Bereschany

Berezhany lies on the Zolota Lypa between Lviv and Terebovlia. Its market and imposing castle developed under the Sieniawski family, who made the town their principal residence. In 1530 King Sigismund I granted it a charter providing for weekly markets and two annual fairs, open to traders of different faiths and backgrounds.

Mikołaj Sieniawski began a fortress on an island in the river in 1534; completed in 1554, it became one of the region's strongest strongholds. Berezhany attracted Ukrainians, Poles, Jews and Armenians. War nevertheless brought repeated plunder: Cossacks and Tatars raided it in 1649, Swedish forces took it in 1655, and Ottoman troops sacked it in 1675. In 1703 Francis II Rákóczi and Miklós Bercsényi met the rebel leader Tamás Esze here and issued a call for Hungarian resistance to the Habsburgs. Berezhany itself passed to Habsburg rule in 1772.