Welcome to small West UkrainianTown Berezhany! Former Brzezany: Polish (1387-1772, 1920-1939), Austrian (1772-1918), USSR (1939-1991) Website created and updated in Oslo, Norway on 19.11.'00 (updated 10.12.'00) by Roman Zakharii (from Berezhany) Copyright @ 2000 |
...theGreenest Birch Land of the Golden Lime Tree river
...a picturesque townand land lost in the forests and endless woods ofEastern Galicia...
-----------The only and firstwebsite about my hometown Berezhany on the web!------------
with links, history and infoon towns Berezhany, Ternopil, Pidhaytsi and over 50 main villagesand hamlets around the town
by
(This site I am devotingtoBerezhany my hometown in Ternopil region in EasternGalicia, in the heart of ancient Galicia in modern WesternUkraine)
...a forest deeron the blue background
(it is a Austrianpre 1918 version of the town's coat of arms, the modern versionis usually without the upper red part. Red and blue were thecolours of
All itsnames:
Two historical and official names:
BEREZHANY
Ukrainian name, present name
BRZEZANY
Polish and Austrohungarian name, used till 1939, it isspelled as 'Bzhezhany'
In other languages:
Other names which occur:Bzhezhani, Brzezhany (English mispellings of Polish name),Bzezan;
ATTENTION!
Town Berezhany lays ina picturesque valley of river Zolota Lypa (which means GoldenLime Tree), in 52 kilometers from Ternopil. People who weresettling here on the banks (in Ukrainian "bank" is"bereh" ) of the river were called"berezhanys", and the name of the town derives becauseof this, as some researches claim. By its sounding name Berezhanyis close to other Ukrainian word "berezhyna", whichmeans '94 flat banks of the rivers with hayfields '94, asUkrainian linguist M.T. Yanko connects this toponym. Sure is one:the root bereh (bank) in the name of the town.
Other theory claims that the namecomes from Polish/Ukrainian word 'Brzoza/Bereza' which means"Birch"
It is the epxplanation I found inGerman pre-war Brockhaus (in Mittersill Castle Library inAustria) under the town's entry "Brzezany" (as pre warPolish town name) but in new after-war editions ofBrockhaus entry Berezhany does not exist already. In many waysEuropean history of Berezhany ended in 1939, when it wasincorprated into the vast closed areas of Soviet empire.
In Berezhany itself peopleusually think that the name Berezhany derives from words"bereh" (river bank) or "berehy" (riverbanks) since it is located and grew on the banks of Golden LimeTree River, like river banks town if to translate themeaning Berezhany. The town in fact grew and developed around theBerezhany Castle, which is built and surrounded by the two flows(coming from great Berezhany Lake) of Golden Lime Tree River fromboth sides, island like place.
Although I think the"brzoza/bereza" version is more plausible in definitionof the origings the town's name.
Location ofBerezhany in Europe:
Other maps ofBerezhany:
Map of Berezhany (Western Ukraine view)
Map of Berezhany(Europe view)
Berezhany main downtown market or "Rynok" square.Click on it for full size.
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This a view of BerezhanyCastle, a masterpiece of the Defensive Architechture in Ukraine.The castle was built by the Italian Masters in 1534 - 1554according to the defensive scheme of French ArchitechtBeauplan...for the Noble Polish Family of Synyawski, whom Polishking gave Berezhany as a present... In 1829 part of thecastle was dismantled. It is the most important defensivestructure of the Renaissance age inUkraine. In this Synyawski castle great Hungarian patriot FerenzRakoczi first proclaimed and read his demands to the Austrianemperor and from here he initiated great Uprising in Hungariannational history... Now there is a memorable plaque in Hungarianand Ukrainian on the wall of the castle as a memory of thisevent. On the back of the picture you can see TROYITSKY (HOLYTRINITY) ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Built at thesame timeas the castle in 1554, the church's original ornaments have beenpreserved. It formed part of the castle and was used as amausoleum. An important monument of the Renaissance period.Castle is in a desolate state and needs rennovations...
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This is the emblem ofBerezhany Glass Plant above, one of the largest plants in theregion.
It is the Ukrainian Letter "B" in the center of theemlem, which stands as first letter
in town's name "BEREZHANY"
Berezhanylinks:
Berezhany castle
The aboveproject concentrates on first Soviets, Jewish Holocaust, Ghettoand Nazi executions in Berezhany. Project was initiated andheaded by Israeli Professor Shimon Redlich of Ben GurionUniversity and done by Viktor Susak and Natalia Narolska of LvivI. Franko University. (Links and materials in Ukrainian).
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Ternopilregion's:
BEREZHANY
Historical,Cultural and Geographical description of Berezhany Districtand Berezhany town.
Berezhanydistrict has an area of 1100 sq. km and a population of about100,000 (including Pidhaytsi district, which is now a separateadministrative district unit). The district is agriculturalwith some light industryand factories in Berezhany. The town is situated on theboth banks of the Zolota Lypa (Golden Lime Tree) River. Thepopulation of the town is about 20,000 persons.
Geography,landscape, natural conditions of Berezhany area
Berezhany landscapes withtheir beauty can compete with the most picturesque corners ofUkraine. Town streets and squares lay at 12 meters below theriver surface level. And around there are hill s (or mountains aslocals call them) covered with forests. They quite high: mountainStorozhyska (Storoziska) has 398 meters, Zwirynets (Zwierzyniec)has 382 meter and Yaryshkiv (Jaryszkow) has 408 meters. The eyewill not feel tired from the monotony reg ardless from whichmountain to look.
Berezhany is in thegeographical zone of Opillia, which is the highest and the mostdivided part of Podillian plateau. In general, the territory ofthe district is hilly with wide valleys. The most high part ofPodill ian plateau is north of Berezhany where is watershed ofrivers Zolota Lypa and Narayivka. Here is the highest point ofPodillian plateau, 448 meters above sea level.
Natural conditions ofBerezhany district are very positive for the development ofagriculture and forestry. The fertile dark grey and chornozem(chernozem, also called Black Earth, grassland soil with a darkhumic horizon, a layer with at least one percent carbon) soilsare the most common here. Chornozems soils occupy mailnly theflat lands between rivers Strypa and Zolota Lypa with richharvets. Areas with grey soils dominate in forested parts of thedistrict, where oak-hornbeam and hornbeam forests grow.
Berezhanyflora
Yet not in a remote past,Berezhany land was renown for its oak, fur tree, ash-oak woods.But they were barbarically eliminated in the perod of foregnrule. But still even today, if to compare with other Europeannations, Berezhany land is really abundunt in enormous forestsand woods, which stretch miles and miles. It is one of the mostfo r ested areas of Western Ukraine. A present times, there isbig work done for reconstruction of little productive hornbeamforests, which are gradually being replaced with oak-ash-larchforests. Beechwoods, once so common in this land, are also beingrest o red. Trees of European larch are also being intensevelyplanted. European larch, productive forest-creating tree, hadbeen cultivated here yet in the first half of 19 th century.Whole woods of such precious tree kinds as Black nut and Crimeanpine have bee n also planted. Amongst local forest "treeelders" are fast growing green douglasia, red oak,Carpathian spruce. In total in district forests, there are about200 forest and thicket kinds of trees and bushes.
Berezhanyfauna
Animal world of Berezhanyland is also quite ve rsatile. Wild boars, deers, roe deers,foxes, squirrels are permanent inhabitants of local forests. Wildcat occurs more rearely. Bird kingdom is represented by pheasant,grouse, bullfinch, woodpecker, starling, sparrow, swallow, crane,magpie, dove and o t hers. There is lots of fish in rivers (carp,crucian, perch, pike). Water rats also inhabit the rivers andwater areas. Hares, larks, martens, moles, stoats, polecats(skunks), meadow voles, weasels, black-headed bunting live in thefields here. Among en dangeroud species here we find podolliancat, red backed or wood vole which inhabits the thickets andforests and spotted hamster.
Berezhanyminerals
Berezhany land is rich inminerals, particularly in building materials.
Berezhanyclimate
Climate of Berezhany landis mild and quite wet. In general, 520-550 mm of precipitationfalls yearly here. The lowest registered tempureture was recordedhere in winter: minus 35 degrees Celsius and the highest plus 35degrees Celsius in summer. The coldest days are in january andthe awrmest ones in July. Winter, which is accompanied oftenlywith thaws, lasts fro m the second decade of December till themiddle of February. In summer, there are no droughts basically.Such climate conditions are very positive for the intensivedevelopment of agriculture.
Shorthistory:
The area hasbeen populated since thelate paleolithic era. There are some signs of that periodnot far from the town. The first
independent in 1991.
Architechture:
Berezhany hasrich historical architechture heritage. Besides the castle thereis also Mykolayivska (St. Nicholas') Church built in 1691as a brilliant example of the Galician school of woodarchitecture. Troyitsky (Holy Trinity) cathedral built in1768 and rebuilt in 1893-1903 is one of the
Town and people:
Berezhany hadits good and bad times like any other border town. Berezhany has its some small industries: agricultural technicalenterprise, fish shop, some brick works, bakery, oil-milletc. The town is very green. Besides the district center(Berezhany itself), there is one more town, Pidhaytsi (formerlyPodhajce), which the regional Ternopil administration recentlyformed into a separate district as it used to be during Polishand Austrian times. Berezhany hosts the "Mikron"plant, a former secret Soviet military plant which now producesFM Radios, as well as a big glass producing plant, a macaronifactory, bakeries, and a few brick factories. It has thetown and region's Historical Museum, situated in the Old TowerClock Building, where the town administration is located. One of the largest and highest Ukrainian Orthodox churches in theregion is being constructed in Berezhany now near the districtadministration building after. Recently, Berezhany alsowitnessed opening of a monument to the Ukrainian writer TarasShevchenko on the Central Rynok Square, opposite to the
First World War inBerezhany:
During the FirstWorld War Berezhany was on the front-line and came into historyas a renown place of the First World War fightings during1914-1917. On the fields of Lysonya hill 2 km from Berezhany,there was one of the major battles in the First World War betweenRussian Tsarist Armies and united German-Austrian coalitiontroops helped with Ukrainian Sich Bowmen Divisions and twoTurkish Divisions. Many Turks died fighting around Berezhany,since Austrian and German Army command used to put Turkishsoldiers o the most heavy parts of front and battlefields. Thusnowadays there are a few Austrian-German military cemeteries, oneat the Lysonya hill itself and another inPidvysoke/Lopushna. There are aaround 6 Turkish MilitaryCemeteries (the only ones in Ukraine of First World Wartimes) in Berezhany area (in Pidvysoke/Lopushna, Hutysko,Verkhnya Lypytsia and Pukiv).
Armenian settlement:
Berezhany alsoboasts the Armenian Church. Berezhany was one of a few towns inCentral Eastern Europe which had the Armenian colony. Armeniansestablished colony in Berezhany, Lviv and Buchach escaping Moslemopression and persecutions in Armenia. Most of BerezhanyArmenians were assimiliated by local Poles and adopted Polishsurnames althou a desolate Armenian church (built in typicalArmenian architechture style) still stands in the center of thetown, as a dumb witness of once vivid Armenian life in Berezhany(see
See picture of ArmenianChurch's ruins in Berezhany
Cemetery:
Berezhany TownCemetery is a uniqe historical place reflecting multinational andversatile past of the town with graves and monuments of its pastAustrian, German, Armenian and Polish inhabitants up to thegraves of Ukrainians, always present in the city and nowdominant, as well as.graves and memorial of Soviet and Russiansoldiers who occupied (or liberaeted from Nazis) the areaafter the II World War.
Town'sPopulation:
According to theAustrian census of 1900, the total population of Berezhany was11,443 persons, including 4390 Jews. The majority wasPolish and Ukrainian, with some Germans. The populationgrew, and according to the 1939 census, the town's populationnumbered 12,700, although the Jewish population decreased to 4000according to the 1939 census. The district's ruralpopulation was always predominantly Ukrainian with some isolatedPolish villages and colonies such as in Hutysko, Pidvysoke, andMechyshchiv. Now the area is populated exculisevely byUkrainians with some Russians in the towns, who settled thereduring the Soviet times, as well as a few Poles and Jews inBerezhany. Now Berezhany numbers arond 19.000 inhabitants, andhas four secondary schools and one Gimnasium. One of the schoolused to be Russian taught (for local new Russian settlers) duringthe Soviet times but now it serves as Ukrainian one.
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Hotel "ZOLOTALYPA" ('GOLDEN LIME TREE')
Central Square Rynok
Berezhany, Ternopilregion, Ukraine 283150
phone: 380 3548 2 13 72
Berezhany Central Busstation
1, Pryvokzal`na str.
Berezhany, Ternopilregion, Ukraine 283150
phone: 380 3548 2 12 44
Berezhany Central RailwayStation
5, Pryvokzal`na str.
Berezhany, Ternopilregion, Ukraine, 283150
phone: 380 3548 2 18 20
Berezhany CentralPost Office
1, Cherniahovs`kogo str.
Berezhany, Ternopilregion, Ukraine, : 283150
phone: 380 35 48 2 11 39
BerezhanyPostal Zips: 283150 (old Soviet), 47501 (modern Ukrainian)
International Codefor Ukraine: 380
National TelephoneCode for Berezhany: 3548
On theHistory of Berezhany Jewry:
8.083 Jews lived in theBerezhany district in 1900, 7600 Jews in 1939.
Most of them, 6.876 (1900) / 6.480(1939) Jews lived in the towns(Berezhany, Kozova, Narayiv) and 1.120 lived in thevillages. During the Holocaust, the Nazis murdered 2200 Jews(only 200-300 persons were rescued) in the town and district ofBerezhany (autumn 1941: 510 Jews exterminated; 1943: 1180 Jewsexterminated; and in 1944, 100 Jews (30 families) in hiding werekilled in the village of Mechyshchiv near Berezhany, because ofthe Jewsih Physcian Dnnes whowas discovered by Nazis on astreet of Mechyshchiv). 1.000 of Berezhany Jews excapedEast to the Soviet Union just before coming of the Nazis. One ofthem came back from Soviet Ural many years later and sitting atthe desolate mass grave lonely crying over his sisters and familykilled by Nazis and whom he never saw again and who were takenwith all Berezhany Jews to the old town's Jewish cemetery andbeing naked all were shot in two large mass graves by Nazis.
Among the mostremarkable Jewish families in Berezhany were:
Grinberg, Vogel(wholesalers of oil and candles), Fenster, Altein, Messer, Altman(mixed goods), Jakow Mittelman (iron goods), Zlatkes (leathertrade), Sigal (wholesaler, trader--his son served at theUkrainian Galician Army and fought for Ukrainian independence),Galpern (lawyer--his son fought in the Ukrainian Galician Army,too), Dr. Falk (shot by Gestapos), Dr. Wilhelm Naiman (aphysician, born in Pidhajtsi and educated at the BerezhanyGymnasium), Grad, Gutenplan (Grads and Gutenplans were hiding inthe village of Olesyn during the Holocaust) Marko Bardach (formerstudent of Berezhany Gimnasium, author of the book on Ukrainians"Geschichtloses Volk"), and Dr. Pinkas Pomeranz, whobeing led for the execution by Nazis with all other BerezhanyJews said to people around: "Fortune destinied us such theend. We all are dying for the faults of our fathers"
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BIBLIOGRAPHY ONBEREZHANY:
(for thosewho interested in further info on Berezhany)
There are twobooks in Ukrainian on Berezhany:
One was written and publihsed by Ukrainian emmigrants fromBerezhnay in the US and Canada
and is entitled "Berezhany Land" (in Ukrainian) in twovolumes the most comprehensive and most serious publication.Also, "Berezhany in recollections of Emmigrants" (inUkrainian), based on "Berezhany land". Other publcationis a small book "Berezhany" of renown Ukrainianarcheologist S. Hereta from Ternopil, who heads theInstitute for Archeological Research in Ternopil. There is onebook in Polish also on Berezhany, I do not remember the name ofthat Polish historian though. Professor
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