Kremenets

Kremenets is a city in Ternopil Oblast, western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kremenets Raion, and lies north-east of the great Pochayiv Monastery. The city is situated in the historic region of Volhynia and features the 12th-century Kremenets Castle. It hosts the administration of Kremenets urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: History According to some sources the Kremenets fortress was built in the 8th or 9th century, and later became a part of Kievan Rus'. The first documented reference to the fortress is given in a Polish encyclopedic dictionary written in 1064. The first reference to Kremenets in Old Slavic literature dates from 1226 when the city's ruler, Mstislav the Bold, defeated the Hungarian army of King Andrew II nearby. During the Mongol invasion of Rus' in 1240–1241, Kremenets was one of few cities that Batu Khan failed to capture. In 1382, after the death of Louis I of Hungary, Lithuanian duke Liubartas captured Kremenets from the Kingdom of Hungary. The city obtained Magdeburg rights in 1431, and in 1569, after the Union of Lublin, it became part of Crown of Poland, known as . In the fall of 1648 Cossack Colonel Maxym Kryvonis surrounded the Kremenets fortress. In October, after a six-week siege, the royal garrison surrendered. As a consequence of the fighting, the fortress was severely damaged and was never rebuilt.