Demarcation of Settlements of Zhydachiv and Stryi Districts of Ruthenian Voivodeship in 16th Century (Northern Fragment of Border)

The objective of the work is to assess the information potential of the demarcation acts, on the basis of which the border line between two administrative-territorial units within the Ruthenian Voivodeship of the Kingdom of Poland was established. The research methodology is based on the principles of objectivity and historicism. Historical-critical and historical-geographical methods are used in the work. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the introduction into scientific circulation of the demarcation acts of 1586 and 1591, which regulated the border line between Zhydachiv and Stryi districts. Both documents have not been previously published. Their copies were discovered in the books of the Crown Metrics, stored in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw. The prospect of further research lies in the actualization of demarcation acts, which allow us to clarify the border line of ancient administrative-territorial units. Conclusions. As a result of the demarcations of 1586 and 1591, the northern fragment of the border between the Zhydachiv district of the Lviv land (west of the villages of Pokrivtsi, Yuseptychi and Nove Selo) and the Stryi district of the Przemyśl land (east of the villages of Stryhantsi and Dashava) was revised. At the same time, during the second demarcation, the commissioners were guided not only by the testimonies of the old men, but also by ancient documents, namely one of the so-called «Zhydachiv charters» of Prince Fedir Lyubartovych of 1411 (some researchers considered these charters to be fake; such accusations were repeatedly and reasonably refuted). Although most of the geographical objects mentioned in the acts of 1586 and 1591 (streams, forests, hills and natural borders) could not be identified, individual toponyms (first of all, the names of the rivers: Stryi, Berezhnytsia and Zhyzhava) still make it possible to outline the approximate routes of the final demarcation of the borders in both cases. These routes generally coincide with the boundaries of the listed villages, reflected on maps of the Austrian period.