Stryi

Stryi takes its name from the river on whose left bank it stands, at the foot of the Carpathians. First mentioned in 1385, it grew as a trading town on the route between Halych and Lviv. It received Magdeburg rights in 1431 and was governed by a magistrate and burgomaster. The town's prosperity was interrupted by repeated raids. Tatars destroyed Stryi in 1523, and it was rebuilt with a castle for defence; another Tatar attack devastated it in 1634. In 1772 the first partition of Poland transferred the town to the Habsburg monarchy. The castle, once a feature of its defences, was dismantled under Austrian rule later in the eighteenth century.