Halych: Encyclopedia II - Halych - Old Halych

Halych - Old Halych

Written mention of Halych by Slavic chronicles dates back to 1138. Most comprehensive records about Halych are found in the Hypatian Codex of the Primary Chronicle. In 1141 Prince (knyaz) Volodymyrko Volodarovych (1104-1152) who united the competing principalities of Peremyshl, Zvenyhorod and Terebovlya into the state of Halychyna transferred his capital from Zvenyhorod, to Halych making it the seat of his Rurikid dynasty and considerably expanding the settlement.

The first dynasty of Halych, descending from Vladimir of Novgorod, culminated in Yaroslav Osmomysl (1153-1187) before going 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 1933-42 (Jaroslaw Pasternak), 1951-52 (Karger, Vitold Aulikh), and 1955 uncovered remains of houses, workshops, fortifications, and ten churches built of white stone. Pasternak's excavations established that ancient Halych originated on the spot of today's village Krylos (located 5 km north of modern Halych) as early as the 10th century. In 1936 Pasternak also discovered remains of a 11th-12th century three-apse cathedral with burial tomb of Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl in it. The cathedral is ascribed to the Cathedral of the Dormition previously known only from Chronicles, known to have been a sepulchre of the earliest Halychian princes. Most likely the cathedral was built in 1157 and destroyed in 1241 by hordes of Batyi Khan.

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