Terebovlia (Ukrainian: Теребовля, also Terebovlya, Polish: Trembowla, English: Trembovl) is a small city in the Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine, and the administrative center of the Terebovlya Raion (district). In modern medieval English history texts it is usually written Terebovl.
The current population As of 2001[update] census is 13,661. In 1929 there was 7,015 people, mostly Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish. Prior to the Holocaust, the city was home to 1,486 Jews, and most of them (around 1,100) were shot by Germans in the nearby village of Plebanivka on April 7, 1943.
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Terebovlia is one of the oldest cities in present western Ukraine. It was first mentioned in chronicles in the year 1097. During the Red Ruthenia times it used to be the center of Terebovlia principality. It was called Terebovl (Polish: Trembowla). Terebovlia principality included lands of the whole south east of Galicia, Podolia and Bukovyna.[1] Polish King Casimir III the Great became the suzerain of Halych after his cousin's death, Boleslaw-Yuri II of Galicia, when the city became part of the Polish domain, being fully incorporated into Poland in 1430 during the reign of king Władysław II Jagiełło, while his son Casimir IV Jagiellon granted the town limited Magdeburg Rights.
After the rebuilding of the castle in Terebovlia in 1366,[2] Poland's (Podole Voivodeship) administered the town, until it became part of the system of border fortifications of Polish Kingdom and later Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against Moldavian and Wallachian transgressions. Later also against the constant invasion by the Crimean Tatars, Turkish and later also Zaporozhian Cossacks from the south and south-east. That is why the Terebovlya castle, monastery and churches, were all designed as defensive structures. This was the seat of the famous starost and most successful 16th century anti-Tatar Polish commander Bernard Pretwicz, who died there in 1563. In 1594, the Ukrainian cossack rebel Severyn Nalyvaiko sacked the town.
During the Khmelnytsky Uprising Terebovl became one of the centers of the struggle in Podolia lands. The city was frequently raided by the Crimean Tatars, Turks and their erstwhile allies, the Zaporozhian Cossacks. The most destructive attacks happened in 1498, 1508, 1515 and 1516, resulting in a temporary decline of the town. [2] In 1674, as part of preparations for another war with the Turks, who at that time were at war with Russia, the Diet decided to further strengthen Terebovlia and send garrisons there. The following year the Janissary once again embarked on raids against towns and villages, and on 20 September 1675 destroyed the town,[3] but the castle was held by a small group of defenders (80 soldiers and 200 townsmen) until King Jan III Sobieski arrived to relieve them. This episode is known as the Battle of Trembowla. The castle was destroyed during the final Turkish invasion of 1688.
Here the Bar Confederacy was declared in 1768. After the first partition of Poland in 1772, Terebovlia became part of the Austrian Empire until 1918, then after the Polish-Ukrainian War and Polish-Soviet War again it became part of Poland (1918–1939). Then the Soviet Union took the city along with eastern Poland until the German invasion in 1941, and then again the Soviet Union took over the town at it became part of the Soviet Ukraine between 1944–1991. In 1991 Terebovl finally became part of an independent Ukraine.
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