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Berezhany Бережани | |
|---|---|
 Panorama over the old town of Berezhany | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
  Berezhany Location of Berezhany without Ukraine Show map of Ternopil Oblast Berezhany Berezhany (Ukraine) Show map of Ukraine | |
| Coordinates:49°26′45″N24°56′10″E / 49.44583°N 24.93611°E /49.44583; 24.93611 | |
| Country | Ukraine |
| Oblast | Ternopil Oblast |
| Raion | Ternopil Raion |
| Hromada | Berezhany urban hromada |
| First mentioned | 1375 |
| City rights | 1530 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Rostyslav Bortnyk |
| Area | |
• Total | 12 km2 (4.6 sq mi) |
| Population (2022) | |
• Total | 17,139 |
| • Density | 1,400/km2 (3,700/sq mi) |
| Area code | + 380-3548 |
| Website | Berezhany City Council |
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Berezhany (Ukrainian:Бережани[bereˈʒɑnɪ]ⓘ;Polish:Brzeżany;Yiddish:ברעזשאַן,romanized: Brezhan) is a smallcity inTernopil Raion,Ternopil Oblast, westernUkraine. It lies about 50 km (31 mi) from the administrative center of the oblast,Ternopil. Berezhany hosts the administration ofBerezhany urban hromada, one of thehromadas of Ukraine.[1] Population:17,139 (2022 estimate).[2]
The first written mention of Berezhany dates from 1374, when the village was granted by the Governor of Galicia and LodomeriaVladislaus II toRuthenian boyar Vas'ko Teptukhovych. Shortly afterwards, in the 14th century it became a part of Poland and became the property of a noble family fromBuchach — membersHouse of Buczacki, laterSieniawa. AsMikołaj Sieniawski, a notable Polish military commander and politician envisioned a seat of his family there, on March 19, 1530, KingSigismund I of Poland granted the village a city charter modelled on theMagdeburg Law. The document, among other privileges, granted the new town ofBrzeżany, as it was called prior to 1945, with: two markets yearly, one for the day of Our Lord's Ascension and the other for the day of Saint Peter in Chains, that are to be held every year. As to weekly fairs these are to be held every Friday, although with respect to the rights of other nearby towns. Thus, the town is to allow each and every tradesman, cart driver or businessman, regardless of his or her state, gender, faith or rite, to arrive to the town of Brzeżany for trade.
The town's location on the route betweenLviv andTerebovlya proved beneficial to the city's growth and development. Among the first settlers to inhabit the town were people from Lwów liberated by Sieniawski from Tatarcaptivity. It soon started to attract settlers from all over Poland, including a large number ofJews,Ukrainians andArmenians. In 1534 Mikołaj Sieniawski also started to construct a large fortress at a steep hill on a small island at the Złota Lipa river (seeBerezhany Castle). The stronghold was finished in 1554 and became the main seat of theSieniawski family and one of the best fortified places in the region. Simultaneously, a large fortified convent and a church of theBernardines was constructed on the hill nearby. Both fortified places provided a safe refuge for the tradesmen, which added to the city's prominence in trade and commerce. In the early 17th century one of Mikołaj Sieniawski's grandsons, also named Mikołaj, fortified the city itself. The fortress withstood all attacks byTatars andCossacks until theKhmelnytsky Uprising of 1648, when it was captured by the Cossacks. In 1655 duringThe Deluge, it was again captured by the forces of Sweden and the city was again plundered. However, it was rebuilt afterwards and withstood further Cossack attacks in 1667 and 1672.
In 1675 the town was again sacked and pillaged by the forces of theOttoman Empire. However,Mikołaj Hieronim Sieniawski financed the reconstruction of the town. Among the buildings rebuilt were the Bernardine church and aUniate church in the suburb ofPolska Adamówka (paradoxically being primarily inhabited by Ukrainians and not Poles as the name suggests). Because of its relative safety the town grew and by the end of the 17th century there were nearly 8,000 inhabitants there.
In 1703, Brzeżany was the place of a meeting betweenTamás Esze [hu], leader of ananti-Habsburg uprising in Hungary, andFrancis II Rákóczi andMiklós Bercsényi, Hungarian conspirators who fled Austrian persecution to Poland.[3] In the town, Rákóczi and Bercsényi signed a proclamation, which called on Hungarians to fight for independence, and then they both joined the uprising in Hungary.[3]
After the death ofAdam Mikołaj Sieniawski, the last of his kin, the town was inherited byAugust Aleksander Czartoryski through Sieniawski's daughterMaria Zofia. Czartoryski, a notablemagnate, created a large artificial lake in the town's proximity in the early 18th century. Along the bank of that lake, the suburbs of Siółko and Kastelówka were built. After theFirst Partition of Poland of 1772 the town was annexed byAustria, who attached it to the region ofGalicia. After 1867 the town became part of theAustro-Hungarian Empire and continued to flourish as it was outside of the region of fortifications, inside which construction of new houses was severely limited. A grammar school was founded there in 1805, and had many notable alumni. Among them wereWłodzimierz Bednarski, Franz Kokovsky, Bohdan Lepkyi, Rudolf Moch,Kornel Ujejski,Ruslan Shashkevych, and the futureMarshal of PolandEdward Rydz-Śmigły. The town was connected by rail to Tarnopol (modernTernopil, Ukraine) in 1894 and in 1900 it had a population of 10,610.
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Although the city remained quite populous, with time it lost much of its importance as a trade centre. Also, the castle fell into neglect as the successors of the Sieniawski family, theCzartoryski andLubomirski families, were owners of many more castles and had no interest in this one in particular. DuringWorld War I the town was briefly occupied byRussia, but was soon recaptured by Austria-Hungary. The castle was partially pillaged by Austro-Hungarian soldiers who were stationed there during the war while some of the works of art were evacuated from the palaces ofPuławy,Łańcut andWilanów. At the end of the war the town was part of the short-livedWest Ukrainian People's Republic, but in 1919 was awarded to the renascent Poland by theConference of Ambassadors of theLeague of Nations, following the shortPolish-Ukrainian War. During thePolish-Bolshevik War it was briefly occupied by theRed Army, but was soon recaptured by thePolish Army after theBattle of Warsaw. However, some of the most precious sculptures and paintings from the castle and local churches, evacuated toKraków, were never returned and instead survived the war in the castle ofPieskowa Skała nearOjców. According to the 1921 census, the town had a population of 10,083, 62,0%Polish, 22.4% Jewish and 15,5% Ukrainian.[4]
After theInvasion of Poland of 1939 and the outbreak ofWorld War II the town was briefly occupied byNazi Germany, after which it was transferred to theSoviet Union. During the Soviet occupation many of the local inhabitants were sent to theGulag camps; there was also a notableNKVD prison located in the town. In June 1941, at the onset ofOperation Barbarossa, NKVD massacred from 174 to 300 prisoners held in Berezhany prison.[5]
On July 4, 1941, the town was again occupied by Germany and latter attached to the so-calledDistrikt Galizien of theGeneral Government. Before World War II Brzezany's Jewish population was about 4,000, while after 1939 this population tripled with an additional 8,000 Jews, refugees from eastern German-occupied territories. After the Soviets left in July 1941, enraged by the discovery of the bodies from the prison massacre, local Ukrainians launched apogrom, resulting in the murder of dozens of the town's Jews, as well as looting and injuries inflicted upon them.[6] In December 1941, approximately 1,000 Jews were killed in the Lityatyn forest.[7] On 12 June 1943 the Nazis murdered almost all the Jews from the Brzezany ghetto and work camp at the local cemetery; only a few escaped. Between 1942 and the end of the war there was heavy partisan activity in the area, mostly by local branches of theArmia Krajowa.
In 1944 the town was liberated in the course ofOperation Tempest of the insurgentPolish Home Army, but the Poles were soon pushed aside as the town was occupied by theRed Army. In 1945 it was annexed by theSoviet Union and attached to theUkrainian SSR.
Since 1991 it has been a part of Ukraine.
Until 18 July 2020, Berezhany was designated as acity of oblast significance[8] and served as the administrative center ofBerezhany Raion though it did not belong to the raion. As part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Ternopil Oblast to three, the city was merged into Ternopil Raion.[9][10]
The city is located about 50 km (31 mi) from the administrative center of the oblast,Ternopil. The city is about 400 metres (1,300 ft) above sea level.
| Climate data for Berezhany (1981–2010) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −0.1 (31.8) | 1.4 (34.5) | 6.2 (43.2) | 13.8 (56.8) | 19.8 (67.6) | 22.3 (72.1) | 24.3 (75.7) | 23.9 (75.0) | 18.7 (65.7) | 13.1 (55.6) | 5.9 (42.6) | 0.8 (33.4) | 12.5 (54.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −3.1 (26.4) | −2.1 (28.2) | 2.0 (35.6) | 8.5 (47.3) | 14.0 (57.2) | 16.8 (62.2) | 18.7 (65.7) | 17.9 (64.2) | 13.3 (55.9) | 8.2 (46.8) | 2.6 (36.7) | −1.9 (28.6) | 7.9 (46.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −6.0 (21.2) | −5.2 (22.6) | −1.6 (29.1) | 3.7 (38.7) | 8.5 (47.3) | 11.7 (53.1) | 13.5 (56.3) | 12.8 (55.0) | 8.7 (47.7) | 4.2 (39.6) | −0.3 (31.5) | −4.6 (23.7) | 3.8 (38.8) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 30.0 (1.18) | 35.3 (1.39) | 37.3 (1.47) | 42.2 (1.66) | 67.9 (2.67) | 80.5 (3.17) | 80.8 (3.18) | 71.7 (2.82) | 54.1 (2.13) | 41.9 (1.65) | 36.0 (1.42) | 37.5 (1.48) | 615.4 (24.23) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 8.9 | 8.8 | 8.2 | 7.7 | 10.1 | 10.7 | 9.9 | 9.1 | 8.4 | 7.1 | 8.7 | 9.5 | 107.1 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 84.7 | 83.4 | 79.4 | 73.0 | 73.0 | 75.4 | 76.3 | 77.6 | 80.7 | 82.1 | 85.8 | 86.8 | 79.9 |
| Source:World Meteorological Organization[11] | |||||||||||||
There are foursecondary schools and agrammar school in the city.
Abrickyard, afurniture factory and aglassworks are all of economic importance to Berezhany.
Of architectural significance are the ruins of the five-cornered fortress (completed in 1554), a park originally laid out in the 17th century, and the wooden Church of Saint Nicholas (completed in 1691).[12]
