Slownik Geograficzny Translation

Bursztyn [now Burshtyn, Ukraine]

Bursztyn (together with Burczyce and Ludwikówka) is a town in Rohatyn county on the River Lipa (rising in Przemyślany) on the government road from Lwów to Podhajczyki, Rohatyn, Bursztyn and Wojniłów. Near Kałusz this road joins up with the government road from Lwów to Stryj and on to Stanisławów. Another road of stone/brick leads from Bursztyn to Halicz. The town is 6 km away from the Bursztyn-Demianów railway station, which is on the Lwów-Czerniowce railway line between Bukaczowce and Halicz. It is 100 km. from Lwów. A brick/stone road connects it with this station. The town is 17 km south of Rohatyn.

 

The major estate has an area (in mórgs) as follows: farmland 880, meadows and gardens 320, pastureland 458, forests 566. The minor estate has: farmland 1,914, meadows and gardens 540, pastureland 289. Population: Roman Catholic 371, Greek Catholic 1,471, Jewish 2,452: total 4,294. It has a county court, and a post and telegraph office.

 

The Roman Catholic parish was founded in 1740 by Pawel Benoe, a crown prosecutor who also founded here a monastery of the Trinitarian Fathers. The church is of stone and was consecrated in 1774. The following localities belong to the parish: Jezierzany, Junaszków, Korostowice, Kukicze, Kuropatniki, Ludwikówka, Nastaszczyn, Dolne Sarnki, Średnie Sarnki and Stasiowa Wola. The parish has 1,693 Roman Catholics, and belongs to Kąkolniki deanery. Within the parish boundaries, besides in Bursztyn itself, there are peasant schools in the villages of Korostowice, Nastaszczyn, and Dolne Sarnki. There are chapels holding services in the convent of the Sisters of Charity as well as in Bursztyn cemetery. There is a convent of the Sisters of Charity in Bursztyn, founded in 1842, endowed by Ignacy Count Skarbek, the former lord; the nuns treat the sick and raise orphans.

 

The Greek Catholic parish, covering the town of Bursztyn and the village of Ludwikówka, has 1,494 Greek Catholic parishioners and belongs to the Rohatyn deanery. In Rohatyn there is a government school for boys.

 

The pride of Bursztyn is a palace and beautiful garden, which houses a huge canary enclosure, built in the shape of a house, containing several hundred canaries. The small town, built according to a plan, is one of the most beautiful in Galicia. Nearby there is an alabaster quarry as well as six large tombs dating from the Tatar wars (Tatar defeat in 1629). Not very far from them is a large stone, which, according to local legend, marks the spot where the Cossack leader Cossacks lies buried. The owner of the major estate, Prince Stanisław Jabłonowski, is the grandson of Count Skarbek.

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1880, vol. 1, pp. 475-476]

 

This translation, by Halina MacDonald, and edited by W. Fred Hoffman, is used by permission.

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