Rohatyn

Rohatyn (Ukrainian: Рогатин, Polish: Rohatyn) is a city located on the Hnyla Lypa River in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Rohatyn Raion (district).

The current estimated population is around 8,800 (as of 2001).

History

It was first mentioned in historical documents in the 12th century. Its name seems to be derived from Ruthenia, name of the region of location. In 1415, under Polish rule, it was granted the Magdeburg rights, and subsequently developed into an important trading and manufacturing town. In 1520 Roxolana, a native of Rohatyn, was captured there by the Tatars and sold to the Turkish sultan of which she became first concubine, then haseki and finally official wife. In the 16th century a renowned school of icon painting arose in Rohatyn, and in the 1580s an Orthodox brotherhood was founded obtaining the stauropegion (a monastery exempt from the control of the local bishop) status. After the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Rohatyn was annexed by Austria, and became a county center. A Ukrainian gymnasium was established there in 1909, and a minor theological seminary in 1931. During the interwar period the town was under Polish rule. In 1939 it became part of Soviet Ukraine and was granted city status. Today it is an important highway junction; 26 percent of its inhabitants work in the transportation industry.

Monuments

• stone Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos (end of the 14th century)
• remnants of the town walls and gate from the 13th and 14th centuries
• wooden Church of the Holy Spirit (1644–5) with a magnificent iconostasis (1647–50)
• the ruins of the Dominican monastery (1614)
• Roman Catholic Saint Nicholas’s Church in the Renaissance style (1666)
• wooden Saint Nicholas's Church (1729).

Gallery

Location

Local orientation

Regional orientation

External links

• Rohatyn in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• Website of Rohatyn
• Jewish Rohatyn
• Photographs of Jewish sites in Rohatyn in Jewish History in Galicia and Bukovina