This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Ivano-Frankivsk Territorial Community
Ivano-Frankivsk
Population:
The total area of the territory is 265,528 km2.
The population of the community is 302,100 people.
Women: 161,500
Men: 160,600
IDPs: 41,000
It includes 19 population centers. The administrative center of the community is the city of Ivano-Frankivsk.
History
Ivano-Frankivsk was founded in 1661 as a fortress, and as soon as 1662 it received Magdeburg rights. The city was founded by Andriy Potocki, a representative of an ancient Galician magnate family who owned large latifundia in Pokuttia. Earlier, the city was called Stanyslaviv.
The city began with the Market Square and the Town Hall, which have survived in a modified state to this day. In its further development, the urban planning ideas of the Renaissance about the “ideal city” were embodied in the planning of the city center, its streets, temples and tenement houses.
In the 18th-19th centuries, the city was an important trade and craft center of Poland, and from 1772 – of the Habsburg Empire (from 1804 – of the Austrian Empire, from 1867 – of Austria-Hungary). Poles, Jews and Armenians, whose national communities were quite numerous here, also contributed to the development of the city’s crafts and culture.
After the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic was created.
Stanyslaviv was the capital of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic during January-May 1919. At that time, prominent Ukrainian figures Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Symon Petliura, Yevhen Konovalets visited here.
In 1962, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of its foundation, Stanyslaviv was renamed Ivano-Frankivsk in honor of the outstanding poet, public and political figure Ivan Franko.
Among the favorite places of the townspeople is the lake. Previously, ponds were created in the city, which were connected to the river with the help of locks. In 1955, they were removed and water flooded all the ponds. In this way, the Stanyslaviv Sea was formed, which was later called the city lake. This is the largest artificial reservoir in the city. Its area is 36 hectares, and the depth reaches 5 m.
Economy and Welfare
More than half of the enterprises in the community are engaged in the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning. 43.8% are processing industry enterprises. Most of them specialize in mechanical engineering and the manufacture of food products, beverages and tobacco products.
State-owned enterprise “Karpaty” is the largest local enterprise. It is engaged in the production of automotive electronics and employs about 2,000 Ivano-Frankivsk residents.
One of the exporters is Intelcom LLC. This is a leading company in the field of production of children’s plastic toys in Ukraine, which is represented on the market under the trademark “TechnoK”. The company manufactures toys in a wide variety of categories: from board games to children’s vehicles.
PJSC Ivano-Frankivsk factory “Promprylad” is one of the oldest enterprises in the Carpathian region. As an industrial zone, it existed as early as the 18th century. The modern history of the plant began in 1905.
The enterprise specializes in the production of gas meters and equipment. In its best days, more than five thousand people worked here, and the plant itself covered an entire neighborhood between four streets. As a result of the development of the city, the plant turned out to be located almost in the very center. Therefore, it was moved to the industrial zone.
In order to rethink the use of post-industrial areas that lost their economic role in 2017, the “Promprylad.Renovation” innovation center was opened on the basis of the plant.
It is a creative space that unites seven buildings with a total area of 40,544 m² and has offices, a co-working space, a school of new professions, a hotel, a sports center and much more.
Community and War
On February 24, 2022, residents of Ivano-Frankivsk woke up to explosions – Russian missiles fired at the military airfield. Repeated shelling was heard in the community in the first half of March.
The Ivano-Frankivsk community has been and continues to remain the rear part of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Thousands of immigrants flocked here from the first days of the full-scale war. Someone stayed, and someone stopped here for a rest, and after a few days they set off again.
The 24-hour telephone line, which the residents of the community turned to for solving communal issues before the large-scale war, turned into a hotline that received appeals from internally displaced persons – questions about registration, settlement, provision of humanitarian aid, coordination of logistics, etc.
In the central building of the railway station, there was an action coordination center that provided quick consultations to internally displaced persons.
The Ivano-Frankivsk Administrative Services Center was repurposed as the Military and Forced IDPs Support Center. A mechanism for receiving aid, its sorting, accounting and delivery to both military personnel and temporarily displaced persons was established.
Preschools and educational institutions also turned into centers of assistance. Caring residents brought food and warm things for the displaced people here. Employees of educational institutions loaded cars with products, medicines and hygiene products to be sent to hot spots.
Volunteer headquarters were set up in every neighborhood of the city, where everyone brought aid. The city authorities together with the “Union of Volunteers of the Carpathian Front” created a Logistics Center to help the defenders from Ivano-Frankivsk at the front and, later, the civilian population of the front-line towns and cities.
People of the Community
The Ivano-Frankivsk community is headed by Ruslan Martsinkiv. Under his initiative, the city developed culturally and infrastructurally in pre-war times. And according to the Research of the Rating sociological group in 2020, the community was ranked sixth among the safest cities of Ukraine.
Before the full-scale invasion, the community was famous for its developed festival tourism.
The annual International Christmas Festival “Kolyada na Maizliakh” is held here. Launched in 2010, it aims to restore and preserve Christmas traditions and popularize Christmas carols. During the years of the festival, more than 400 groups of the vocal genre from many regions of Ukraine, as well as choral groups from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Brazil, Canada, and Israel performed with concert programs here.
Another significant event for the community is Feast of Blacksmiths, an international annual festival of blacksmith art. Started in 2001, it is devoted to the City Day and lasts for several days. This is one of the largest blacksmith festivals in Eastern Europe, in which professionals from 35 countries of the world participate.
Development Strategy
Ivano-Frankivsk has an active city development strategy until 2028. However, the unification of 18 villages around Ivano-Frankivsk, and then the full-scale war, made their adjustments and showed that the strategy needs to be adapted to modern realities.
That is why the Ivano-Frankivsk community has begun work on creating a 2030 community development strategy. Now, the city, together with the public and cultural sector, as well as business representatives, is holding thematic meetings on the main areas of community development.
At the same time, the current strategy includes 4 strategic areas and 16 strategic goals:
- A city of investment and business development support
- A city of comfortable living, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly infrastructure
- A city of open government and modern management
- A city of quality education, medicine, multi-format cultural environment.
Among the priorities of the community is comprehensive support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and participants in hostilities. Therefore, they are working on the creation of a communal enterprise “Warrior’s House”, which will provide psychological and physical rehabilitation, social adaptation services to persons who in various ways stood for the protection of Ukraine and are returning to a peaceful life.
Ivano-Frankivsk is the first city in Ukraine to become a member of the Association of European Municipalities “Energie-cites”. It is a member of the Association of Ukrainian Cities which maintains close ties with the Council of European Cities and Regions, the International Union of Communities and the Organization of Twin Cities.
Ivano-Frankivsk is a member of the Network of Ukrainian Sustainable Development Cities according to the Aalborg Charter and a member of the Ring of European Cities of Iron Works Association. The city is a signatory to the Agreement of Mayors of European Cities – a document signed by the heads of cities to strengthen cooperation, exchange of experience and joint activities.