Medzhybizh

Medzhybizh [Medžybiž; historical name: Mezhybizh]. Map: IV-8. A town smt (2019 pop 1,339) on the Boh River in Letychiv raion, Khmelnytskyi oblast. It was first mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle under the year 1146. At the end of the 12th century Medzhybizh was an important center in the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. It was captured by the Tatars in 1241 and was recovered by Prince Danylo Romanovych in 1255. In 1258 his troops crushed the Tatar army near Medzhybizh. The town came under Lithuanian rule in 1362 and was transferred to Poland under the Union of Lublin in 1569. Its wooden castle was rebuilt in stone in the 14th to 16th centuries to protect the town from the frequent Tatar attacks. The town was granted the rights of Magdeburg law in 1593, and became an important cultural center in the 17th century. During the Cossack-Polish War of 1648–57 some major battles (in 1648, 1649, and 1651) were fought near Medzhybizh. In 1666 the town was captured by the Turks, who held it for 27 years. It was involved in the popular revolts against the Polish nobles in 1702–4 and 1734. After being transferred to Russia in 1793, Medzhybizh declined. In 1917 the First Ukrainian Corps commanded by Pavlo Skoropadsky was stationed in Medzhybizh. In the following year several battles between the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic and the Red Army were fought in its vicinity.

Today Medzhybizh has several food-processing plants and a brick factory. Its architectural monuments include the stone castle, which was partly rebuilt in the 19th century, the 16th-century Dormition Church, which contains many old frescoes, the 16th-century Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity, and a 16th-century palace. The Paleolithic Medzhybizh archeological site, where some of the oldest traces of human presence in Ukraine have been discovered, is located near Medzhybizh and the village of Holovchyntsi.

[This article was updated in 2020.]