In honour of his eldest son, born in 1659, and perhaps also in honour of his father – Hetman Stanisław Rewera Potocki – he named the town Stanisławów.

The founding of the town

Founded in 1662, the town was surrounded by an earthen rampart and palisades, and on 7 May it was granted a town charter under Magdeburg law, confirmed on 14 August by King John II Casimir. Later , the town was surrounded by a wall and a moat; two gates were also built – the Halych Gate and the Tyśmienica Gate – as well as a wicket gate known as the Armenian Gate. At that time, Stanisławów became the main stronghold of the southern part of the Halych region . Potocki settled Armenian and Jewish minorities in the town as part of Stanisławów’s economic development, and he also founded the Church of St Andrew and St Stanislaus, which was elevated to the status of a collegiate church in 1669 , where he was laid to rest after his death.

This most precious of the town’s monuments was made famous by Henryk Sienkiewicz, who made it the burial place of the renowned Michał Wołodyjowski. It is in the collegiate church that a poignant scene unfolds, in which Father Kamiński utters the words:

‘For God’s sake, Mr Wołodyjowski! The alarm is sounding! War! The enemy is within our borders! And yet you do not rise to the occasion? You do not seize your sabre? You do not mount your horse? What has become of you, soldier?’

It is worth noting that the side altar on the right featured a painting of St Sebastian, before which the poet Franciszek Karpiński was in the habit of praying. A brief description of the town was included in the ‘Geography of the Kingdoms of Galicia and Lodomeria’, published in 1780, where we read:

This town, built entirely of stone in a foreign style and rivalling other cities, with its palace, town hall, armoury and fortifications – on which His Excellency Stanisław Potocki, Castellan of Kraków and Grand Crown Hetman, spent over a dozen million.

Following the fall of Kamieniec Podolski in 1672, Stanisławów became one of the most important defensive strongholds in this part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Four years later, under the command of Commander Jan Kamieński, the town withstood a siege by the Turkish-Tatar army, which was successfully repelled by King John III Sobieski at Żurawno. In the years that followed , the fortification walls and the castle were restored and reinforced, and in 1680 an arsenal was built. In 1683, Andrzej’s eldest son, Stanisław, was killed in the Battle of Vienna, and his body was laid to rest in the collegiate church. Eight years later, his father joined him there.

Further fortifications were built in 1695, and the castle also gained an armoury. The heir at that time was Stanisław’s younger brother, Józef Potocki. In the 18th century, Stanisławów’s history was turbulent. In 1707, the Cossacks and Russians ravaged the town and left it in ruins; two years later, Stanisławów was ravaged by the plague, and in 1712, the Russians plundered it once more. During the Bar Confederation (1768), Russian troops also entered the town, and during the Partitions, Stanisławów found itself within the borders of the Austrian Empire ( after 1867, within the borders of the Galician Autonomy). In 1783, Emperor Joseph II visited Stanisławów, where he was given a ceremonial welcome by the Potocki family.

Subsequent history

At the beginning of the 19th century, work began on dismantling the defensive walls and filling in the moat around the town. The First World War brought destruction and looting to the town, which lay on the front line. Part of the town’s buildings was ruined, and artillery fire brought down the town hall. The town alternately fell under the control of Russian and Imperial forces. It was not until 1919 that Stanisławów was liberated by the Polish army, and the reconstruction of the ruined town then took two years .

During the interwar period, Stanisławów, then a provincial capital, came under Soviet occupation as early as September 1939. A period of terror, arrests and deportations to Siberia ensued. In the summer of 1941 , the period of German occupation began , marked by the bloody rule of the Gestapo chief, Hans Kruger. The intellectual elite of Stanisławów were murdered, and the Jewish population was subjected to a pogrom. Until July 1944, Stanisławów was part of the Halych District of the General Government. Following the Soviet advance , Nazi terror was replaced by NKVD terror. Many priceless historical monuments were destroyed and looted during the war , including the collegiate church, whose crypts were desecrated. During the Soviet era, the interiors served as a museum of atheism and, subsequently, as an art museum.

The Ton Cinema

One of the buildings that fortunately survived the war and the occupation was the building of the Lviv branch of the Polish Gymnastics Society ‘Sokół’ . The Society was founded in Stanisławów as early as 1884, and its aim was the physical and moral education of young people, which was achieved through special gymnastic exercises (so-called ‘Sokół gymnastics’), fencing and weight training. On 29 May 1892, a ceremony was held in the city to consecrate the ‘Sokół’ banner, featuring a procession, a theatrical performance and a reception.

According to a description in the *Kurier Stanisławowski*, the banner is made of:

crimson damask, featuring on one side a falcon in flight, holding in its talons a bundle of sticks arranged in a circle, and the motto: ‘In unity lies strength […]’, on the other, an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa, a masterpiece of painting, created by Comrade Antoni Stefanowicz, an artist of great merit to the development of the Sokol movement in our town and a professor of drawing at the local secondary school.

Furthermore, the following piece was included in the report published this week:

The whole nation – today the Sokol members

These are our troops – our only future!

With a proud, chivalrous bearing,

And joy and vigour shine from his face –

— there goes a Sokół. — His keen eye,

Pierces right through hearts half-broken with sorrow,

He swiftly dispels the onslaught of dark clouds,

And soars high in spirit into the vast expanse!

To you, the old Sokół members from Pokucie,

The youth, full of zeal, longs to take flight!

For the Falcon beckons young hearts to itself,

It casts a spell so that each of us dreams,

Dreams of the day when, as men,

We shall stand beneath the banner and triumph with you!

‘Sokół’ did not yet have its own headquarters. The building was constructed between 1894 and 1895 under the supervision of engineer Jan Kudelski according to a design by the Kraków architect, Karol Zaremba . From the outside, it stood out for its richly decorated façades and a cylindrical corner tower with a weather vane. The eclectic building combines elements of the Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque styles .

In 1905 , frescoes were painted on the building ; the façade was adorned with a copy of Artur Grottger’s *The Battle* depicting a scene from the January Uprising, whilst 27 coats of arms of the Polish lands were placed on the cornice . On the pediment stood a concrete sculpture of an eagle, which has not survived to the present day as a symbol of Polish statehood. The coats of arms were also covered with plaster – currently, only one of them is visible: the image of a bird, uncovered following renovation in 2000, which is the coat of arms of the Płock region and was mistakenly taken for a jackdaw, the symbol of Galicia.

This building housed one of the town’s cinemas – the ‘Ton’ cinema – established in 1929, following the completion of the reconstruction of the building, which had burnt down two years earlier. At the time, it was the first cinema in Stanisławów to screen sound films. The interwar period brought a veritable renaissance in the art of cinema; as we read in the weekly *Awangarda* of 12 November 1933, in an article about Stanisławów’s cinemas:

There are six of them in total. This year’s programmes are quite good. American trash films have been replaced by films of real merit. Good programmes can be seen at the Uranja, Warsaw and Olimpia cinemas. The beautiful Ton cinema has now opened its doors.

After Poland regained independence, the Polish film director and screenwriter Jerzy Kawalerowicz ( 1922–2007) attended the third boys’ secondary school established on Sapieżyńska Street. At the time, the owner of the ‘Ton’ cinema was the father of one of his school friends, so Jerzy made the most of every opportunity to ensure he didn’t miss a single premiere. He lived in Stanisławów with his family until 1944.

During the German occupation, the cinema changed its name to ‘Wiktoria’ and became a cinema ‘nur für Deutsche’ – exclusively for Germans. Poles were not permitted to attend screenings. After the Soviet invasion, the cinema was named after the Ukrainian writer and revolutionary, Ivan Franko. In 1962, Stanisławów was renamed Ivano-Frankivsk as part of the de-Polonisation of the Potocki estate, a town of historical significance to Poland. Since 29 August 1945, the building has housed the Petro Kozlaniuk Regional Children’s Library .