The first written mention of Brzeżany dates from 1374, when the village was granted by Prince Władysław Opolski to Vas'ko Teptukhovych. Shortly afterwards, in the 14th century it became a part of Poland and became a property of a noble family from Sieniawa. As Mikołaj Sieniawski, a notable Polish military commander and politician envisioned there a seat of his family, on March 19, 1530, King Sigismund I of Poland granted the village with a city charter modelled after the Magdeburg Law. The document, among other privileges, granted the new town of Brzeżany, as it was called prior to 1945, with: two markets yearly, one for the day of Our Lord's Ascension day and the other for the day of Saint Peter in Chains, that are to be held every year. As to weekly fairs these are to be held every Friday, although with respect to the rights of other nearby towns. Thus the town is to allow each and every tradesman, cart driver or businessman, regardless of his or hers state, gender, faith or rite, to arrive to the town of Brzeżany for trade.

The town's location on the route between Lw�w (modern Lviv) and Trembowla (modern Terebovlya) proved beneficial to the city's growth and development. Among the first settlers to inhabit the town were people of Lw�w liberated by Sieniawski from Tatar captivity. It soon started to attract settlers from all over Poland, including a large number of Jews, Ruthenians and Armenians. In 1534 Mikołaj Sieniawski also started to construct a large fortress at a steep hill on a small island at the Złota Lipa river. The stronghold was finished in 1554 and became the main seat of the Sieniawski family and one of the best fortified places in the region. Simultaneously, a large fortified convent and a church of the Bernardines was constructed at the hill nearby. Both fortified places provided a safe refuge for the tradesmen, which added to the city's prominence in trade and commerce. In early 17th century one of Mikołaj Sieniawski's grandsons, also named Mikołaj, fortified the city itself. The fortress withstood all attacks by Tatars and Cossacks until the Chmielnicki's Uprising of 1648 when it was captured by the Cossacks. In 1655 during The Deluge, it was again captured by the forces of Sweden and the city was again plundered. However, it was rebuilt afterwards and withstood further Cossack attacks in 1667 and 1672.
 

In 1675 the town was again sacked and pillaged by the forces of the Ottoman Empire. However, Mikołaj Hieronim Sieniawski financed the reconstruction of the town. Among the buildings rebuilt were the Bernardine church and an Uniate church in the suburb of Polska Adam�wka (paradoxically being primarily inhabited by Ruthenians and not Poles as the name suggests). Because of that relative safety the town grew and by the end of the 17th century there were nearly 8,000 inhabitants there. After the death of Adam Mikołaj Sieniawski, the last of his kin, the town was inherited by August Aleksander Czartoryski through Sieniawski's daughter Maria Zofia. Czartoryski, a notable magnate, in early 18th century created a large artificial lake in the town's proximity. Along the bank of that lake the suburbs of Si�łko and Kastel�wka were built. After the first Partition of Poland of 1772 the town was annexed by Austria, who attached it to the region of Galicia. After 1867 the town became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and continued to flourish as it was outside of the region of fortifications, in which construction of new houses was severely limited. A grammar school was founded there in 1805, and had many notable alumni. Among them were Włodzimierz Bednarski, Franz Kokovsky, Bohdan Lepkyi, Rudolf Moch, Kornel Ujejski, Ruslan Shashkevych, and the future Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły. The town was connected by rail to Tarnopol (modern Ternopil, Ukraine) in 1894 and as of 1900 it had a population of 10,610.

Although the city remained quite populous, with time it lost much of its importance as a trade centre and became populated primarily by Jews as a typical shtetl. Also the castle fell in neglect as the successors of Sieniawski family, the Czartoryski and Lubomirski families were owners of many more castles and had no interest in this one in particular. During the World War I the town was briefly occupied by Russia, but was soon recaptured by Austria-Hungary. The castle was partially pillaged by Austro-Hungarian soldiers who were stationed there during the war while some of the works of art were evacuated from the palaces of Puławy, Łańcut and Wilan�w. At the end of the war the town was disputed by the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic, but in 1919 was awarded to the renascent Poland by the Conference of Ambassadors of the League of Nations, following a short Polish-Ukrainian War. During the Polish-Bolshevik War it was briefly occupied by the Red Army, but was soon recaptured by the Polish Army after the Battle of Warsaw. However, some of the most precious sculptures and paintings from the castle and local churches, evacuated to Krak�w, were never returned and instead survived the war in the castle of Pieskowa Skała near Ojc�w.

After the Polish Defensive War of 1939 and the outbreak of World War II the town was briefly occupied by Nazi Germany, after which it was transferred to the Soviet Union. During the Soviet occupation many of the local inhabitants were sent to the Gulag camps; there was also a notable NKVD prison located in the town. In 1941, after the end of the Nazi-Soviet Alliance and the outbreak of the Russo-German War, the town was again occupied by Germany and attached to the so-called Distrikt Galizien of the General Government. Between 1942 and the end of the war there was heavy partisan activity in the area, mostly carried over by the local branches of the Armia Krajowa.

In 1944 the town was liberated in the course of the Operation Tempest, but was soon occupied by the Red Army. In 1945 it was annexed by the Soviet Union and attached to the Ukrainian SSR. Since 1991 it has been a part of Ukraine.

 

 

Notable Jewish facts
1530 - Jews lived in Brzeżany when Brzeżany recieved a status of a city.
1570 - Of a total population of 260 people, four families were Jewish.
1672 - An estimated 20 per cent of the town were Jewish. Population put at 500 families, with 100 of them Jewish.
1718 - Construction of the Large Synagogue.
1764 - Jewish population increased to about 1000 people.
1789 - The number of Jewish families in the Brzeżany district, that included eight other small towns, was 2754.

1812 - Jewish population of 252 families (- about 1059 people)
1880 - Jewish population quadrupled to 4712.
1930 - Jewish population of about 3000.
1941 - German occupation from July 1.
1942 - First aktion to Belzec took place on Yom Kippur, 21 September.
1942 - Jewish Ghetto established in September. The number of Jewish persons in Brzeżany and the surrounding towns had risen to 12000.
1942 - Further Aktion to Belzec took place at Chanukah on 4 December.
1943 - Last Aktion took place on 12 June.

 

 

With thanks and acknowledgements to Wikipedia