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Drohobych Tours


Drohobych town, panorama

Bruno Schulz and his town

Drohobych Sinagogue

St. George's Wooden Church (ca 1500), UNESCO List

St. Bartholomew Catholic Cathedral (14th-16th cen)

Drohobych salt plant (since 1250)

Drohobych water  supply history

Drohobych town from city hall bell towerDrohobych (Yiddish: ‫דראָהאָביטש‬‎) boasts its exquisite architecture and miscellany of styles. We suggest you visit one of our city's showcase buildings: the Drohobych Ratusha (City Hall). Situated in the very heart of the city, this elegant and majestic building will fall right into the focus of your attention. You can ascend to the top of the Ratusha Tower and have a unique pleasure of observing the city from a bird's eye view. Right here, on the terrace of the tower, above the quotidian hustle and bustle of the city, you will add festive colours to the palette of your Drohobych impressions.
Sightseeing Tour of Drohobych will be of particular interest to you as it brings you closer to the city in general, and also specifically covers unique locations which you will definitely be willing to visit again. You are going to stroll through the calm and cosy streets of the city, observe its beauty and appraise its architectural attractions. Old temples, stately villas, and famous listed buildings—all of these will impress you during your stay in Drohobych, a city with pleasant vibes and authentic spirit of Central Europe. 

Kievan Rus times fortification tower, 12th cenDrohobych is the city of Ivan Franko's childhood and adolescent years. This sightseeing tour is for those who are genuine aficionados of the creative heritage of this world-famous genius born in the province of Drohobych. During a fascinating and informative promenade, you are about to visit places related to Ivan Franko's life and activities as well as many other locations. The sightseeing route will reveal prototype locations of the settings in which the author placed the plots and characters of his literary works. 
St. George's Church, ca 1500, UNESCO ListDrohobych will fascinate you, charm you, and fill you with energy. This is the city which inspired Bruno Schulz to create his world famous masterpieces. Here and here only will you be able to find out about this famous writer and graphic artist: to see the childhood house of Bruno Schulz, the Ratusha, the Street of Crocodiles, the Villa Bianca, the King Jagiello Grammar School, and many other buildings where he lived, studied, worked, and created his literary works, wall paintings, and cliche-verre drawings. Get ready to immerse in Bruno Schulz's Republic of Dreams! 
Drohobych is a city where modernity is tangled with history. Here, the feeling of time dissipates in an incredible aesthetic delight from the journey through urban spaces. Sometimes, technological progress yields in the face of traditions of many centuries—as you will ascertain if you visit Drohobych Salt Factory—one of the oldest enterprises of its kind in Eastern Europe, in uninterrupted operation since the 13th century.

St. Bartholomew Catholic Cathedral, 14th-16th cenOn September 1, 1939, Germany's invasion of Poland started the Second World War. September 10-11 saw mass German bombardment of key industrial and transport junctions of Drohobych. On September 18, having met with no resistance on the part of the Polish Army, Wehrmacht troops entered the city. On September 24, 1939, in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Red Army entered Drohobych. Publication of all newspapers and journals was immediately stopped, centers of all political, civic, cultural, and artistic organizations were closed, nationalization and confiscation of banks, enterprises, cooperatives, church and civic property began. The Polish zloty was replaced by the Soviet ruble as the main currency, all savings accounts were blocked, currency was exchanged at unfavorable rates, and the population was swiftly reduced to poverty. October 10, 1939 saw anti-democratic elections to the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine, which offered no real alternatives. This Assembly passed a resolution to incorporate the city, along with all western Ukrainian lands, into Soviet Ukraine and the USSR. On December 4, 1939 Drohobych was made a regional center (with 30 districts under its jurisdiction). The regional NKVD administration was created, subsuming all institutions in the city and region under its total control. A significant part of petroleum products from the city's factories in 1940-1941 were exported to the USSR's ally - the Third Reich. Between November 4, 1939, and June, 1941 the newspaper "Bilshovytska pravda" was published. In 1940 Bruno Schulz drew vignettes and article illustrations for this publication.

Ephoim Moshe Lilien, "Market Traiding in Drohobych". 1892"We lived on the market square, in one of those gloomy houses with blind, empty facades, so difficult to tell apart". (Bruno Schulz, "A Visitation")
"His home, like the stable in Bethlehem, becomes a place where demons, the spirits of higher and lower regions, gather." (Bruno Schulz. "Autumn")
"On Saturday afternoons, Mother and I would take a stroll, from the duskiness of the hallway we stepped at once into the sunbath of the day. ...On we strolled, Mother and I, along the two sunlit edaes of the market square, running, as over a keyboard, our crooked shadows over the row of houses. ...Finally, at the corner of ulica Stryjska, we stepped into the shadow of the chemist's shop. An enormous jar of raspberry juce in the chemist's spacious window symbolised the coolness of the balsams there, by which all afflictions might be assuaged." (Bruno Schulz, "August")

The institutions of the communist regime, like the subsequent institutions of the German "New Order" was accompanied by a radical change inThe ethnic and social make-up of the population. 
Nazy victims memorialIn the three years between late 1939 and early 1943. the population of Drohobych decreased almost by half (the city tost 45 per cent of its population). As of 1939. Drohobych had a population of 37 000 people: 27 per cent Ukrainians; 33 per cent Poles; 40 per cent Jews. The earliest days since the arrival of the Red Army and the NKVD brought mass arrests, killings, and deportations. More than 100 leaders of state institutions and civic leaders were arrested in October 1939. including City President (Mayor) M.Piechowicz, Head of City Court J.Zielinski. School Director T.Kaniowski. Drohobych Surgeon General E.Skulski, Director of "Polmin" Z.Biluchowski, Drohobych Dean Rev. I.Shevchyk, attorney I.BIazhkevych, and others. New arrivals from the USSR were appointed for leading positions in all branches. The first group of leaders (September 1939) comprised 597 people, of whom only 12 had a higher education. In April 1940 over 5 000 people from Drohobych were sent to Siberia. These included families of military personnel, officials, salesmen, industrialists, and priests. Sinagogue Starting from the second half of 1940, repression escalated: the cells of the two prisons, as well as the basements of downtown buildings began filling up with prisoners, representatives mostly of the Ukrainian community of the region, who were arrested at all hours supposedly for identity checks, or with no justification of any kind. Shortly before the beginning of the Soviet-German war, on June 10,1941, the Interior Prison of the NKVD (former court premises at 3, StryiskaSt.), with a capacity of 150 people, held 856 detainees. With the start of the German-Soviet war on June 22nd, the NKVD rushed to arrest members of the Drohobych intelligentsia, and school students. In retreating from the city on June 29,1941, members of the NKVD held mass shootings of the detainees. The killings and burials in Drohobych took place in both prisons, as well as in both Jewish cemeteries (Old Jewish cemetery was subsequently completely liquidated by Soviet authorities after the war, with residantiai buildings constracted in its place), as well as St. Peter and Paul Basilian Monasteryin the territory of what is today the Zalissia Recreation Complex. The years of the German occupation (1941-44) saw continued extermination of the local inhabitants. As of March 1.1943 the city's census showed half of its 1939 population - 19 400 inhabitants. Including 8 600 Ukrainians. 7 900 Poles. 2 300 Jews, and 600 people of other ethnicities. Only about 500 members of the Jewish community (15 000 strong before the war) survived the physical annihilation and deportations in Drohobych. The Germans deported 3 100 people for forced labor to Germany. Military campaigns were accompanied by significant population movement (evacuation of Soviet citizens at the start of the war, relocation of urban residents into rural territories, the westward emigration of some Ukrainians prior to the return of Former Soviet NKVD prison, the mass execution place in 1939-1941. Now State University Buildingthe Soviet authorities). 1944-1945 also saw a mobilization into the Red Army. No information is available on those Drohobych natives who perished on the front. Ethnic Poles were "repatriated" to Poland in 1945-1946. At the same time, Ukrainians were resettled from Southeastern regions of Poland. Between the fall of 1944 and December 1945, over 10000 Russians and members of other ethnicities arrived in Drohobych from the USSR. By the conclusion of the Second. World War, about a third of Drohobych's prewar residents still remained in the city.

Kiev & Ukraine Private Tour Guide