Ostroh

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City in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine

title: "Ostroh" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cities-in-rivne-oblast", "historic-jewish-communities-in-ukraine", "cities-of-regional-significance-in-ukraine", "rus'-towns"] description: "City in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostroh" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary City in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
official_name	Ostroh
native_name	Острог
native_name_lang	uk
settlement_type	City
image_skyline
image_caption
image_flag	Flag of Ostroh.PNG
image_shield	Coat of arms of Ostroh.PNG
shield_size	80px
pushpin_map	Ukraine Rivne Oblast#Ukraine
pushpin_label_position	right
coordinates
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name
subdivision_type1	Oblast
subdivision_name1	Rivne Oblast
subdivision_type2	Raion
subdivision_name2	Rivne Raion
leader_title	Mayor
leader_name	Yuri Yahodka
established_title	First mentioned
established_date	1100
established_title2	City rights
established_date2	1795
area_total_km2	10.9
population_as_of	2001 census
population_total	14,801
population_density_km2	1358
timezone	EET
utc_offset	+2
timezone_DST	EEST
utc_offset_DST	+3
postal_code_type	Postal code
postal_code	35800—35807
area_code	+380 3654
blank_name	Sister cities
blank_info	Poland Gniew, Sandomierz, Bieruń, Czechia Beroun, USA Beaufort, South Carolina, Athens, Ohio, Italy Torre del Greco
website	https://ostroh-rada.gov.ua/
subdivision_type3	Hromada
subdivision_name3	Ostroh urban hromada
::

The Ostroh Academy was established here in 1576, the first higher educational institution in modern Ukraine. Furthermore, in the 16th century, the first East Slavic books, notably the Ostrog Bible, were printed there.

History

Medieval times to the Polish partitions

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Mezhyrich-1.jpg" caption="The Mezhyrich Monastery"] ::

The Hypatian Codex first mentions Ostroh in 1100, as a fortress of the Volhynian princes. Since the 14th century, it was the seat of the powerful Ostrogski princely family, who developed their town into a great centre of learning and commerce. Upon the family's demise in the 17th century, Ostroh passed to the Zasławski and then Lubomirski families.

In the second half of the 14th century, Ostroh, together with the whole of Volhynia, was administratively integrated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Following the Union of Lublin (1569), the town became part of the Kingdom of Poland. Administratively it was located in the Volhynian Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province. Ostroh, known in Polish as Ostróg, received Magdeburg rights in 1585. In the 17th century, the town was surrounded by fortifications, with a moat, a rampart with five bastions. In 1609–1753, it was the capital of the Ostrogski family fee tail, founded by Voivode Janusz Ostrogski, who invited Bernardine monks to Ostróg. Furthermore, the town had a Calvinist academy; among its lecturers was Andrzej Wegierski.

During the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the town was torched by the Cossacks, and its Jewish residents were brutally murdered. The Great Maharsha Synagogue, built in 1627, was damaged during this period.and centuries later, once again, during the Holocaust. {{cite web |url=https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/have-your-say/the-great-maharsha-synagogue-in-ostroh-memory-and-oblivion-have-we-reached-the-point-of-no-return |title=The Great Maharsha Synagogue in Ostroh: Memory and Oblivion. Have we reached the point of no return? |author=Sergey R. Kravtsov |date=December 17, 2015 |access-date=September 12, 2019}} Ostróg slowly recovered, and in the second half of the 18th century, it became the site of a Jesuit college (see Collegium Nobilium).

The Russian Empire through World War II

In the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, the town was forcibly annexed by the Russian Empire, where it remained until 1918. Railroad lines, built in the 19th century, missed Ostróg, and as a result, the town stagnated. The railway station serving the area was built in 1873, 14 km away, in the village of Ożenin. |source=}}

In the interwar period, Ostróg belonged to the County of Zdołbunów, Volhynian Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic. It was an important garrison town for the Polish Army, and the Border Protection Corps (KOP). The KOP Battalion "Ostróg" was stationed there, along with the 19th Volhynian Uhlan Regiment. On July 7, 1920, during the Polish–Soviet War, it was the site of a battle between a Polish unit under Wincenty Krajowski, and the Bolsheviks of Semyon Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army. Throughout 1919–1939 Ostróg was located in close to the Polish–Soviet border, and special passes were required to enter some districts of the town.

Following the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, Ostróg was annexed by the Soviet Union, as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. An unknown number of the town's residents were forcibly sent to Siberia. Local mayor Stanisław Ludwik Żurakowski was arrested by the Soviets, then held in several prisons in Volhynia, and eventually deported to Kozelsk and murdered in the Katyn massacre in April 1940.

The Nazi German occupation resulted in the establishment of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (RKU), with headquarters in Rivne. In the autumn of 1941 several large-scale mass murders took place in Volhynia. On 1 September 1941 2,500 Jews were shot in Ostróg. Six weeks later, the ghetto was disbanded and another 3,000 people were killed in the Holocaust.

Modern times

In 2022, an informal sister city arrangement was established with Beaufort, South Carolina in the United States in which the residents of Beaufort raised funds to support Ostroh during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Landmarks include Ostroh Castle on the Red Hill, with the church of the Epiphany (built in the fifteenth century) and several towers (Tatar Gate Tower and Roun "New" Tower). To the north-west from the castle stand two sixteenth-century towers. The suburb of Mezhirichi contains the Abbey of the Trinity, with a fifteenth-century cathedral and other ancient buildings.

Notable residents

Tetiana Ovsiichuk (born 1995), Ukrainian production designer

Gallery

File:M7137.jpg|Entrance to the Orthodox cathedral complex. File:Богоявленський собор, м. Острог, Рівненська обл.jpg|Cathedral of the Epiphany (ca. 1521, restored 1887–91) File:Культурний Барбакан.jpg|Tatar Tower Gate (ca. 1500) File:New Tower of the Ostroh Castle (Klymenko).jpg|"New" Round Tower (ca. 1500) File:Корпус келій з баштамим Троїцького монастиря, с.Межиріч P1590437.jpg|15th-century Church of the Trinity of the Mezhyrich Monastery

References

"Міста побратими". Official website of the Ostroh City Council.
. (1932). "Wiadomości Statystyczne Głównego Urzędu Statystycznego". *Główny Urząd Statystyczny*.
Kowalów, Witold Józef. (2010). "Ostrogska Lista Katyńska. Mieszkańcy Ostroga i okolicy, którzy zginęli z rąk NKWD w Katyniu, Charkowie, Miednoje i innych miejscach kaźni".
The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization edited by Ray Brandon, Wendy Lower p.43
Karl Puckett. (March 12, 2022). "Beaufort agrees to send aid to Ostroh, Ukraine. A Facebook message sparked a dialogue".

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