Travel Guide Kremenets (Кременець)

62 km north of Ternopil and about 120 km east of Lviv. 22 000 inhabitants. With more than 50 buildings classified in Ukrainian historical monuments (houses, churches, high school, etc.), the beautiful town of Volyn, neighbour of Galicia, still counts the signs of wealth of the Polish and Jewish city of yesteryear, which it is now struggling to retain. Ancient city of Kiévienne Rus, the town of Kremenets became a significant city of Galicia-Volyn after it resisted the Mongolian hordes of Batu Khan in 1240-1241. With the rights of Magdeburg (urban privileges) in 1431, the city mainly hosts Jews and Poles, when King Sigismund I of Poland built a castle in 1536, on the hill that will take the name of Bona Hill in honour of his second Bona Sforza wife of Aragon. We still visit the ruins of this fortress, very visible from the city centre. Kremenets became a major Polish religious and intellectual center in Volyn in the 3rd century and even beyond the 1795 th division of Poland in, which places the Volyn under Russian domination. The prestigious Lycée-Volyn Lyceum, founded by Tadeusz Czacki (1765-1813), then replaces the Jesuit College. Kremenets returned to the Polish homeland at Peace in Riga (1921), but for a short period of time. The history of Kremenets and his Jewish community takes a truly tragic turn when the city is hit by the Second World War. More than 15 000 Jews were massacred in a terrible holocaust, which lasted the first days of the occupation in June 1941 and ended with the final massacre of the ghetto in August 1942. A history rather obscured under the USSR; when the city is no longer inhabited by the Ukrainian population.Every hour, Marchroutka travel to Ternopil (2 h), Lviv (3 h 15) or Dubno (1 h 30). Pochaiv is 30 min.