Berezhany

Berezhany (Бережани, bereˈʒɑnɪ; Brzeżany; Brezhan; בּז'יז'אני/בּז'ז'ני Bzhezhani/Bzhizhani) is a city in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast, western Ukraine. It lies about from the administrative center of the oblast, Ternopil. The city is about above sea level. The yearly temperature in Berezhany ranges from in winter to in summer. Berezhany hosts the administration of Berezhany urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: The first written mention of Berezhany dates from 1374, when the village was granted by the Governor of Galicia and Lodomeria Vladislaus II to Ruthenian boyar Vas'ko Teptukhovych. Shortly afterwards, in the 14th century it became a part of Poland and became the property of a noble family from Buchach — members House of Buczacki, later Sieniawa. As Mikołaj Sieniawski, a notable Polish military commander and politician envisioned a seat of his family there, on March 19, 1530, King Sigismund I of Poland granted the village a city charter modelled on 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 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 her state, gender, faith or rite, to arrive to the town of Brzeżany for trade. The town's location on the route between Lviv and Terebovlya proved beneficial to the city's growth and development. Among the first settlers to inhabit the town were people from Lwów liberated by Sieniawski from Tatar captivity. It soon started to attract settlers from all over Poland, including a large number of Jews, Ukrainians 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 (see Berezhany Castle).