Berestechko

Berestechko [Berestečko]. Map: III-6. A city (2001 pop 1,904) in Horokhiv raion, Volhynia oblast, on the Styr River. In 1547 the town was granted Magdeburg law. The Battle of Berestechko (1651) took place nearby. A memorial Church of Saint George was built on the graves of the Cossacks in 1912–14 by the architect V. Maksimov, with frescoes by Ivan Izhakevych and H. Schneider; nearby stands a wooden Saint Michael’s Church, built in 1650, which was transferred from the village of Ostriv. A monastery once located near Berestechko was razed by the Soviet army. From 1795 until the Revolution of 1917 Berestechko was part of the Russian Empire; from 1921 to 1939 it was part of Poland.

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