Halych

Halych gave its name to Galicia and to the principality that once ruled much of the country between the Carpathians and Volhynia. The princely capital stood above the Lukva, near the Dniester, with great earthworks, churches and the residence of its rulers. Prince Volodymyrko made Halych his capital in 1141; under Yaroslav Osmomysl it became a major centre of Rus'.

After the Mongol invasion of 1241 the old capital declined and its inhabitants concentrated near the river port. The later town received Magdeburg rights in 1367, when a Catholic bishopric was also established; the archbishop's seat moved to Lviv in 1409. Halych remained an administrative centre of the Polish Ruthenian Voivodeship, and from 1564 its regional assembly met here. Tatar raiders burned it in 1621, Cossacks devastated it in 1649, and further destruction followed during the Ottoman war in 1676. Habsburg troops occupied Halych in 1772 during the first partition of Poland.