Buchach

Buchach (Ukrainian: Бучач; Polish: Buczacz; German: Butschatsch, Turkish: Bucaş) is a small city located on the Strypa River (a tributary of the Dniester River) in the Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Buchach Raion (district), and rests 135 km south east of Lviv, in the historic region of Galicia.

The current estimated population is around 12,500 (as of 2001 Ukrainian census).

History

The first written mention of Buchach was in 1260, when the great empire of the Kievan Rus was on the decline and another - that of Halych Volynsk - was on the rise. The city took its name from an archaic word "bucha," which translates literally as, "a native water", likely the Strypa River which cuts through the middle of the town.

From this vantage point, across the river and atop another hill stand the ruins of a stone castle, Buchach's crowning jewel, which was long ago governed by two important noble families, the Buchatskys and the Potockis. Both families played an important role in the development of Buchach and the region.

The Buchatskys were first to incorporate Buchach into their land holdings. Between the 14th and 17th centuries, the town was the main bastion of defense in Podilya, a geographic region in Western Ukraine. Buchach and its outskirts were guarded by a system of towers and castles. The Buchatskys made the castle their home and even built underground tunnels to allow residents to escape in the event of an attack. The castle was rebuilt several times, after increasingly frequent raids by the Turks and Tatars. Four hundred years later, when the Buchatsky clan vanished and the Potockis ruled the region, Mykola Potocki decided to build a new fortress for his family and the castle was abandoned as a place of residence.

The Buchatskys left to Buchach more than their castle. Copies of a 14th century religious document state: "Mykhaylo Buchatsky, the possessor of Buchach, founded on July 28, 1397, the Roman Catholic parish in Buchach." Arguments continue over the actual date, as other documents read the year as 1379 or 1387. No matter, Buchach became home to a Roman Catholic church that stood for almost four centuries, surviving fire and other potential ruin. Over time it became evident a new structure was needed. The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption was erected in 1761-63 and still stands today.

Never to be outdone, the Potockis also went on a building spree. In 1610, Stefan Potocki and his wife Maria erected the Church of St. Mykola, the first stone chapel in Buchach. Excavations in the cellar only a few years ago uncovered human skeletons bearing signs of torture. Historians had little doubt - this was another memorial to the brutality of the Soviet secret police. On May 12, 1751, Stefan's descendent, Mykola, laid the first stone for the magnificent Basilian Monastery. At the beginning of the 17th century, Stefan was given permission by the archbishop in Lviv to invite Basilian Fathers from Lithuania to found a theological school in Buchach. The abbey remains one of Western Ukraine's most beautiful and has in recent years been undergoing a facelift.

In 1772, Galicia was annexed by Austria as part of the First Partition of Poland.

Industry came to Buchach around the end of the 19th century. Among the small-scale industries there included a brickwork, and candle and soap factory, (modern) flour mills, a textile plant, and a necktie factory. The town also boasted a brewery and a winery. The largest factory was established early in the 1900s, when the Hilfesverein concern of Vienna set up a plant for the manufacture of wooden toys in Buchach employing some 200 workers, mainly young girls. In 1912 the Stanislaviv-based Savings and Credit Union opened a branch in Buchach, and this served as a bank for local industrialists and business.

Jews were predominant in certain artisan occupations in Buchach, notably tailoring, furriers, tin-smithing, book publishing, and waggoneering. Jews were also active in carpentry and cabinet making. From the late 19th century local Jews began to enter the free professions. By 1910 there were 14 Jewish lawyers and four medical doctors belonging to the Association of Zionist Professionals, and this reportedly represented about half the total number of Jewish professionals in Buchach. An association of accountants was formed in 1905 with 40 members.

Buchach remained a part of Austria and its successor states until the end of the First World War in 1918. The town was briefly a part of the independent West Ukrainian People's Republic before it was captured by the Republic of Poland in 1920.

In World War II, Eastern Galicia, including Buchach, was annexed by the Soviet Union and incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR (see Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact). In 1941, it was invaded by Nazi Germany; the town's Jewish community was almost completely obliterated during the Holocaust. The town was returned to the Soviet Union after the war, during which time its Polish community was ethnically cleansed. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Buchach became a part of newly independent Ukraine.

Famous natives

• Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888-1970), Nobel Prize-winning author
• Simon Wiesenthal
• Emanuel Ringelblum
• Alicia Appleman-Jurman
• Abraham David ben Asher Anshel Buczacz
• Mina Rosner

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Buchach is currently twinned with:

• Złotoryja, Poland

External links

• Verkhovna Rada website — city of Buchach, Buchatskyi Raion, Ternopil Oblast
• Buchach Today