The text is illustrated with a brief introduction to the history of Sokal, located on the River Bug. The earliest known history of the town, starting from the 14th century, is recalled. War history is mentioned, as well as the question of the construction of a Roman Catholic church, linked to the figure of Bishop Władysław Bandurski, who came from this area (Source: "Wschód", Lviv 1939, no. 119, p. 6, after: Jagiellonian Digital Library).

A modernised reading of the text

District town of Sokal

The district town of Sokal, situated on the Bug River in the rolling countryside, is one of the more significant urban settlements in the northern part of the "Lviv" voivodeship. We know little about the earliest history of Sokal. It certainly existed already in the 14th century. In 1424, Duke Ziemowit Mazowiecki granted the town the Magdeburg Law, and from that moment the proper history of the town began. In 1462, the Belzec region was transformed into a province, in which Sokal and the surrounding villages constituted a separate district called "Sokal Starosty".

Since then, exposed to frequent attacks of Tartar hordes, Sokal shared all the disasters and misfortunes to which the borderlands were exposed in the 16th and 17th centuries. Thus, in 1499, the Tatars, having destroyed the area around Belz, caused considerable damage to Sokal. In 1502 and 1503, 1509 and 1511, the town suffered the same fate, when Mendel Girey's son, Achmet, destroyed the Red Ruthenia. After these assaults came the year 1519, a memorable year not only in the history of the city, but also in the history of the Polish lands, for in that year the Tatars, having destroyed the Ruthenian lands as never before, stood in a basket near Sokal. Innumerable booty and yasir were proof that the expedition was successful for the Pohanians.

From the opposite side (on the right bank of the Bug River), the Polish army under Hetman Mikolaj Firlej and Konstanty prince Ostrogski arrived in numbers of about 5000 against the 80,000-strong Tartar horde. Prince Konstantin Ostrogski advised not to cross the river, but to wait for the moment when the Tatars would start crossing. The majority of the knights, however, demanded an immediate battle. The hetman gave in to this demand and started the battle. Despite the fierce battle, the result of the battle was unfavourable for the Polish arms. Although 4,000 hordes fell, more than 1,200 knights also fell on the Polish side. This memorable battle was fought on 2 August 1519.

This day witnessed extraordinary valour and love of the Homeland. Among those who necessarily demanded battle was Frederick Herburt. When he saw the defeat of his own, he cried out:

"God forbid that I, by my kind brother, should not give my throat".

- and throwing himself with the spar of his broken pennant at his enemies, he fought them to his last breath and died a hero's death on the field of glory. These moments are described in a poem by Sęp-Szarzyński entitled 'Song about Frydruszu, who was killed by the Tatars in Sokal in the year of our Lord 1519'.

"The mighty Frydrusz, inflamed with noble wrath, fell out of the castle with the shouts of the knights and passed through an innumerable host, his own and the Tartars' blood almost splattered. And there the tiger, when he watches his children, Between the hunters, though a thousand arrows fly, Falls into the midst, not caring to save, But to avenge, harming and dying. Such was the man, seeing his people beaten, the other bound; Till his illustrious spirit with blood departed him; he fell! Shouted the impious host, and bound; but there was a cry of difference. O, worthy knight! Not only happily does thy spirit live with the great heroines; and here, where the silent Bug carries its waters to the Vistula, thy name shall live in the mouths of the knightly people.

Even before this defeat, in 1506, King Alexander granted a privilege at the Lublin Sejm, by virtue of which, because the town had been ravaged several times by the Tatars, he freed the inhabitants of Sokal from all taxes, burdens, duties and market duties for up to ten years. Despite the above privilege, the town did not recover and the defeat in 1519 was an extremely heavy blow. Under the privilege of Sigismund I the Old, the town was moved to the right bank of the Bug River, and remained under the direct protection of a fortified castle, although this did not protect it from further Tartar plunder. The next kings, such as Sigismund Augustus, Batory and Sigismund III Vasa, granted privileges to improve the town's economy, but the town continued to suffer greatly from Tartar attacks and frequent fires.

Sokal experienced hard times during the Cossack rebellions. The first mention of the Cossacks at Sokal dates from the time when Chmielnicki, having abandoned the siege of Lviv, headed for Zamość in 1648. It was then that the nobility, gathered in crowds within the walls of the monastery, stopped the Cossack invasion and forced a retreat. In July 1649, King Jan Kazimierz convened a mass movement near Sokal. From there, the King set off for Toporów, and later pulled to the relief of Zbaraż. It was also here that the army gathered in Sokal in 1651 for the Berestet expedition, which ended in a glorious victory. Sokal survived more than one storm.

Come 1655, Chmielnicki and the Moscow army besieged Lviv, but without success. At that time, too, according to the monastery diary, Khmelnitsky destroyed Sokal, and the monastery miraculously survived. In 1656, in the last days of April, King Jan Kazimierz set off from Lviv, and while making his way towards Warsaw on his way to Sokal and Zamosc, he entered the church in Sokal. It was a time when the nation was awakening from its stupor during the Swedish invasion and began to hope for victory. In 1671, the city of Sokal was completely destroyed by fire. At the end of 1702, the Swedish general Stenbock occupied the town, plundered it along with both monasteries.

He took huge treasures from the Bernardine monastery, as the local nobility had deposited their wealth there. In 1704, King Augustus II camped near Sokal. It was after the Sandomierz Confederation. The king, having left Sandomierz, was approaching Lviv, but seeing that the whole Swedish force was following him, he retreated with his army from Yaroslavl to Ulanow, then to Sokal. In Sokal, the Muscovite army joined with the king under kniaz Golicin. (Four years later, in 1708, Adam Sieniawski, King Leszczyński's opponent, struck at the Lithuanian army near Sokal and forced it to retreat).

Wars, fires, contributions, troop movements, all contributed to the town's decline. The last starost by the hand of the Polish king was Kazimierz Poniatowski. With the king's permission, he surrendered the starosty to Fr. Salez Potocki in 1768, and after the latter's death it passed to his son Stanislaus, from whom the Austrian government took all the properties belonging to the Sokal starosty. In our times, the conflagration of war, Russian, Ukrainian and Bolshevik invasions destroyed the town immensely.

The state of utter neglect lasted until the town's economy was taken over by the town commissioner with the participation of the Assemblyman's Council. The electrification of the town was carried out and developed to the benefit of the inhabitants. The school buildings were repaired and the town squares were put in order. After the formation of a proper elected town council, the town's development took a turn for the better. The construction of a Roman Catholic church as a monument to the great son of the Sokal region, Bishop Wladyslaw Bandurski, progressed. Further sanitation of economic and financial relations of the municipality was skilfully carried out.

Sokal had a population of over 12 thousand, of which 36 per cent were Poles, 24 per cent Ruthenians and 40 per cent Jews. Sokal has great possibilities of development ahead of it, it can and should become a beautiful centre of Polish culture in the Eastern Lesser Poland.