Obroshyne Territorial Community

History

The first mentions of Obroshyne date back to 1447 (according to other sources – to 1431). The authentic name of the village is Obroshyn.

It is known that in 1456, Obroshyne belonged to Piotr Szamotulski, to whom King Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk pledged the village to repay his debt. Later, the village became the property of the Archbishop of Lviv as well as writer and poet Grzegorz from Sanok. Before the early 18th century, Obroshyne was an ordinary folwark, until Jan Skarbek became Lviv archbishop and decided to build a summer residence there for the highest officials of the church, who migrated to Obroshyne from Dunaev. In 1730, a majestic palace was built in the village – the estate of the Lviv Archbishops, which served as a summer residence until the arrival of the Soviet authorities, which eventually moved the Scientific Research Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry of the Western Regions of Ukraine into the estate. This scientific institution is still there today.

In the village, there is also a half-destroyed Roman Catholic Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross dating back to the late 18th century and the Church of Saint Martyr Dymytrii built in 1914 in collaboration with two architects: Polish Tadeusz Obminski and Ukrainian Oleksandr Lushpynskyi.

Today, the facade of the palace from the side of the main courtyard has been restored and looks neat, while other parts of the palace where the unique decorations have been preserved are in a state of disrepair.

The palace is surrounded by an arboretum with an area of 5.0 hectares, which has the status of national importance.

The Palace of Archbishops together with the utility buildings and the bell tower of the Church of Saint Martyr Dymytri belong to the architectural landmarks of national importance.

In 2023, construction of the Dzerelo zoological park and arboretum began in Obroshyne the works being financed by a private investor. The opening is scheduled for 2024.

A unique fact from the point of view of spatial planning is that the village of Obroshyne has a green zone of a public land park with a surface area of more than ten hectares, through which Lypova Aleia (Linden Alley) street runs, which is the historical entrance to the Palace of Archbishops, 800 metres long and is considered the second longest one in Europe.

Another village that became part of the Obroshyne Community is the village of Stavchany together with the villages of Dibrivka and Pidhaitsi. The village of Stavchany is the oldest village of the Obroshyne Community and was founded in 1396. The toponym of the village comes, obviously, from the name of the Stavchanka River and from the ponds still spread across the territory of the village today. This ancient Slavic name, which has never changed, indicates that the village was formed in ancient times. 

Another village that is part of the Obroshyne Community is the village of Konopnytsia founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The birth and development of the village in the early 20th century is evidenced by an order to open a school in the village of Konopnytsia on 01 September 1914. 

In the village of Konopnytsia, the Community runs a museum “Living History” about the events of the First and Second World Wars, the Liberation War that took place in the territory of Ukraine in the twentieth century, and the russian-Ukrainian war ongoing since 2014. The exhibits are displayed on the field fortification defence line. Unlike traditional museums, there one can interact with exhibits: wear military uniforms of different armies, hold weapons from different periods. The most curious visitors can take a ride in military vehicles.

Economy and Welfare

More than 600 business entities are registered in the Obroshyne Community. Thanks to a good economic and geographical location, the Community is characterized by a higher level of entrepreneurial activity than the average across the Lviv Region. More than 90% of Community entrepreneurs have been registered in the service sector.

The operations in the Community are mainly carried out in the food processing industry, road freight transport (transportation), agricultural production and retail trade.

The key budget-generating enterprises of the Community are Trans Service 1 (logistics), Oliiar (production of sunflower oil) and Lviv Bakery Complex (bakery products), which has started operating in 2024.

The Community has well-established communication between the local authorities and businesses. Consultative meetings are regularly held and businesses take an active part in the development of local socio-economic development programs.

There is a kindergarten and three schools in the Community. The Community also runs an after-school education institution with six sports sections and a children’s art school, where piano, stringed and bowed instruments, folk instruments, music-theoretical and fine arts, wind and percussion instruments are taught. In addition, there are seventeen artistic groups at the school, and three folk groups and one brass band are the performing at the Culture Centres of the Community.

Medical services to the population are provided at the Primary Health Care Centre located in the village of Obroshyne and in the village of Stavchany. There is also a medical laboratory and a paramedic-midwifery centre.

Community and War

The Obroshyne Community faced the full-scale invasion like the rest of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. However, even before that date, there was an understanding that war was inevitable. For this reason, in December 2021, a modern public alert system was installed in the Community, and work was also carried out to provide the Community with generators. On the first day of the full-scale invasion, a local self-defence unit was formed in the Community, checkpoints were installed and critical infrastructure facilities began to be guarded, alternative radio communication was established, a strategic food reserve was formed and conditions were created for the receipt of internally displaced persons coming to the Community every day.

On 27 February 2022, the first shipment of humanitarian aid from Polish partners reached the Community. The further transfer of aid to towns and villages affected by the russian occupation was organized. Aid was also provided to medical institutions as valuable medical equipment and consumables were handed over to them. In the first days of March, it was even possible to transfer aid to the town of Mariupol as long as there was the humanitarian corridor through the city of Zaporizhia.

Later on, aid was regularly provided to servicemen, their families, internally displaced persons and other suffering categories of the population, and local volunteers together with the Community leaders regularly travel to the east to deliver aid to servicemen.

In general, cooperation with the local volunteer movement has been established in the Community, budget funds are allocated to support military personnel, charity events and concerts are arranged, meetings with local entrepreneurs are held, auctions to collect resources to support the Defence Forces are organized, motor vehicles and other valuable equipment are purchased and transferred to them.

The Community has received strong support from the project “Increasing the efficiency and accountability of local self-government bodies (HOVERLA)” implemented by DAI Global LLC (DAI). As part of the project, they provided office equipment, means to facilitate the everyday life of internally displaced persons, inventory and equipment for responding to emergency situations (tents, generators), emergency rescue equipment for the volunteer fire brigade, and even an excavator. In addition, under the Project they regularly conduct trainings for the improvement of qualifications and development of competencies not only of local self-government employees, but of civil society as well.

In 2022, partnership relations were established with Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. Thanks to this cooperation, the Community received a fire truck, an emergency rescue vehicle, two minibuses, tools for online training, and members of the volunteer fire brigade were trained in Germany.

Currently, the Obroshyne Community has a volunteer fire brigade, which is considered one of the most effective in the Lviv Region. In August 2023, during a missile strike, one of the missiles caused destruction in the village of Stavchany. The volunteer fire brigade was the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy and ensured the search and evacuation of the victims.

In 2024, the Community continues to support the Defence Forces and provide aid to war victims.

People of the Community

Upon unification in 2020, the Obroshyne Community has been headed by Ivan HALYCH.

During the formation of the Council staff team, Ivan, among other things, managed to attract managers with experience of working in local self-government bodies or in the public service, and the slogan of the Community, which was later incorporated in the Development Strategy, became “organize – build – develop”. As a result, already in 2022, the Community rose from the 44th position to the 16th position in the ranking of financially capable territorial communities of the Lviv Region, and in 2023 it ranked third.

Over a period from 2021 to the end of 2023, the department of economic development and international cooperation of the Obroshyne Village Council prepared and submitted sixty various project applications.

During the same period, the team of the Obroshyne Village Council managed to implement a number of important projects. More than 3,500 metres of road infrastructure were improved, 700 metres of pavement were installed, street lighting and engineering networks were upgraded.

Also, a new shelter was built in the Community, the Administrative Services Centre was opened, and a large-scale repair of the premises of the centre for primary medical and sanitary care was carried out, in part of which the Vitality Centre is planned to be created in 2024 (a social services centre within the pilot project of the Ministry of Social Policy).

In order to improve the safety of residents, a local Security Centre was created, a video surveillance system was deployed and the institute of a community police officer was introduced, a police station was equipped. The Voluntary Fire Brigade was created and provided with all the necessary equipment as a result of international cooperation.

Modernization of water supply wells was carried out; the local utility company was provided with the necessary equipment and vehicles, including two excavators as a result of participation in regional competitions and as part of international cooperation. Also, in cooperation with international partners and projects, the Community received a fire truck, an emergency rescue vehicle, two minibuses and one passenger bus; office equipment, furniture and equipment for school kitchens, emergency response equipment (winter tents, generators, emergency rescue equipment).

All the social facilities of the Community, without exception, were provided with backup power.

Development Strategy

The Development Strategy of the Obroshyne Rural Territorial Community has been drafted by the joint efforts of the working group created in the Community and experts of the project “Strategic analysis and recommendations on expanding the capabilities of local self-government bodies and communities with the help of relevant strategic documents.” The project implementation became possible thanks to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the USAID HOVERLA Project.

Strategic vision of the Obroshyne Territorial Community:

The Obroshyne Community is an active community of prosperous welfare, the centre of the food industry and cultural development of the western region of Ukraine, a community in which one wants to live. The motto of the Community is “Organize – Build – Develop!”, and the key goals are a strong and stable economy, comfort and safety.

List of Sources

Sources of the information / photos used in the presentation:

• obroshynska-gromada.gov.ua
• szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl
• maps.arcanum.com
• uk.wikipedia.org
• lviv-future.com.ua
• photo-lviv.in.ua
• dzherelo.net
• monasterium.net
• facebook.com/militarytourua
• shutterstock.com
• Personal photo archive of the Council staff (Maria TERENDII, Oresta ZASADNA, Roman VASKOVETS)