Rakhynia

Rakhynia is a village in the Dolyna district of Ivano-Frankivsk region. The village of Rakhynya is located in the valley of the Sivka River to the east of the town of Dolyna. The distance from the village to the district center is 7 km. The Lviv-Chernivtsi railroad passes through the village with a suburban train stop. The first historical mention of the village dates back to 1395. Until 1971, saltworks operated in the village.

Residents of Rakhyn took an active part in the liberation struggle led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, as well as in uprisings against the Polish gentry. To protect themselves from attackers, the villagers built large ramparts, the remains of which are preserved in the eastern part of the village. In the village there is an obelisk to the soldiers who died in the maelstrom of World War II, a symbolic grave of the Sich Riflemen, a Cross in memory of the Holodomor of 1932-1933, and a memorial sign "600th anniversary of Rakhynia".

The lustration of 1469 mentions the village's obligation to equip and maintain one spearman and two archers. The tax register of 1515 documents the lease of 4 plots (about 100 hectares) of cultivated land by the Dubravskys and another 3 plots by Rasko. In 1648, the villagers took an active part in the popular uprising, for which they were subjected to a bloody massacre after Khmelnytsky's departure.

In 1668, the so-called Dolyna Uprising took place in Dolyna. It began in Rakhyn, when one of the Polish lords wanted to confiscate property from the peasants. The uprising spread through neighboring villages to Dolyna. The main headquarters was in the village of Trostianets, where young recruits were trained. After general mobilization, the Poles were able to suppress the armed resistance.

Until 1791 there was a saltworks. Rakhynia was owned by the polonized Russian families of Churyliv and Didushytsky, as well as the Sloboda with salt baths Lisna and Novytsia (Novichka), Patsykiv, Lolyn, Nyahryn nad Svicha, Senechev, Rivne kolo Sloboda nad Limnytsia, Topilske, and Holyn nad Sivka.

In 1880 there were 167 houses and 738 inhabitants in the village and 8 houses and 48 inhabitants in the adjacent territory, which included Yakubiv, Yavoriv, and Velyka Turia (538 Greek Catholics, 176 Roman Catholics, 59 Jews, 13 other confessions; 588 Ukrainians, 34 Poles, 164 Germans), the church of St. Elijah (parish in Dolyna), and a branch school. In 1939 the village had 1410 inhabitants (1050 Ukrainians, 30 Poles, 20 Latin, 30 Jews, and 280 Germans and other nationalities).

Not far from the village there are protected tracts: Berezyna, Dubove, Nadiyiv, Pid Hai, Pidlis, and Rakhynya.

The village church of St. Elijah the Prophet is cruciform, brick, five-domed. The iconostasis is four-tiered. The church was built in 2000 at the expense of the community and consecrated on August 16 by Bishop Joasaph (Vasylykiv) of Ivano-Frankivsk and Halych. The bell tower is brick, three-tiered. Mentions of a church in the village of Rakhynia date back to about 1860, but there is no specific information because in 1982 the shrine was destroyed, along with all the documentation. In 1989, a chapel was built on the site of the destroyed church, where services were performed by the Dolyna dean Joseph Zhovnirovych (until 2000). Near the chapel, which was built on the site of the destroyed church, there is a bell tower built in 1860. There is also a memorial cross on the same site dating back to 1906. There is a brotherhood and sisterhood at the church.

Distance: 10 km to Dolyna; 70 km to Ivano-Frankivsk.