Ivano-Frankivsk. Part 1: The history of the city in the details

Ivano-Frankivsk is located in a picturesque area between the two rivers – Bystrica Nadvirna and Bystrica Solotvynska there are in the foothills of the Ukrainian Carpathians.

At this place in the XVII century there was the bastion fortress. This type of construction was then common in Europe, and with popularization of firearms it has replaced easily vulnerable medieval fortress.

So, there was a fortified town in 1662 under the name of Stanislavov. It was built by Polish magnate Andrey Potockiy, who gave the name of the city in honor of his father – the Crown Hetman Stanislav Potocki. Although there is a version that Andrey named the castle in honor of his eldest son Stanislav. Also in 1662 the city was granted the Magdeburg Law, and it has also got its own coat of arms.

It should be noted that the city-fortress was built for defense purposes to protect against the Tatars and Cossacks, and served as a stronghold for the family Potocki. In 1703 the construction of the church of the Virgin Mary, who became the burial place of Potocki was completed.

Over the years, the city was owned by
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Austro-Hungary, Poland and Russia.

Generally it should be noted that the city has an original architecture, for which he was sometimes referred as “small Lviv”.

In 1802, the fortress that was the beginning of the history of the city, was dismantled. The residence of the Potocki also did not preserved to nowadays, a former symbol of luxury and grandeur – it was later rebuilt into a military hospital.

At the same time city symbol is the Town Hall Tower or Tower on Rynkova square where all the important events occurred. Unfortunately the tower did not survived in the First World War, and the current version of it was opened in 1928. After the Second World War, the town hall has ceased to perform its basic function – the Council, and it was opened the museum. Its main exhibit is the sarcophagus of Galician Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl (1187).

About the history of the city tell us its buildings, monuments and churches, as well as entire streets and neighborhoods. At the Taras Shevchenko street is located “Ukrainian House”, there in 1918-19 worked government of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic, and the city was the capital of ZUNR of about six months.

In 1990 from Ivano-Frankivsk to Kiev stretched human chain of unity, which was attended by various estimates from half a million to 5 million people.

Speaking of the modern name, in honor of the great “Kamenyar” Ivan Franko region center was renamed in 1962 to the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city.

A lot of moments tied the writer and the city, for example, here he met his first love. By the way, the old name was not enough Russian and this fact much annoyed by the Soviet authorities, and after the war they wanted to change it. There were many variants, one of them – Stalinokarpatsk.

One of the interesting places in Ivano-Frankivsk is “Sotka” – the pedestrian part of the main street. It was the first pedestrian zone in Ukraine and the second in the Soviet Union.

Another interesting fact is typical for the western regions of our country. On Sunday morning squares, streets and markets of the city are completely empty. The citizens are at this time in churches this tradition the Soviet government could not able to knock out from citizens.

Today, Ivano-Frankivsk is one of the most beautiful and largest cities of Ukraine, which is home for more than 200 thousand people.