Above: Berezhany City Hall (then Liceum) before 1939....and today (November 2001, taken by me)

All its names:
Two historical and official names:

BEREZHANY
Ukrainian name, present name
BRZEZANY
Polish  and Austrohungarian name, used till 1939, it is spelled as 'Bzhezhany'

In other languages:

Byeryezhany  - Russian/Soviet: 1939-1991
 Barzan -Yiddish
Berezany/Brzezany - German/Austrian: 1772-1918, 1940-44
Berson/Brezan - Hungarian
Berzhan - Czech
Brezan -Slovak/Hungarian

Other names which occur: Bzhezhani, Brzezhany (English mispellings of Polish name), Bzezan;

ATTENTION! Please do not mix up town Berezhany with: village Brzezany (Gora), near Leszno in West Poland, neither with village Brezany in Slovakia, nor village Brezany in Jihormoravsky Region in Czech Republic

Town Berezhany lays in a picturesque valley of river Zolota Lypa (which means Golden Lime Tree) in 52 kilometers from Ternopil. People who were settling here on the banks (in Ukrainian "bank" is "bereh" ) of the river were called "berezhanys", and the name of the town derives because of this, as some researches claim. By its sounding name Berezhany is close to other Ukrainian word "berezhyna", which means '94 flat banks of the rivers with hayfields '94, as Ukrainian linguist M.T. Yanko connects this toponym. Sure is one: the root bereh (bank) in the name of the town. By the way, I have read recently that the name of Berezhany river Zolota Lypa, as well as names of other rivers nearby (Hnyla Lypa, Strypa) derive from ancient Illyrian word "ape" (means river in Illyrian, now non-existing language)

Other theory claims that the name comes from Polish/Ukrainian word 'Brzoza/Bereza' which means "Birch"
It is the epxplanation I found in German pre-war Brockhaus (in Mittersill Castle Library in Austria) under the town's entry "Brzezany" (as pre war Polish town name) but in new after-war  editions  of Brockhaus entry Berezhany does not exist already. In many ways European history of Berezhany ended in 1939, when it was incorprated into the vast  closed areas of Soviet empire.
In Berezhany itself people usually think that the name Berezhany derives from words "bereh" (river bank) or "berehy" (river banks) since it is located and grew on the banks of Golden Lime Tree River, like  river banks town if to translate the meaning Berezhany. The town in fact grew and developed around the Berezhany Castle, which is built and surrounded by the two flows (coming from great Berezhany Lake) of Golden Lime Tree River from both sides, island like place.
Although I think the "brzoza/bereza" version is more plausible in definition of the origings the town's name.

Berezhany district and surrounding area now (left) and 100 years ago (right):

Other maps of Berezhany:

Berezhany town and vicinties mapMap of Berezhany (Central Europe view) Map of Berezhany (Western Ukraine view)
Map of Berezhany (Europe view)Map of Berezhany (East Europe view)Old map of Austrohungarian kingdom of Galicia (see Brezany) Map of district centers of Austrohungarian Galicia with present border line between Ukraine and Poland (see Brzezany)

Berezhany Castle:

This a view of Berezhany Castle (reconstruction at Bereazhany museum, by Berzehany artist Zynoviy Migocki. Castle is now in ruins), a masterpiece of the Defensive Architechture in Ukraine. The castle was built by the Italian Masters in 1534 - 1554 according to the defensive scheme of French Architecht Beauplan...for the Noble Polish Family of Synyawski, whom Polish king gave Berezhany as a present...  In 1829 part of the castle was dismantled. It is the most important defensive structure of the Renaissance age in Ukraine. In this Synyawski castle great Hungarian patriot Ferenz Rakoczi first proclaimed and read his demands to the Austrian emperor and from here he initiated great Uprising in Hungarian national history... Now there is a memorable plaque in Hungarian and Ukrainian on the wall of the castle as a memory of this event. On the back of the picture you can see TROYITSKY (HOLY TRINITY) ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Built at thesame   time as the castle in 1554, the church's original ornaments have been preserved. It formed part of the  castle and was used as a mausoleum. An important monument of the Renaissance period. Castle is in a desolate state and needs rennovations...

This is the emblem of Berezhany Glass Plant above, one of the largest plants in the region.
It is the Ukrainian Letter "B" in the center of the emlem, which stands as first letter
in town's name "BEREZHANY". Here is a link to a website of Berezhany Glass Factory.

Berezhany's Coat of Arms
A forest deer on the blue background. Austrian pre 1918 version of the town's coat of arms, contains also an upper red field. Red and blue were the colours of flag of the Kingdom of Galicia, when it was part of Austrohungarian empire.

B e r e z h a n y

Above: Berezhany view (this is commemorative Berezhany picture from the Ukrainian envelope, written in Ukrainian: Town of Berezhany has become 625 years old..)

Historical, Cultural  and Geographical description of Berezhany District and Berezhany town:
Berezhany district has an area of 1100 sq. km and a population of about 100,000 (including Pidhaytsi district, which is now a separate administrative district unit).  The district is agricultural with some light industry and factories in Berezhany.  The town is situated on the both banks of the Zolota Lypa (Golden Lime Tree) River.  The population of the town is about 20,000 persons. The town  is surrounded by hills from all its sides (such as Zvirynets and Lysonya) According to Ukraine's last census, the number is 18,700.  In 1900, Berezhany had 11,443 inhabitants (including 4395 Jews), and in 1939 the town had 12,700 inhabitants (including 4000 Jews). The distance between Ternopil and Berezhany is 52 km.  There is a station on the Ternopil-Khodoriv railroad line in Berezhany.

Geography, landscape, natural conditions of Berezhany area: Berezhany landscapes with their beauty can compete with the most picturesque corners of Ukraine. Town streets and squares lay at 12 meters below the river surface level. And around there are hill s (or mountains as locals call them) covered with forests. They quite high: mountain Storozhyska (Storoziska) has 398 meters, Zwirynets (Zwierzyniec) has 382 meter and Yaryshkiv (Jaryszkow) has 408 meters. The eye will not feel tired from the monotony reg ardless from which mountain to look.

Berezhany is in the geographical zone of Opillia, which is the highest and the most divided part of Podillian plateau. In general, the territory of the district is hilly with wide valleys. The most high part of Podill ian plateau is north of Berezhany where is watershed of rivers Zolota Lypa and Narayivka. Here is the highest point of Podillian plateau, 448 meters above sea level.

Natural conditions of Berezhany district are very positive for the development of agriculture and forestry. The fertile dark grey and chornozem (chernozem, also called Black Earth, grassland soil with a dark humic horizon, a layer with at least one percent carbon) soils are the most common here. Chornozems soils occupy mailnly the flat lands between rivers Strypa and Zolota Lypa with rich harvets. Areas with grey soils dominate in forested parts of the district, where oak-hornbeam and hornbeam forests grow.

Berezhany flora: Yet not in a remote past, Berezhany land was renown for its oak, fur tree, ash-oak woods. But they were barbarically eliminated in the perod of foregn rule. But still even today, if to compare with other European nations, Berezhany land is really abundunt in enormous forests and woods, which stretch miles and miles. It is one of the most fo r ested areas of Western Ukraine. A present times, there is big work done for reconstruction of little productive hornbeam forests, which are gradually being replaced with oak-ash-larch forests. Beechwoods, once so common in this land, are also being rest o red. Trees of European larch are also being intensevely planted. European larch, productive forest-creating tree, had been cultivated here yet in the first half of 19 th century. Whole woods of such precious tree kinds as Black nut and Crimean pine have bee n also planted. Amongst local forest "tree elders" are fast growing green douglasia, red oak, Carpathian spruce. In total in district forests, there are about 200 forest and thicket kinds of trees and bushes.

Berezhany fauna: Animal world of Berezhany land is also quite ve rsatile. Wild boars, deers, roe deers, foxes, squirrels are permanent inhabitants of local forests. Wild cat occurs more rearely. Bird kingdom is represented by pheasant, grouse, bullfinch, woodpecker, starling, sparrow, swallow, crane, magpie, dove and o t hers. There is lots of fish in rivers (carp, crucian, perch, pike). Water rats also inhabit the rivers and water areas. Hares, larks, martens, moles, stoats, polecats (skunks), meadow voles, weasels, black-headed bunting live in the fields here. Among en dangeroud species here we find podollian cat, red backed or wood vole which inhabits the thickets and forests and spotted hamster.

Berezhany minerals: Berezhany land is rich in minerals, particularly in building materials. Limestone is mined in open air and it surves as good as building cover material and is applied for slaking of lime. In industrial scale, mining of sand, bituminous peat (turf), clay is conducted.

Berezhany climate: Climate of Berezhany land is mild and quite wet. In general, 520-550 mm of precipitation falls yearly here. The lowest registered tempureture was recorded here in winter: minus 35 degrees Celsius and the highest plus 35 degrees Celsius in summer. The coldest days are in january and the awrmest ones in July. Winter, which is accompanied oftenly with thaws, lasts fro m the second decade of December till the middle of February. In summer, there are no droughts basically. Such climate conditions are very positive for the intensive development of agriculture.

Short history (See also my PAGE ON HISTORY OF BEREZHANY): The area has been populated since the late paleolithic era.  There are some signs of that period not far from the town.  The first recorded, written evidence of Berezhany is from around 1375.  Its territory was part of the Kievan Rus, Kingdom of Galicia, and later of the larger Rus Kingdom, Galicia, and Volhynnia.  In the middle of the 14th century Galicia was conquered by the Polish king and was under Polish rule for a long time.  In 1530 the king of Poland gave Berezhany to his vassel Synyavskiy, and the town adopted Magdeburg Law.  From 1534 to 1554 Synyavskiy built the town fortress. Berezhany was part of the Polish kingdom until 1772, when, after the partition of Poland, it was incorporated into Austria, as the crown province of Galicia (Galizien).  In 1867, as Austria became the dual monarchy Austria-Hungary, Galicia maintained its same status as an imperial crown province.  After the collapse of Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was part of the short-lived Western-National Ukrainian Republic, which Polish troops quickly conquered after some resistance.  It then became part of inter-war Poland until to 1939, when Berezhany (and all of western Ukraine) was occupied by the Soviet Union, becoming part of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic which became
independent in 1991.

Architechture (history of architechture): Berezhany has rich historical architechture heritage. Besides the castle there is also Mykolayivska  (St. Nicholas') Church built in 1691 as a brilliant example of the Galician school of wood architecture. Troyitsky  (Holy Trinity) cathedral built in 1768 and rebuilt in 1893-1903 is one of the finest church structures in the region at the central Rynok Square opposite to the central Clock Tower Building (now it serves for City Hall and municipal Ethnographic Museum) which used to be a hub of trade with small windows of Jewish sellers around the building. Nowadays Holy Trinity Cathedral serves for the local Greek-Catholic Community which includes the most of populations. Although there is large Orthodox Community as well as a Pentecostal Congregation, which opened a new town Prayer House recently. Another remarkable historical building in Berezhany is Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( Rizdva Bohorodytsi ) Roman Catholic Church erected in 1600 as a defensive structure built in the Gothic-Renaissance style. In 1714 a fineset gothic Bell Tower was built near the church. Now thsi church was returned to local Roman Catholics and Poles with a Roman Catholic Polish priest who lives in Berezhany and continues rennovations of the church since during the Soviet times it used to serve for a Sports Children School with football fields inside. Berezhany also had Roman Catholic Monastery of Bernardines (Renown Monks of St. Bernard's Order). The monastery does not function anymore but the Monastery's Mykolayivsky (St. Nicholas') Roman Catholic Church  (bulit in 1630-83) and cells  (built in 1716-42) are well preserved.  Built for the St. Bernard Monastery, this church is an example of late Renaissance architecture. The former Monastery territory serves now as a renown colony (prison) for criminal teeneagers from all over Ukraine.

Town and people: Berezhany had its good and bad times like any other  border town.  Berezhany has its some small industries: agricultural technical enterprise, fish shop, some brick works, bakery, oil-mill etc.  The town is very green. Besides the district center (Berezhany itself), there is one more town, Pidhaytsi (formerly Podhajce), which the regional Ternopil administration recently formed into a separate district as it used to be during Polish and Austrian times.  Berezhany hosts the "Mikron" plant, a former secret Soviet military plant which now produces FM Radios, as well as a big glass producing plant, a macaroni factory, bakeries, and a few brick factories.  It has the town and region's Historical Museum, situated in the Old Tower Clock Building, where the town administration is located.  One of the largest and highest Ukrainian Orthodox churches in the region is being constructed in Berezhany now near the district administration building after.  Recently, Berezhany also witnessed opening of a monument to the Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko on the Central Rynok Square, opposite to the Old Clock Tower building (presently Town Hall) which was built in the early Classical style in 1811 to house the famous Berezhany Gymnasium during Austrian times.  Many outstanding Ukrainian, Polish, and Jewish writers, poets, and public leaders studied there. Among its alumni are Markijan Shashkevych (Ukrainian Galician 19th century writer and poet, founder of renown the Ukrainian Cultural Society "Rus'ka Triytsia") and Samuel Hirsch Margulies (Berezhany-born leader of Italian Jewry in the beginning of this century). 

Photo above: Andriy Chykovsky, reknown writer from Berezhany (during Austrian period at his home in Berezhany)

Berezhany is hometown of Andriy Chaykovsky (Andrzej Czajkowski), a famous Ukrainian-Galician writer of historical novels, and Bohdan Lepky, another famous Ukrainian poet and writer, originally from the village of Zhukiv (Zhukov) near Berezhany. Some of the major Berezhany district villages' names in Ukrainian (present day and original historical names), Russian (used officially between 1945 and 1991), and Polish (used officially before 1939). Berezhany is also a hometown of renown Ukrainian world chess player Vasyl Ivanchuk, who is now the seventh in the world's chess players listing.

First World War in Berezhany: During the First World War Berezhany was on the front-line and came into history as a renown place of the First World War fightings during 1914-1917. On the fields of Lysonya hill 2 km from Berezhany, there was one of the major battles in the First World War between Russian Tsarist Armies and united German-Austrian coalition troops helped with Ukrainian Sich Bowmen Divisions and two Turkish Divisions. Many Turks died fighting around Berezhany, since Austrian and German Army command used to put Turkish soldiers o the most heavy parts of front and battlefields. Thus nowadays there are a few Austrian-German military cemeteries, one at the Lysonya hill itself and another  in Pidvysoke/Lopushna. There are aaround 6 Turkish Military Cemeteries  (the only ones in Ukraine of First World War times) in Berezhany area (in Pidvysoke/Lopushna, Hutysko, Verkhnya Lypytsia and Pukiv).

Above: Grave monument of one Armenian family "Stanislawowicz" (? or something like this as fa as I managed to raed parallel Polish inscription at the bottom) at Berezhany Cemetery. Top inscription (on the photo) is in Armenian charcters and you can see Armenia cross on the top.

Armenian settlement: Berezhany also boasts the Armenian Church. Berezhany was one of a few towns in Central Eastern Europe which had the Armenian colony. Armenians established colony in Berezhany, Lviv and Buchach escaping Moslem opression and persecutions in Armenia. Most of  Berezhany Armenians were assimiliated by local Poles and adopted Polish surnames althou a desolate Armenian church (built in typical Armenian architechture style) still stands in the center of the town, as a dumb witness of once vivid Armenian life in Berezhany (see page in Polish about Polish Armenians by Krzysztof A. Wozniak, whose great, great, great grandfather was an Armenian chief in Berezhany, as he tells). See picture of Armenian Church's ruins in Berezhany

Above: Grave plaque at Berzehany Cemetery, with insciption in Polish:
MICHAL BORZECKI, retired secretary of Regional Court. 1814 - 1902 (Austrian period)

Cemetery: Berezhany Town Cemetery is a uniqe historical place reflecting multinational and versatile past of the town with graves and monuments of its past Austrian, German, Armenian and Polish inhabitants up to the graves of Ukrainians, always present in the city and now dominant, as well as.graves and memorial of Soviet and Russian soldiers who occupied (or liberaeted from Nazis)  the area after the II World War.

On the History of Berezhany Jewry:

8.083 Jews lived in the Berezhany district in 1900, 7600 Jews in 1939.
Most of them, 6.876 (1900) / 6.480(1939) Jews lived in the towns (Berezhany, Kozova, Narayiv)  and 1.120 lived in the villages. During the Holocaust, the Nazis murdered 2200 Jews (only 200-300 persons were rescued) in the town and district of Berezhany (autumn 1941: 510 Jews exterminated; 1943: 1180 Jews exterminated; and in 1944, 100 Jews (30 families) in hiding were killed in the village of Mechyshchiv near Berezhany, because of the Jewsih Physcian Dnnes whowas discovered  by Nazis on a street of Mechyshchiv).  1.000 of Berezhany Jews excaped East to the Soviet Union just before coming of the Nazis. One of them came back from Soviet Ural many years later and sitting at the desolate mass grave lonely crying over his sisters and family killed by Nazis and whom he never saw again and who were taken with all Berezhany Jews to the old town's Jewish cemetery and being naked all were shot in two large mass graves by Nazis.

Above: Railway Station in Berezhany before1939...

Among the most remarkable Jewish families in Berezhany were:

Grinberg, Vogel (wholesalers of oil and candles), Fenster, Altein, Messer, Altman (mixed goods), Jakow Mittelman (iron goods), Zlatkes (leather trade), Sigal (wholesaler, trader--his son served at the Ukrainian Galician Army and fought for Ukrainian independence), Galpern (lawyer--his son fought in the Ukrainian Galician Army, too), Dr. Falk (shot by Gestapos), Dr. Wilhelm Naiman (a physician, born in Pidhajtsi and educated at the Berezhany Gymnasium), Grad, Gutenplan (Grads and Gutenplans were hiding in the village of Olesyn during the Holocaust) Marko Bardach (former student of Berezhany Gimnasium, author of the book on Ukrainians "Geschichtloses Volk"), and Dr. Pinkas Pomeranz, who being led for the execution by Nazis with all other Berezhany Jews said to people around: "Fortune destinied us such an end for the faults of our forefathers..."
See my memorial page: "Brzezaner" on Berezhany Jewry

I have recorded and deciphered the following surnames from
preserved gravestones at Berezhany Jewish Cemetery:

MINDLA BRUST
AMALIA ZLATA (from WILNER family of KARPOW)
ISRAL FENSTER: 1819 - 1934
BENJAMIN KHOSKARP (Choskarp / Hoskarp / Koskarp)
BASIA BLEIBERG: 1859 - 1930
NATHAN LIEBLING: 1959 - 1929
LARA WEISSTEIN: - + 1923 (8?)
MECHEL BERMANN: - + 1929
SHLOMO P.ST..R..V (this one was in Hebrew, surname not clear)

On Berezhany Jews and Jewish cemetery in Berezhany;

Link on the history of Jews in Florence and S. Hirsch Margulies from Berezhany who headed Jewish community there;

On Jewish history of town Buczacz (Buchach) and Buchach born Shmuel Agnon;

Berezhany is the hometown of reknown Streisand family (of famous American singer and actress Barbra Streisand), which later emmigrated to US. Link about one of Streisands family.

Great Berezhany Synagogue built in 1718

 
Above: Berezhany Synagogue

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON BEREZHANY:

(for those who interested in further info on Berezhany)

There are two books in Ukrainian on Berezhany:
One was written and publihsed by Ukrainian emmigrants from Berezhnay in the US and Canada
and is entitled "Berezhany Land" (in Ukrainian) in two volumes the most comprehensive and most serious publication. Also, "Berezhany in recollections of Emmigrants" (in Ukrainian), based on "Berezhany land". Other publcation is a small book "Berezhany" of renown Ukrainian archeologist  S. Hereta from Ternopil, who heads the Institute for Archeological Research in Ternopil. There is one book in Polish also on Berezhany, I do not remember the name of that Polish historian though. Professor Shimon Redlich from Ben Gurion University is about to finish his book on Berezhany, which examines the inter ethnic relations between Poles, Ukrainians and Jews in Berezhany during 1918 - 1939. Zbigniew Rusinski wrote a book in Berezhany in Polish language called "Tryptyk Brzezanski" and Menkahem Katz and Brzezany Society in Isreal published Brzezany Memorial Book "Sefer Yizkor Brzezany". There are also articles in English on Berezhany in the ENCYCLOPEADIA OF UKRAINE by Kubiyovich, published in Canada as well as an article "Brzezany" in the pre-war edition of German BROCKHAUS and also articles on Berezhany and some villages in the Soviet Ukraine.