Sokal Сокаль | |
|---|---|
 Townhouses on the square in the city center | |
 Coat of arms | |
  Sokal  Sokal | |
| Coordinates:50°29′N24°17′E / 50.483°N 24.283°E /50.483; 24.283 | |
| Country |  Ukraine |
| Province | Lviv Oblast |
| District | Sheptytskyi Raion |
| Hromada | Sokal urban hromada |
| First mentioned | 1377 |
| Population (2022) | |
• Total | 20,373 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
Sokal (Ukrainian:Сокаль,IPA:[soˈkɑlʲ]ⓘ) is a city located on theBug River inSheptytskyi Raion,Lviv Oblast of westernUkraine. It hosts the administration of Sokal urban hromada, one of thehromadas of Ukraine.[1] The population is approximately20,373 (2022 estimate).[2]
The first written mention of Sokal dates from 1377.[citation needed] In 1424, it receivedMagdeburg rights fromSiemowit IV, Duke of Masovia, and in 1462, the town became part ofBełz Voivodeship,Lesser Poland Province. On August 2, 1519, followingthe defeat of a Polish-Lithuanian army underHetmanKonstanty Ostrogski byCrimean Tatars, the town was razed by the invaders.Mikolaj Sep-Szarzynski later dedicated one of his poems to this battle. In 1619,Armenians in Sokal were first mentioned.[3]
The town remained part of Poland until theFirst Partition of Poland, when it was annexed by theHabsburg Empire, as part ofGalicia. It was the capital of the Sokal district, one of the 78Bezirkshauptmannschaften in theAustrian Galicia province (Crown land) in 1900.[4] AfterWorld War I, possession of this province was disputed between Poland andSoviet Russia, until the 1921Peace of Riga, which attributed Eastern Galicia to Poland. In theSecond Polish Republic, Sokal was the seat of a county inLwów Voivodeship.
Sokal was in Polish territory until the Germaninvasion of Poland in September 1939. From September 1939 until June 1941 (seeOperation Barbarossa), it was part of Soviet-occupied territory. Before theHolocaust, Sokal had a Jewish population of 5,200; in addition, thousands of refugees from other parts of Poland arrived in Sokal. On September 17, 1942, 2,000 Jews from Sokal were deported toBełżec extermination camp. There was a severe water shortage in the Sokal ghetto. On October 24, 1942, a further 2,500 Jews from the town were deported to the Bełżec gas chambers. On May 27, 1943, the ghetto was liquidated and the town declared 'judenrein'. Only 30 Jews from the town survived the war, including 15 members of 3 families rescued by the Halamajowa family, consisting of the Polish Catholic grandmother Franciszka, her daughter and son (seeNo.4 Street of Our Lady).[5] The Soviet army recaptured the town in July 1944,[6] though the western part of the town (the former village of Zhvirka) remained part of Poland between 1944 and 1951 (see1951 Polish–Soviet territorial exchange).[citation needed]
In the early 17th century, a largeBaroque monastery of theBernardine monks, together with the Roman Catholic church of the Virgin Mary was built in Sokal. The complex is located in the district of Zhvirka, and untilWorld War II, it housed a painting of Our Lady of Sokal, which attracted Catholic pilgrims. Jan Ostroróg, one of the first Polish humanists was buried in the town. After World War II, the painting was moved to a church inHrubieszów, while the monastery was turned into a prison. On March 27, 2012, the historic complex was almost completely destroyed by fire.[citation needed]
Until 18 July 2020, Sokal was the administrative center ofSokal Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Lviv Oblast to seven. The area of Sokal Raion was merged into Chervonohrad Raion (modern Sheptytskyi Raion).[7][8]
Sokal is the location of the opening of the 2009 novelThe Kindly Ones byJonathan Littell, which takes place immediately following theGerman invasion ofSoviet-occupiedPoland in June 1941.Sokal is mentioned inThe Good Soldier Švejk byJaroslav Hašek as the town passed by Austro-Hungarian soldiers on the way to the battlefields of World War I.The short storySquadron Commander Trunov byIsaac Babel centres around the burial of the title character in the public gardens next to Sokal's cathedral.[10]
Sokal was the setting for two documentary films: One was theNo.4 Street of Our Lady (2009) about the rescue of three Jewish families in Sokal by Franciczka Halamajowa family, and the other wasThe Same Snowy Ground (2020), that featured the ruined synagogue and the new park and told the tale of the town's Jewish community.
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