Sambir (Ukrainian: Самбір, IPA: [ˈsɑmbir] ⓘ; Polish: Sambor, IPA: ['sam.bɔr] ⓘ; Yiddish: סאַמבאָר, romanized: Sambor) is a city in Sambir Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Sambir Raion (district) and is located close to the border with Poland. Sambir hosts the administration of Sambir urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is 34,152 (2022 estimate)or 35,186 (2025 estimate).
Geography
Location
Sambir is situated on the left bank of the Dniester river. The city stands at a crossroads. It is a cultural, industrial and tourist center of modern Ukraine.
Sambir is the fifth largest city in Lviv Oblast. Distance to the regional center by rail is 78 miles, by road 76 km length of the city from the south-west to north-east is 10.5 km, and from north-west to south-east 4.5 km. The total area is 24 km2. The center is located at the height of 305,96 m above sea level.
The city is located on an important road connecting Eastern and Western Europe. Through Sambir run electrified railway tracks, trunk pipelines and power lines.
Climate
The average annual temperature in Sambir is between 8 and 10 °C (46 and 50 °F).
There is a fairly mild winter, with thaws, sometimes without snow cover (for winter precipitation typical minimum amount per year, although they are in the form of rain and snow falls often), in Sambir. Spring is long, sometimes lengthy, windy, cool, and very wet. Summer is warm, hot, a little wet and a little rainy.
Autumn is warm, sunny and dry (usually lasts until the first of November). The average temperature of the coldest month (January ) is −4 °C (25 °F), the average temperature in July 28 °C (82 °F). The winter 2013-2014 was extremely warm. The average temperature in December stood at 1 °C (34 °F), minimum −7 °C (19 °F), and maximum 9 °C (48 °F). Also, the snow cover at all this month was observed.
History
Early history
The history of the cities Sambir and Staryi Sambir, which are both situated in Halychyna (which is part of Ukraine), in Lviv Oblast by the Dnister river, begins in a place currently known as Staryi Sambir ("Old Sambir"). This was founded in the 12th century and served as an important center of the Halych Princedom of Kyivan Rus' (Ruthenia). In the 13th century, in the year 1241 the Tatars destroyed it, by burning it down to the ground.
Part of the Stariy Sambir population, especially the weavers, moved to a village called Pohonich, at a distance of some twelve kilometers from the old town, and it was called Novyi Sambir (New Sambor) to distinguish it from old Sambor. The latter began to be called Staryi Sambir, or the old city. The village of Pohonycz was first under the rule of Rus, from 1124 Principality of Halych (or Principality of Halychian Rus'). The city of Sambir from 1254 was part of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, (or Kingdom of Rus’ (lat. Regnum Russiæ / Rusie)) and was mentioned in Galician–Volhynian Chronicle. Upon the death of the last ruler of the Kingdom of Rus’ Yuri II Boleslav in 1349 became part of the Kingdom of Poland and later on part of Ruthenian Voivodeship, also called Rus’ Voivodeship (Latin: Palatinatus russiae, Polish: Województwo ruskie, Ukrainian: Руське воєводство, romanized: Ruske voievodstvo).
Beginning of Polish rule
The foundations of the future city of Sambir were laid in 1390 by the voivode of Kraków, Spytek of Melsztyn, a companion and adviser to the Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło (1396–1434) in his war expeditions. The king granted his loyal companion, for his military services, enormous pieces of land, from Dobromyl to Stryi. Spytek (also Spytko), evaluating the importance of Pohonicz, left a document dated 13 December 1390 addressed to the Wojt (Mukhtar), Henrik from Landshut, permitting him to establish a city in Pohonicz to be called Novyi Sambor, granting it the rights of Magdeburg.
It is not possible to determine exactly when the village of Pohonicz was founded because of the lack of historical sources. It may be assumed that, it being on the important commercial and strategic crossroads near the Dniester and its tributary Mlinuvka, it served as a worth center for fortification and defense. Despite the fact that the village of Pohonicz was raised to the status of a city and its name changed to Novi-Sambor, we find in official documents up to the year 1450 that the city was called by two names: Sambor or Novyi Sambor, formerly Pohonicz.
Sambir is situated on what is almost an island formed between two parallel rivers, the one distant from the other by a few kilometers – the Dniester on one side and the Strviazh on the other – which come together after Sambir in the vicinity of Dolubova. In the pre-historic period the Dniester, at a distance of about three kilometers from Sambor, created a special kind of tributary called Mlinuvka, which, separating completely from the Dniester, falls into the Strwiaz. The Dniester and the Mlinuvka add a natural charm to Sambor. The grant of municipal rights led to people flocking to the city – Poles, Ruthenians, Germans and Jews.
From the city's founding, Spytko saw to its development and granted it many rights. In January 1394, King Wladyslaw Jagiello, at Spytko's request, exempted the inhabitants from paying various taxes. Not for very long, however, did Sambor benefit from his actions for the good of the city. In 1399 Spytko participated in the war against the Tatars, in which he was killed on 12 August 1399 near the river Worskla (see: Battle of the Vorskla River). After his death, the Sambor properties passed to his wife, Elzbieta Melsztynska.
In the earliest times, Sambir had natural conditions for development of commerce, lying as it did on the important commercial route where the Baltic Sea, through the river San, and the Black Sea, through the river Dniester, are connected. The Dniester had already played an important role as a natural water route leading to Akerman near the Black Sea. From there, the Greek merchants reached the land of Scythia with their products. Through Sambor, an important dry land route also led to Hungary, and by this passage to the borders of Poland, merchandise was brought such as timber, salt, cattle, fox and bear skins, honey, and from Hungary, particularly wines. The Sambor merchants would purchase from the Hungarian merchants wines, horses, leather, cloth and various fruits.
From Sambir there was also a road to Lviv through Rudki and Komarno, which connected it with the commercial center of goods from the east, making the city an important commercial juncture.
Sambir was rebuilt several times. In 1498, when Poland was attacked by the Turks and the Tatars, it was burnt down completely. And before the population had recovered from this disaster, the city was threatened, in 1515, by an invasion by the Tatars. In the 16th century, a new Sambor was established on the ruins of the burnt-out wooden houses.
The royal palace, which was situated outside the city walls in the suburb of Blich, was the second most important element of the city's defence. At first it was built of wood and was burnt down in 1498. When the Starosta Shidlovski rebuilt it in 1530, near the Dniester, he built it as a fortress, surrounded by moats, behind which were earthen walls.
In the royal palace, which was the seat of the Starosta, there was, besides the service workers numbering sixty-five in 1569, a garrison composed of infantry and cavalry. This army was intended not only to protect the palace, but also to safeguard the peace and security of Sambor and the vicinity. Furthermore, it was needed to stamp out gangs which would infiltrate from Hungary and spread panic in the neighborhood.
The royal palace of Sambor had the honor to host within it almost all the kings of Poland and heads of state; many receptions were held there with the participation of the city's notables.
Early modern period
In 1530, in view of all the invasions and attacks on the city, the Starosta (district governor) Krzysztof Odrowaz Szydlowski surrounded it with a thick wall and deep trenches, to enable it to be defended. For two hundred and fifty years, Sambor, thus enclosed, was compelled to shrink, limiting itself to narrow streets, without any possibility of expanding and developing naturally. The city was frozen into restricting borders until the first years of the Austrian conquest in 1772.
The city's walls, gates and towers were of much concern to the city fathers, who imposed heavy taxes on the population to cover the costs of safeguarding them for defense. Furthermore, each of the eleven artisans' guilds in the city had to take upon itself the obligation to guard and defend a certain part of the wall, as well as provide arms at its own expense.
In the center of the market place stood Ratusz (City Hall), with a clock tower on it. This building, the most important in the rebuilt city, was entirely destroyed in 1637 in a fire that wiped out almost all of Sambor. The new Ratusz was completed only in 1668, and then, for the first time, at the top of the tower the city emblem was unfurled: a deer with an arrow in its throat.
In the mid-18th century, 68% of the town's population was Roman Catholic, 25% was Jewish, and 6% was Greek Catholic.
Under Austrian rule
After the First Partition of Poland in 1772 Sambir along with the rest of Galicia, became part of the Habsburg Monarchy. Starting from 1780, the new authorities initiated secularization of church property, including all of the city's Roman Catholic monasteries, whose buildings were used as military depots, prisons, offices and schools. In 1784 the dismantlement of city walls began on the order of Austrian administration. During the same period two nearby ponds were filled up. In 1795 a great fire destroyed the old Market Square with its wooden and timber framed architecture. In the following years Sambir was rebuilt in a predominantly Classicist style. As cemeteries located near churches and monasteries were liquidated, a new Christian burial ground was established in one of the suburbs. During the early 19th century a new cemetery also appeared in the Jewish quarter.
Following the introduction of local self-government in the Austrian Empire in 1870, Sambir experienced a construction boom. New building regulations were adopted, and a number of new streets emerged. The trading area in the Market Square was moved in order to be replaced with a garden square. The period of the late 19th and early 20th century in Sambir is characterized with many buildings in Historicist and Renaissance Revival, Romanesque revival, Art Nouveau and other styles. Among the most notable structures from that era were the railway station (ruined by German troops in 1939) and the local court (see below). In 1907-1909 a power plant was established in the city. In 1887 Narodna Torhivlia, a Ukrainian cooperative organization, was founded in Sambir. Its office, constructed in the early 20th century by Ivan Levynskyi's bureau, represents the national Ukrainian style of the time. Many luxurious villas were constructed by richer inhabitants during that period.
20th century
Unlike many other cities in Galicia, Sambir evaded serious destruction during World War I. Following the establishment of Polish rule in the aftermath of the conflict, most of the city's development was financed with private efforts. During that period private schools were established by the Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish communities. Manor buildings in the styles of Art Deco, Zakopane Style and Hutsul Secession still remain a monument from that time.
During World War II several buildings in Sambir were destroyed. Under Soviet rule the city expanded with the construction of new residential quarters built according to typical projects. An industrial area formed in the northern part of the city. An urban park with a beach was established in the Dnister valley during the late 1950s. Due to the destruction of several historical localities, the city increasingly lost its distinct features.