Ovruch

Ovruch is a city in Korosten Raion of Zhytomyr Oblast in northern Ukraine. It was first mentioned as Vruchiy in 977, was an important town of Kievan Rus' and became the capital of the Drevlians; in the twelfth century the prince Rurik Rostislavich rebuilt the local church of St. Basil in stone and had the city fortified. It passed under Mongol suzerainty after the invasion of 1240, then to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and under the Treaty of Lublin in 1569 to Poland, whose king granted it city rights in 1641. It became part of the Russian Empire after the second partition of Poland in 1793. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries about half of its inhabitants were Hasidic Jews who kept a shtetl there, and the cathedral of St. Basil was reconstructed in 1907 to 1911 by a group of architects led by Alexey Shchusev. Ovruch was the administrative centre of Ovruch Raion until 2020, has about 15,250 inhabitants by a 2022 estimate, and is home to an air base.