Staryi Chortoryisk is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 (selo) in north-western Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. It is located on the bank of the Styr River

Styr River

The Styr River is right tributary of the Pripyat River, with a length of 494 km. Its basin area is 13,100 km².The Styr River begins near Brody, in the Ukrainian Oblast of Lviv, then flows into the Rivne Oblast, Volyn Oblast, then into the Belarusian voblast of Brest where it finally...

 in the Manevytskyi Raion (district

Raion

A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...

) of the Volyn Oblast

Volyn Oblast

Volyn Oblast is an oblast in north-western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Lutsk. Kovel is the westernmost town and the last station in Ukraine of the rail line running from Kiev to Warsaw.-History:...

 (province

Oblast

Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...

).

One of the most ancient settlements of Volhynia

Volhynia

Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...

, Chortoriysk (or Chertoryesk) was first mentioned in 1100 in the Hypatian Chronicle

Hypatian Codex

The Hypatian Codex is a compendium of three chronicles: the Primary Chronicle, Kiev Chronicle, and Galician-Volhynian Chronicle. It is the most important source of historical data for southern Rus'...

http://www.dubno-adm.rv.ua/index_en.php3, where it was recorded as having been passed to Prince David Igorevych (or Davyd Ihorevych) of Volhynia (1087-1099), together with Dubno

Dubno

Dubno is a city located on the Ikva River in the Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Dubno Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...

, Busk

Busk, Ukraine

Busk is a city located in Busk Raion in Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. The city's population was 8,896 as of the 2006 Ukrainian Census.It is administrative center of the Busk Raion....

 and Ostroh

Ostroh

Ostroh is a historic city located in Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine, located on the Horyn River. Ostroh is the administrative center of the Ostroh Raion and is itself designated as a special administrative subordination within the oblast...

. http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ua-rv-du.html. In the 13th century, it was claimed by the rulers of Pinsk

Pinsk

Pinsk , a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region was known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. The population is about 130,000...

, who built a tower in Chortoryisk resembling the famous Bela Vezha

Tower of Kamianiec

The Tower of Kamianiec, often called by the misnomer the White Tower , is the main landmark of the town of Kamianiec in Belarus. Erected in 1271–1289 by the architect Oleksa as a frontier stronghold on the northern border of the principality of Volhynia, it is the only such tower remaining to this...

 in Kamianiec

Kamianiec

Kamyanyets is a town in the Brest Voblast of Belarus and the center of the Kamenets Raion. The town is located in the northwestern corner of Brest voblast on the Liasnaja river, about 40 km north of Brest. As of 2002, the population was about 9,000 people...

. By the end of the 14th century, the town had become the seat of Algirdas

Algirdas

Algirdas was a monarch of medieval Lithuania. Algirdas ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377, which chiefly meant monarch of Lithuanians and Ruthenians...

's son Constantine (from whose son, Vasili Konstantinovich, the well-known Polish family of Czartoryski

Czartoryski

Czartoryski is the surname of a Polish-Ukrainian-Lithuanian magnate family also known as the Familia. They used the Czartoryski Coat of arms and were the leading noble family of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century.-History:The Czartoryski is a family of a Grand Ducal...

 is descended).

The current village of Staryi Chortoryisk was established in 1900, in place of the ancient settlement. Staryi Chortoryisk was site of a major battle between the Russian and German army in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. In both October 1915 and May 1919, there were major encounters between the two sides. Staryi Chortoryisk had a large Jewish population until World War One, when most of them fled to escape the fighting between the German and Russian army.

Among the prominent natives is the world famous economist Rose Friedman

Rose Friedman

Rose Director Friedman , also known as Rose D. Friedman and Rose Director was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. She was the wife of Milton Friedman , the winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics, and sister of Aaron Director...

 (wife of Nobel Prize winner economist Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...

), who left to Oregon USA around that time. Her family, the Directors were prominent members of the Jewish community in Staryi Chortoryisk . In addition, the prominent Rabin/Rubin family of NYC is has there roots in Chortoriysk. One son even used to style himself as the Chatorisker rebbe.

The village's main landmark is the church of the Blackfriars, built in the Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

style in 1741 to replace an earlier church from 1639.