Chełm

Chełm rises around a hill above the borderlands of Poland and Rus'. In the thirteenth century King Danylo of Galicia made the fortified town a capital, built a castle and established a bishopric here. Ruthenians, Poles, Germans and refugees from Tatar raids settled beneath its walls, while churches of different traditions gave the town enduring religious importance.

After the wars over the Galician succession, Chełm came under the Polish Crown. King Władysław Jagiełło granted it Magdeburg rights in 1392, and it became the centre of the Chełm land within the Ruthenian Voivodeship. The Latin and Eastern bishoprics both had roots in the city; the latter entered communion with Rome after the Union of Brest, retaining its Byzantine rite. Chełm prospered in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries but suffered during the Cossack wars and Swedish invasion in the seventeenth. In 1794 the town joined the Kościuszko uprising, but Polish troops were defeated near Chełm by Russian forces. The third partition of Poland in 1795 placed the city under Austrian rule; after the Napoleonic wars it passed to Russian-ruled Congress Poland.