Drohobych

St-George Orthodox Church

While there are only legendary accounts of it, Drohobych probably existed in the Kievan Rus' period. According to a legend, there was a settlement, called Bych, of salt-traders. When Bych was destroyed in a Cumanian raid, survivors rebuilt the settlement in a nearby location under its current name which means a Second Bych. In the time of Kievan Rus', the Tustan fortress was built near Drohobych. However, scholars perceive this legend with skepticism, pointing out that Drohobych is a Polish pronunciation of Dorogobuzh, a common East Slavic toponym applied to three different towns in Kievan Rus'.[3]

The city was first mentioned in 1387 in the municipal records of Lviv, in connection with a man named Martin (or Marcin) of Drohobych.[3] Furthermore, the same chronicler's List of all Ruthenian cities, the farther and the near ones[4] in Voskresensky Chronicle (dated 1377–82) mentions "Другабець" (Druhabets') among other cities in Volhynia that existed at the same time such as Холмъ (Kholm), Лвовъ Великій (Lviv the Great).

In 1392 Polish king Vladislav II ordered the construction of the first Roman Catholic municipal parish church (Polish: Kosciół farny), using the foundations of older Ruthenian buildings. In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city was the center of large rural starostvo (county within the Ruthenian Voivodeship).

Drohobych received Magdeburg rights some time in the 15th century (sources differ as to the exact year, some giving 1422 or 1460,[3] or 1496[5] but in 1506 the rights were confirmed by King Alexander the Jagiellonian). The salt industry was significant in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.

Yuriy Drohobych Monument

From the early seventeenth century, a Ukrainian Catholic brotherhood existed in the city. In 1648, during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Cossacks stormed the city and its cathedral. Most of the local Poles, as well as the Greek Catholics and the Jews, were murdered at the time, while some managed to survive in the Bell tower not taken in the raid. The 1772 partition of Poland gave the city to the Habsburg monarchy. In the 19th century, significant oil resources were discovered in the area, making the city an important center of the oil and natural gas industries.

After World War I, the area became part of the short-lived independent West Ukrainian People's Republic (Zakhidnoukrayins’ka Narodna Respublika; ZUNR). The ZUNR was taken over by the Second Polish Republic after the Polish–Ukrainian War and Drohobych became part of the Lwów Voivodeship in 1919. In 1928 the still extant Ukrainian private gymnasium (academically oriented secondary school) opened in the center of the city. The population reached some 40,000 in the late 1920s, and its oil refinery at Polmin became one of the biggest in Europe, employing 800 people. Numerous visitors came there to view the wooden Greek Catholic churches, among them the Church of St. Yur, which was regarded as the most beautiful such construction in the Second Polish Republic, with frescoes from 1691. Drohobych was also a major sports center (see: Junak Drohobycz).

In September 1939, after the German and Soviet invasion of Poland and according to the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement, the city was annexed to Soviet Ukraine. After the invasion Nazi Germany wanted to incorporate the city into its General Government due to its oil fields, but the USSR refused and annexed it.[6] In Soviet Ukraine, Drohobych became the center of the Drohobych Oblast (region). Its local Polish boy scouts created the White Couriers organization, which in late 1939 and early 1940 smuggled hundreds of people from the Soviet Union to Hungary across the Soviet-Hungarian border in the Carpathian Mountains. In early July 1941, during the first weeks of the Nazi invasion of the USSR, the city was occupied by Nazi Germany.

Pre-war Drohobych had a significant Jewish community of about 15,000 people, 40% of the total population. Immediately after the Germans entered the city, Ukrainian nationalists started a pogrom which lasted for three days, supported by the Wehrmacht. During 1942 there were several selections, deportations, and murders in the streets, again led by German troops and Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. In October 1942, Drohobych ghetto was established with approximately 10,000 prisoners, including Jews brought from neighboring localities. In June 1943, the German administration and troops liquidated the ghetto. Only 800 Jews from Drohobych survived.[7][8] On 6 August 1944, the German occupation ended and the Red Army entered the city. Despite the large Jewish population prior to the war, a current resident has stated that he was one of only two Jews who came back to his village to live after 1945.[9] After the war, the city remained an oblast center until the Drohobych Oblast was incorporated into the Lviv Oblast in 1959. In Soviet times, Drohobych became an important industrial center of Western Ukraine, with highly developed oil-refining, machine building, woodworking, food, and light industries.

Until 18 July 2020, Drohobych was designated as a city of oblast significance and belonged to Drohobych Municipality but not to Drohobych Raion, even though it was the center of the raion. As part of the administrative reform of Ukraine which reduced the number of raions of Lviv Oblast to seven, Drohobych Municipality was merged into Drohobych Raion.[10][11]

The population of Drohobych over the years was:

• 1931 – 32,300
• 1959 – 42,000
• 1978 – 65,998
• 1989 – 77,571
• 2001 – 79,119
• 2010 – 78,368
• 2022 – 73,682

Industries currently based in the city include oil-refineries, chemicals, machinery, metallurgy, and food processing. One of the indusrty that is no less significant is salt mining. Salt deposits in the city are remarcable, therefore one of the most popular symbols of Drohobych is salt, which is depicted on the emblem.

The city was home to one of Poland's best pre-war football clubs; Junak Drohobycz. It was disbanded in 1939 due to the Soviet invasion of Poland.

Halychyna Drohobych, founded in 1989 as Naftovyk Drohobych currently represents the city.

A former castle tower

• St. George's Church, Drohobych (c. 1500)
• St. Bartholomew Church, Drohobych (1392–16th century)
• its bell tower, former castle tower (late 13th century and 15th century)
• Ascension Church, Drohobych (late 15th century)
• Holy Cross Church, Drohobych (early 16th century)
• Choral Synagogue (1842–1865)
• Progressive Synagogue, Drohobych
• City Hall, Drohobych (1920s)
• St. Peter's and Paul's Monastery, Drohobych
• Drohobych Museum

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  St. George's Church, 16th–17th centuries
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  Church of the Holy Cross, 1613–1661
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  Brick Gothic St-Bartholomew Church (14th–16th centuries) and its bell tower
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  Town Hall
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  Basilian monastery of Saints Peter and Paul, 1825–1828
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  A historic building in Drohobych
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  Mazepy Street in Drohobych
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  Osmomysla Street, Drohobych
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  Villa of Raymond Jarosz
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  Bianchi Palace
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  Shevska Street, Drohobych
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  Drohobych City Park ХІХ st.
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  Until 1918, Choral Synagogue had been the central synagogue of Galicia and Lodomeria
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  Holy Trinity Cathedral
• 
  A historic building in Drohobych

Drohobych is twinned with:

City	Country	Since
Bytom	Poland
Buffalo, New York	USA
Dębica[15]	Poland
Legnica	Poland
Muscatine, Iowa	USA
Olecko	Poland
Smiltene	Latvia

• Drohobych Info - biggest news site (in Ukrainian)
• Drohobych - city portal (in Ukrainian)
• Drohobych.com - Drohobych city administration website (in Ukrainian)
• Drohobych in Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine database (in Ukrainian)
• Drohobych the King's city (in Ukrainian)
• Drohobych.Net (in Ukrainian)
• Stories by Irene Frisch, a Drohobych-born Holocaust Survivor
• Drohobych in Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• Seminary of Blessed Martyrs Severyn, Yakym and Vitalij of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, in Drohobych
• Drohobych during the period of Nazism (PHOTOS)
• Drohobych, Ukraine at JewishGen