Mukacheve
Mukacheve (,
Romanian: Muncaci), is a
city located in the valley of the
Latorica river in the
Zakarpattia Oblast (
province), in western
Ukraine. Serving as the
administrative center of the
Mukachivsky Raion (
district), the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast.It has a castle from the IX to XVI centuries on top of the Lamkova hill.
The population in
1989 was 85,000 and is now 77,300 (
2004).
Earlier it was part of the
Kingdom of Hungary (11th century - 1918 and 1938-1944) and of
Czechoslovakia (1918-1938 and 1944-1945).
The city is now a rail terminus and highway junction, and has beer, wine, tobacco, food, textile, timber and furniture industries.
Today Mukacheve has a majority
Ukrainian and
Rusyn population with a significant minority of
Hungarians and
Jews.
Rusyn:
Мукачів (Mukachiv); (Mukachevo); ;
Slovak and
Czech:
Mukačevo; ;
Yiddish:
Munkacz or
Minkatsh;
Romanian Munceag
For early history (
Great Moravia,
Kievan Rus') see
Carpathian Ruthenia.
*9th to 11th centuries: Mukacheve was for a time a part of the Kievan Rus' state.
*
1018: Mukacheve was taken by the
Hungarians and became a center of power of Hungarian kings.
*
1397: The town and its surrounding was granted by King
Sigismund of Hungary to the Ruthenian prince
Theodor Koriatovich, who settled many
Ruthenians in the territory.
*
1445: The town became a Hungarian
free royal town. It was granted the rights of
Magdeburg law.
*15th century: Became a prominent craft & trade center for the region.
*16th century: Became part of the Principality of
Transylvania.
*
1604-
1711: Anti-
Habsburg revolts in this territory and present-day Slovakia.
*
1646: A
gymnasium was established.
*
1685-
1688: Beginning of the anti-Habsburg Revolt of
Imre Thököly.
*Early 18th century: Beginning of the revolt of
Ferenc II. Rákóczi.
*18th century: Came under Austrian control as part of the Kingdom of Hungary and was made a key fortress of the
Habsburg Monarchy.
*
1726: The castle and the town, before 1711 owned by the
Rákóczi family, was given by the Habsburgs to the
Schönborn family, who were responsible for an expansion of the town. They also settled many
Germans in the territory, thereby causing an economic boom of the region.
*
1796-
1897: The Mukacheve castle, until then a strong fortress, became a prison.
|
Palanok Castle dominates the cityscape of Mukacheve. |
*
1821-
1823: The
Greek national hero
Alexander Ypsilanti was imprisoned at the Mukacheve castle.
*
1919: After the
American Rusyns agreed with
Tomas Masaryk to incorporate
Carpathian Ruthenia into
Czechoslovakia, the whole
Carpathian Ruthenia was occupied by Czechoslovak troops.
*June 4,
1920: The city officially became part of Czechoslovakia by the
Treaty of Trianon.
*November
1938: Part of the territory of the former Kingdom of Hungary re-annexed by Hungary as part of the
First Vienna Award.
*1944: The deportation of the
Jewish population to
concentration camps. Mukacheve was the only town in Hungary with a Jewish majority until 1944, when all the Jews were deported to
Auschwitz by the
Eichmann Commando. The Hungarian Jewish community was the last Jewish community in Europe to be subjected to deportation, and then only partially.
*End of 1944: The Soviet Army occupies Carpathian Ruthenia (at that time part of Czechoslovakia again) and the territory became part of the
Soviet Union by a treaty between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union of 1945. The Soviet Union began a policy of extermination of the
Hungarian and
Rusyn population.
*
1945: Ceded to the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine)
*
2002: Mukacheve has been the seat of the
Roman Catholic diocese comprising
Transcarpathia.
See Munkacz (Hasidic dynasty)There are documents in the
Berehove State Archives which indicate that Jews lived in Munkács and the surrounding villages as early as the second half of the seventeenth century. The Jewish community of Munkács was an amalgam of
Galician & Hungarian
Hasidic Jewry, assimilationists, and Zionists. A large number of non-Hasidic Orthodox Jews were also present.
The
Hebrew Gymnasium was founded in Munkacz five years after the first Hebrew speaking elementary school in Czechoslovakia was established there in 1920. It soon became the most prestigious Hebrew high school east of
Warsaw. Zionist activism along with
Chasidic pietism contributed to a community percolating with excitement, intrigue and at times internecine conflict
Today, what remains of the Jewish community of Mukachevo is fewer than 300 Jews including eight Jewish men and less than twenty Jewish women who were born there before World War II; their average age being over eighty.
|
The Palanok Castle in Mukacheve (14th century). |
*Castle (14th century). The castle of Munkács, called the Palanok Castle, played an important role during the anti-Habsburg revolts in this territory and present-day Slovakia (1604 - 1711), especially at the beginning of the anti-Habsburg Revolt of
Imre Thököly (1685-1688), as well as at the beginning of the revolt of
Ferenc II. Rákóczi (early 18th century). This important fortress became a prison from the end of the 18th century and was used until 1897. The Greek national hero
Alexander Ypsilanti was imprisoned in Munkács castle from 1821 to 1823.
*Monastery (14th century)
*Wooden church built in the Ukrainian architectural style (18th century)
*
Carpathian Ruthenia*
Mukachiv in the
Encyclopedia of Ukraine*
Mapquest map of Mukacheve*
Mukachevo at Shtetlinks, History*
Jewish Community of Munkacs: An Overview, Holocaust Encyclopedia
*
Mukachiv article in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
