Mapping Rohatyn:
Geography as a History Resource

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One way to study the past and present of Rohatyn is through the perspective of geography. On this page we present links to a variety of maps and tools which show Rohatyn’s place in the world across time. But first:

Where is Rohatyn?

Rohatyn is in Central Europe, and by some measures near the “center” or “middle” of Europe, though those calculations depend on selection criteria for what should be included in “Europe”. Rohatyn’s geographic coordinates are unambiguous, though: the rynok is at 49.4097N, 24.6093E on the common coordinate system in current use. Which puts Rohatyn here:

Since Rohatyn was granted Magdeburg rights in 1535, it has been under the authority of the Kingdom of Poland (to 1569), the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569~1772), the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria under the Habsburgs (1772~1918), the West Ukrainian People’s Republic (1918~1919), the Second Polish Republic (1919~1939), the Soviet Union (1939~1941), the Generalgouvernement of Nazi Germany (1941~1944), the Soviet Union again (as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1944~1991), and the sovereign state of Ukraine (since 1991).

Maps of the City of Rohatyn

1846 Cadastral Map

A high-scale and very detailed map surveyed and sketched by the Austrian Empire’s engineers. Originally developed for tax and military purposes, today the map is useful for historical and genealogical analysis.

 

Interactive Data Map 1846

The cadastral map above annotated with indexed records data from births, marriages, deaths, property ownership, and voting registers, all connected by house numbers (addresses on the map). From the Gesher Galicia data mapping project.

 

Jewish Neighborhoods ca. 1846

The data mapping project above is re-analyzed at the community level instead of the individual level to show how Jews and non-Jews lived together and separately in the urban neighborhoods and the less dense farming areas of Rohatyn.

 

1944 Aerial Photo

Photographed by German Luftwaffe pilots in the waning months of the Nazi occupation of western Ukraine, this detailed photo sheds light on the destruction of the Jewish community of Rohatyn in the prior three years.

 

Jewish Heritage Sites Today

A modern web-based satellite map of the city of Rohatyn, with pins to locate the major Jewish Heritage sites in and around the city. The web page also includes GPS coordinates for the sites, as a finding aid for visitors.

 

Maps of the Region Around Rohatyn

thumb-1824-regional1824 Regional Map

An early administrative map, spanning from Lemberg to Brzeżany with fair accuracy, this map is evidence of the Empire’s bold management plans for Galicia.

 

thumb-1855-regional1855 Regional Map

A modern composite of sections of four historical regional maps, this assembly covers the entire Rohatyn district. All of the settlements known today exist in forms similar to their modern layout, but roads in many places take routes which would be modified later.

 

thumb-1880-regional1880 Regional Map

A small part of the most famous map series of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this stunning example of the cartographic arts is as accurate as it is beautiful. Another composite spanning the entire Rohatyn district.

 

thumb-1893-geological1893 Geological Map

A mash-up of the earth sciences, this map combines the geography from earlier regional maps with colored data depicting soil types. From a multi-volume atlas of the geology of Galicia, itself a component of a larger series covering the entire Empire.

 

thumb_ww1_battleWorld War I Battle Maps

Battle and military movement maps showing why Rohatyn was so heavily damaged during The Great War. From a fascinating history of the war written by the defeated Austrian military after the collapse of their Empire.

 

thumb-1926-regional1926 Regional Map

A new survey from newly-independent Poland, and including topographic contour lines, this map is both useful for analysis of the regional terrain and a beautiful color-enhanced work of art.

 

thumb-1939-auto1939 Autoroute Map

A clear and informative auto tourism map produced by the Viennese firm of Freytag & Berndt just months before the outbreak of World War II, this map covers all of what was then northeast Poland.

 

thumb-1943-topo1943 Topographic Map

A high-scale topographic maps surveyed by the Red Army just after they invaded eastern Poland, and printed two years after they lost the region to Nazi Germany. This map would serve the Soviets in their return to the area a year after it was printed.

 

thumb-1944-topo1944 Topographic Map

Another regional map depicting the elevation of the local terrain, this time in an edition produced by the occupying German army during the Second World War, from earlier Polish geodata.

 

thumb-1985-topo1978 Topographic Map

Three decades into the Cold War, the Soviet Union produced this revised map as part of its very successful effort to measure not only its own domain but also much of the rest of the world.