Sharhorod

Sharhorod
Immaculate Conception Church in Sharhorod
Coat of arms
Country Oblast Raion	Ukraine Vinnytsia Oblast Sharhorod Raion
Founded	1579
Population (2015)[1]
• Total	6,987

Sharhorod (Ukrainian: Шаргород; Russian: Шаргород, Polish: Szarogród), also known as Shargorod, is a town in Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Sharhorod Raion, one of 33 regions of Vinnytsia Oblast. Population: 6,987 (2015 est.)^[1]

History

Early History

Sharhorod was founded in 1579 by Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth chancellor and hetman, Jan Zamoyski. It was located very close to the border with the Ottoman Empire.

Sharhorod was established as a city in agreement with the Magdeburg Rights in 1588.^[2]

In the seventeenth century, because of its location along wine and cattle trading routes, Sharhorod emerged as one of the largest towns in Podolia. The Turks occupied Sharhorod between 1672 and 1699, when the town was called "Little Istanbul". In the nineteenth century, the town became a center of Jewish Hasidism.^[3]

Shargorod was briefly described in a book titled: "Geographic Dictionary of Polish Kingdom and other Slavic places," published in Warsaw in Poland.^[4]

World War II period

Shargorod was occupied by the German fascist army and by the Romanian fascist army during World War II in 1941–1945.^[5]

Around seven thousand Jewish people were kept and killed in a ghetto, created by the German fascist army and by the Romanian fascist army in Shargorod.^[5]

Religion

Orthodox

There is the St. Nicolas Orthodox Monastery, which was founded in Shargorod in 1719, initially constructed in 1782, and finally built in 1806–1818.^[6][7][8]

Catholic

There is the St. Florian Catholic Cathedral, which was opened in Shargorod on November 3, 1525.^[7][8]

Jewish

There is the Synagogue, which was built in Shargorod in 1589.^[7][9][8]

Culture

The international modern arts festival "Art-City: Shargorod" is conducted in Shargorod.^[10][11]

Professional painters, amateur painters, art collectors and tourists from various countries like to attend the international modern arts festival "Art-City: Shargorod".^[12]

Transportation

Railway transportation

The name of nearest railway station is the Yaroshenka railway station. The distance to the nearest railway station is 28 km.^[13]

Automobile transportation

There is a bus station downtown. The distance to Zmerynka is 37 km. The distance to Bar, Ukraine is around 60 km. The distance to Vinnytsia is 80,8 km. The distance to Kiev is 330 km.

Notable people

Jacob Joseph of Polonne, a Ukrainian rabbi and one of the first and most dedicated of the disciples of the founder of Chassidut, the Holy Baal Shem Tov.

Gallery

• 
  St. Florian Catholic church in Sharhorod
• 
  Synagogue in Shargorod

Further reading

Tombstones Define Dying Shtetl in Ukraine, Los Angeles Times, 1997

References