Buchach

Image - A view of Buchach city centre. Image - Buchach: Church of the Theotokos (1764) designed by Bernard Meretyn. Image - Buchach: panorama with the Dormition Church. Image - A panorama of Buchach.

Buchach [Бучач; Bučač]. Map: IV-6. City (2011 pop 12,514) on the Strypa River, a raion center in Ternopil oblast. Buchach was first mentioned in historical documents from 1397 as part of the estates of the Buczacki family. In 1515 the fortified city was granted Magdeburg law. In the 16th and 17th centuries Buchach protected Galicia from the Tatars and Turks. In 1672 the Buchach Peace Treaty was signed. Count Stefan Potocki established a Basilian monastery in 1712; a well-known school functioned at the monastery until 1893. The Basilians ran a teacher's seminary here in 1855–65, and from 1911, the Saint Josaphat Institute. From the mid-19th century to 1939 Buchach was a county center. It produced carpets and ornamental rugs. The city developed slowly: in 1880 it had 9,000 inhabitants, of whom 63.5 percent were Jews; in 1939 it had 11,100 inhabitants, of whom 46.4 percent were Jews, 31.9 percent were Poles or Roman Catholics, and 21.6 percent were Ukrainians. In 1959 Ukrainians constituted 96 percent of the population. Today a food industry is located in Buchach. Among its architectural monuments are the ruins of the Potocki family's castle (14th–16th century); Saint Nicholas's Church (1610); the Basilian monastery (1712) with the baroque Church of the Elevation of the Cross (1751); the Church of the Theotokos (1764); and the town hall, built in the rococo style by the architect Bernard Meretyn and decorated by the sculptor Johann Georg Pinzel (1751).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]


Image - Buchach town hall (1751) built by the architect Bernard Meretyn and decorated by the sculptor Johann Pinzel. Image - Ruins of the Potocki family's castle (14th-16th century) in Buchach. Image - Ruins of the Potocki castle in Buchach. Image - Ruins of the Potocki family's castle (14th-16th century) in Buchach. Image - Buchach: panorama with the Basilian monastery. Image - A view of Buchach city centre. Image - Buchach: the Church of the Theotokos (1764) interior. Image - Buchach: the Dormition Church interior. Image - Buchach: the Dormition Church interior. Image - Buchach: Saint Nicholas's Church (interior). Image - Johann Pinzel: sculpture on the baroque church (1751) of the Basilian monastery in Buchach.


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