Volodymyr

Volodymyr stands on the Luha in western Volhynia. First mentioned in 988, it became a princely capital and an important ecclesiastical centre of Rus'. Its earthworks and the Dormition Cathedral, built under Prince Mstyslav in the twelfth century, recall the city's stature in the age of the Volhynian princes.

The city passed between Poland and Lithuania during the struggles for Galicia and Volhynia. A truce in 1431 left it under Lithuanian rule, and Volodymyr acquired Magdeburg rights. The Union of Lublin brought it under the Polish Crown in 1569. Orthodox, Catholic and Jewish communities shaped its civic and religious life, while its castle remained a centre of authority in the surrounding district. Wars of the seventeenth century devastated Volodymyr, especially in 1653 and 1658, and the city declined. Some recovery followed in the eighteenth century, when the Jesuits built a stone church in 1755. In 1795 the third partition of Poland placed Volodymyr in the Russian Empire.