The text writes down the history of the Transnistrian town of Halich in the Stanislav region, at the confluence of the Lukva and the Dniester; this town was originally to be ruled by Roman Mstislavovich, grandson of Boleslav the Wrymouth. Further on, the history of the town is written down, as well as a mention of the former castle, which was supposedly given by Władysław Jagiełło to Elias, the hospodar of Wallachia, for life - now only ruins remain (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1871, Series 2, T:8, pp. 279, 280, 284, after: University of Łódź Digital Library).

A modernised reading of the text.

Halich on the Dniester.

In the Stanislav region of Galicia, at the confluence of the Lukwia and the Dniester, in a very fertile and picturesque area, lies the district town of Halicz, today an unremarkable, poor town with a population of just a few thousand. In the past, however, it played a huge role in history; even its very name gave the name to the powerful state of Halicz and Vladimir, which was sometimes called a kingdom and spelt in Latin "Regnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae". These historical memories, after the passage of many centuries, served as a reason for giving the present country the name of Galicia and Lodomeria. However, more recent research has revealed that there were, and still are, a number of towns called Halicz. There were two Ruthenian and two different capitals, as well as two Halich kingdoms: one formerly in Slovakia on the Tugar River existing in the 11th and 12th centuries, later incorporated into Hungary; the other on the Dniester at the end of the 12th and early years of the 13th centuries, which concentrated the historical life of a single-tribe group. Whether this interesting discovery will be irrevocably acknowledged, we dare not prejudge. However, we should also ask language researchers whether the name of the Halich state and town is related to the name of the mountains, and in particular to the nomenclature Hale, which is often repeated in Slavic languages and to the name of the inhabitants who settled there. If there are Podhaleans in the mountains, there could have been Halicans as well. After all, the Wolyn chronicler also mentions a mountain called Halychyna, rising near Halicz, and Długosz claims that the town took its name from it. But Nestor's ancient argument, which applies to all tribes that before they adopted separate local geographical or political names, they bore one name, is probably the most correct. In any case, as far as the state of Halych-Vlodymyr and the city of Halicz on the Dniester are concerned, following the evidence gathered by the distinguished A. Bielowski ("Biblioteka Ossolińskich. Poczet nowy, t. I i II" ["The Ossoline Library. New Postcards, Volumes I and II"]), it is clear that they could not have existed before the 10th century, as the country was still occupied by the nomadic Pechinns. Everything that has been written about them before cannot stand up to criticism now. The town, although it may have been settled in the past, only came to prominence when it became the capital of a duchy, that is in 1141, when it gained renown and importance under the rule of the powerful. The principality of Halytsya, which was first linked to Třebovell, then to Przemysl, then to Vladimir and others, and stretched from the Dnieper to the Danube and the Carpathian Mountains, was the most powerful district among the neighbouring ones. It was inhabited by rulers who were related to almost all neighbouring rulers, because in those centuries there was still an unbreakable attraction to harmony between the tribes and an enduring sense of the need for close links between them. There was even a time when the idea of tribal unification, passing from one district to another, was taken up by the Halicko-Vlodimier princes. In particular, it was successfully held by one of the bravest local dukes, Roman Mstislavovich, grandson of Boleslav the Wry-mouthed and nephew of Casimir the Just, killed at Zawichost in 1205. Under his rule, the state reached the peak of its power and had the widest extent, being strong on the inside, threatening and serious on the outside. After him, the town of Halych also has many terrible or great memories and possesses the only monuments supposedly from that time. His foundation is supposed to be the oldest existing church of the Mother of God in the country, in which he was even buried. He was to establish the first Eastern Rite Episcopal Cathedral in Halicz, later to become the Metropolitan Cathedral. He fortified the town with a rampart of earth and a wooden enclosure, according to the state of the art of warfare at the time; he built a huge castle, which was later taken down from the wall by Casimir the Great, and much of its remains can still be seen today. After the death of Roman, eloquently adored from the contemporary chronicler of Volhynia, commemorated with a glorious memory by the famous singer of the "Song of the Igor Regiment", the great Halych-Vlodimier district broke up, and the already concentrated parts went to the prey of various pretenders. Halich was still ruled for a hundred and more decades by feudal princes who were constantly at war with neighbouring rulers. One by one they pushed each other off the throne, so they could not establish their previous influence and importance, although they sometimes tried hard to do so. During these disagreements, the city, occupied one after another by the co-rulers, was often destroyed by them. It suffered most severely in 1240 from an attack by the Tartars, who destroyed it completely by sword and fire. It was rebuilt by Roman's son, Prince Daniel, a similarly excellent and profound politician, who was needlessly sympathetic to the Mongols, but was still looking for an opportunity to escape their yoke. For this reason, he went under the Pope's protection, had his coronation as King solemnly performed in Halicz (although others maintain that it was in Drohiczyn), and established relations with Western and neighbouring powers. The history of the Halich state was rich in strange adventures in these wrestlings, which were carried out with varying degrees of success and were always disastrous for the country. Daniel's son Leon, who died in 1300, was the last local prince. Casimir the Great found the city he had founded more convenient and defensible, and moved the capital from Halicz to Lviv around 1270, which marked the beginning of the city's decline. From then on, Halicz was still important for some time as the seat of the Ruthenian rite metropolis, which the princes, striving for independence, wanted to keep separate from Kyiv, until Casimir the Great, by virtue of the right of inheritance, took over the state after the sad death of Bolesław Trojdenowicz of Mazovia in 1340. At that time, the state of affairs also changed in this respect. Barely twenty years had passed, and there were no more metropolitans or bishops of Halych-Ruthenia until 1530. They moved from there to the nearest village, Krylosie, where their governors managed church affairs. The metropolitan cathedral established in Halych in 1375 1375 The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Latin Rite was moved to Lviv in 1411. Churches and monasteries of the Dominican and Franciscan orders were also built at this time, and continued to exist until their suppression in 178*. Finally, when the renewed Ruthenian cathedral was moved to Lviv in 1570, the city also lost its importance. After the reunification of the Red Ruthenia with the old Poland, Halicz was the capital of the land and starosty, and in 1405 was granted German law and various liberties. Władysław Jagiełło gave the local castle, standing on a high mountain, to Elijah, the Wallachian lord, as a life tenancy in 1436, in exchange for the returned Pokucie, granted to his father, lord Stefan, by King Ludwik. In addition to this, the town had fortresses, which were maintained by the townsfolk from the town revenues. In 1027, a high rampart of earth surrounded the town on three sides, and there were five towers and three gates to enter. The government authorities, always attentive to the local fortifications, once paid considerable sums for them. The last time Andrzej Potocki, starosta of Halych, thoroughly restored the castle, was at the end of the 17th century. After 1707, already damaged from old age and abandoned, it collapsed into rubble. Today, apart from this rubble and the ancient church mentioned above, there is no longer any trace of Halych's former grandeur. Two parish churches of both rites, male and female schools, a hospital and a post office make up the main buildings of the present town. Only the graves scattered around, in which monuments dating back to ancient times are sometimes accidentally discovered, testify to the fact that there was once a seat about which many interesting things can be found in the chronicles.