Horodyshche

Horodyshche grew on the slopes of Pyvykha above the Dnieper, near an old crossing of the river. In 1489 Casimir IV granted lands here to Kyiv's St Nicholas Monastery, and the settlement appeared among its possessions in the sixteenth century. Its name, meaning a fortified site, recalled the older strongholds of the river country.

In the Cossack era Horodyshche became a company town with a fortress, court and town hall, housing the offices of the local Cossack administration. Its earthworks followed the shape of the high bank above the Dnieper floodplain. A Tatar attack in 1739 was defeated by local forces. After the Cossack regimental system was abolished, the town passed into the new Russian provincial administration and was renamed Hradyzk in 1789.