Drohobych

Drohobych (Ukrainian: Дрого́бич, pronounced [droˈɦɔbɪtʃ] ^ⓘ; Polish: Drohobycz [drɔˈxɔ.bɨt͡ʂ] ^ⓘ; Yiddish: דראָהאָבּיטש) is a city of regional significance in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Drohobych Raion and hosts the administration of Drohobych urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. In 1939–1941 and 1944–1959 it was the center of Drohobych Oblast.

The city was founded at the end of the eleventh century as an important trading post and transport node between Kyiv Rus' and the lands to the West of Rus'. After extinction of the local Ruthenian dynasty and subsequent incorporation of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia into the Polish Kingdom by 1349, from the fifteenth century the city developer as a mercantile and saltworks centre. Drohobych became part of the Habsburg Empire in 1772 after the first partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the mid-nineteenth century it became Europe's largest oil extraction center, which significantly contributed to its rapid development. In the renascent, interwar Poland it was the center of a county within the Lwów Voivodeship. As an outcome of World War II, the city was incorporated into the Ukrainian part of the Soviet Union, which in 1991 became the independent Ukraine.

The city was the birthplace of such well-known personalities as Elisabeth Bergner, Yuriy Drohobych (Kotermak), Ivan Franko and Bruno Schulz. The city has several oil refineries. The Drohobych saltworks are considered to be the oldest in Europe. The estimated population of the city is 73,682 (2022 estimate).