Bar Ukraine: Encyclopedia - Bar Ukraine

Bar, Ukraine

Bar (Ukrainian Бар) is a town in Ukraine at the Rov river in the region of Podolia, in Vinnytsia Oblast. It has 17,200 inhabitants (2005).

The city was a small trade outpost named Row. In 16th century queen Bona Sforza founded a fortress at the rock over the river and named it Bar, after her home town of Bari in Italy. In 1540 king Sigismund I the Old granted the nearby town with city rights. The fortress was besieged several times in its history and was considered unbreakable. However, during the Chmielnicki's Uprising in 1648 it was captured by the cossacks under Bohdan Chmielnicki and severely damaged. The town was depopulated soon afterwards.

In 1672 it was captured by the Ottoman Empire and became a seat of local administration. On November 12, 1674 the town and the fortress were recaptured by the forces of John III of Poland after four days of siege. On February 29, 1768 the Confederation of Bar was started in the fortress. After the First Partition the town fell under Russian rule and lost significance. In 1921 transferred to the Ukrainian SSR, since 1991 in Ukraine.

Category: Towns in Ukraine

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Bar Ukraine", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki