary critic
*Kazimierz Wierzyński
Kazimierz Wierzyński (Drohobycz, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, 27 August 1894 – 13 February 1969, London) was a Polish poet and journalist; an elected member of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature in the Second Polish Repu ...
, Polish poet and writer
David Grunschlag, violinist, founding member and concertmaster of Israel philharmonic orchestra (1936-1959) first violinist Philadelphia Orchestra (1960-1984)
Other fields
* Tadeusz Chciuk-Celt, Polish war hero
* Yuriy Drohobych, first doctor of medicine in Ukraine, 1481–1482 rector of the University of Bologna
The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in contin ...
*Yaroslav Popovych
Yaroslav Popovych ( uk, Ярослав Попович; born 4 January 1980) is a Ukrainian former professional cyclist, who rode professionally between 2002 and 2016.
The winner of the under-23 road race at the 2001 UCI Road World Championships, ...
, cyclist (born here)
*Józef Schreier
Józef Schreier (; 18 February 1909, Drohobycz, Austria-Hungary – April 1943, Drohobycz, Occupied Poland) was a Polish mathematician of Jewish origin, known for his work in functional analysis, group theory and combinatorics. He was a mem ...
, Polish-Jewish mathematician
* Viktor Vekselberg, Russian oligarch
Twin towns and sister cities
Drohobych is twinned with:
References
External links
Drohobych Info - biggest news site
Drohobych - city portal
Drohobych.com - Drohobych city administration website
Drohobych
in Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...
of Ukraine database
Drohobych the King's city
Drohobych.Net
Stories by Irene Frisch, a Drohobych-born Holocaust Survivor
i
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
, native_name_lang = uk
, caption_background =
, image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG
, imagewidth =
, type = Particular church (sui iuris)
, alt =
, caption = St. George's ...
, in Drohobych
Drohobych during the period of Nazism (PHOTOS)
*
{{Authority control
Cities in Lviv Oblast
Lwów Voivodeship
Ruthenian Voivodeship
Shtetls
Cities of regional significance in Ukraine
Holocaust locations in Ukraine
Populated places on the Dniester River in Ukraine