Halych: Encyclopedia II - Halych - Old Halych

Halych - Old Halych

The excavations by Jaroslaw Pasternak conducted until 1942 established that ancient Halych originated at the place of todays village Krylos (located 5 km North from modern Halych) in the 10th century. Pasternak also discovered remains of a 11th-12th c. 5-apse decorated with frescoes Cathedral of the Dormition bigger than any known churches of those times with a burial of prince Yaroslav Osmomysl (1153-1187) in it. This finding suggests that ancient Halych was a center of metropoly. Excavations During Soviet period by Karger, Vitold Aulikh and oth. that led to discovery of numerous white-stone temples in Krylos developed this suugestion. The first known mention of Halych in the Hypatian Codex of the Primary Chronicle dates to 1141, when the settlement was being considerably expanded. Three years later, Prince (knyaz) Volodimirko Volodarevich (1104-52) united the competing principalities of Peremyshl, Zwenihorod and Terebovlya into the state of Halychyna, making Halych the seat of his Rurikid dynasty.

The first dynasty of Halych, descending from Vladimir of Novgorod, went extinct in 1199. The same year Roman the Great founded the new Rurikid dynasty, uniting Halychyna and Volhynia into the more powerful principality of Halych-Volhynia. The Mongols under Batu Khan took the capital in 1241, when the famous King Danylo was its ruler. Thereafter the town steadily declined, eventually ceding supremacy to the newly-founded Lviv.

The excavations of 1939-41, 1951-52, and 1955 uncovered remains of houses, workshops, fortifications, and 10 churches built of white stone. It is believed that the early Halychian architecture, thoroughly permeated with Romanesque influences from the West, had much in common with the extant cathedrals of Vladimir and Bogolyubovo. The foundations of the Assumption Cathedral (1157) are still to be seen. The only surviving medieval church is that of Saint Pantaleon, originally constructed at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, but much rebuilt in the 17th century and controversially reconstructed in the 1990s. The archeological excavations (1989-2005 under direction of Yuri Lukomsky) at the terrains of Krylos and Halych continue.

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