Zbarazh

Zbarazh (Ukrainian: Збараж, Polish: Zbaraż, Yiddish: Zbarj) is a city in the Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Zbarazky Raion (district), and is located in the historic region of Galicia.

The current estimated population is around 13,000.

History

First attested in 1211 as a strong Ruthenian fortress, Zbarazh became a seat of the Gediminid Princes Zbarazski towards the end of the 14th century. Ruins of the original castle are extant in the vicinity of modern Zbarazh.

The new castle was designed for Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki in a post-Palladian Italian idiom similar to Scamozzi's by the Dutch architect van Peyen in 1626–31. The castle was partly rebuilt in the 18th century.

Zbarazh preserves several remarkable churches, notably the Saviour Church (1600) and the Bernardine Monastery (1627).

The town formerly had a sizable Jewish population that was wiped out in the Holocaust. Notable Jewish residents included Rabbi Zev Wolf, the singer Velvel Zbarjer and the author Ida Fink.

Zbarazh is one of the settings of Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel "With Fire and Sword" (1884) in which he gives a detailed description of the famous Siege of Zbarazh.