Brody

Brody lies in the upper Styr valley, on a route between Galicia and Volhynia. Its name recalls the fords across the wet ground. A fortified private town and a place of fairs, it drew merchants from several communities and became a prominent trading centre on the eastern frontier of the Polish lands.

In 1584 Stanisław Żółkiewski founded a town here under Magdeburg law, initially naming it Lubicz. Stanisław Koniecpolski acquired Brody in 1629 and commissioned a fortress designed by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan. Royal privileges of 1633 strengthened its fairs and granted a staple right; Koniecpolski also founded a school and a silk and wool manufactory. Cossack forces plundered the town in 1648. The Potocki family acquired it in 1704, and in 1772 Brody passed to the Habsburg monarchy. In the early nineteenth century it was a major centre of trade between Austria and Russia.