SAMBIR VOLOST AND SAMBIR DISTRICT: RECONSTRUCTION OF BORDERS (END OF 14TH – 16TH CENTURIES)

The article is devoted to the history of one of the districts of the Przemyśl land of the Ruthenian voivodeship, with its center in Sambir (now Staryi Sambir), formed based on the Sambir volost as part of the Galicia-Volyn state. The reconstruction of the borders of this administrative unit was carried out by several Ukrainian and Polish historians, who used various sources. However, they did not adequately consider those individual settlements were subordinated to different district centers at different times, due to which selective sections of the district border were fluid. Guided by acts (royal grants, foundation privileges) and descriptive-statistical documents (tax registers, lustrations), as well as previous border reconstructions, we made our attempt to reproduce the boundaries of the Sambir volost (1375 – 1434) and the district (until the end of the 16th century), taking into account the variability of these borders. For the years 1375 – 1434, 21 documents were selected, in which 27 settlements of the Sambir volost are mentioned. Their subordination remained unchanged in the following centuries. However, we cannot say that the Sambir district and the eponymous volost were identical, not only because of border fluctuations but also because of the loss of some territories (the Ternowo Pole). As a result of the rapid colonization of the mountainous part of the district in the 16th century, the number of settlements in it more than doubled (from 88 to 210). The mountainous areas of the neighboring Sanok land and Stryi district were also actively settled. Mutual border colonization made it possible to fix the western and southeastern borders of the Sambir district by the end of the century. Its eastern border (with the Drohobych district) has remained unchanged since the existence of volosts. On the other hand, in the north (with the Przemyśl land), the boundaries were fluid due to the frequent change of jurisdiction of the local nobility between the Przemyśl and Sambir courts.