Boiany

The village of Boyany has been a part of Moldova since its creation in the historical region of Bukovyna. According to a local legend published by Professor Vasile Bizovi, the village was founded 900 years ago on the lawn of a forester who raised cattle. The clearing was expanded when the land was cleared of forests during the reign of Alexander the Good, resulting in the formation of a village called Great Boiani (Romanian: Boianul Mare). In the Middle Ages, the trade route connecting the cities of Yassy and Chernivtsi passed through this village.

The village was first mentioned in writing in a document dated April 8, 1528, issued to Petru Rares, the ruler of the Principality of Moldova. On April 3, 1560, the ruler Alexandru Lepuşnian issued a decree dividing the village of Boiani between the children and grandchildren of the Stircea brothers. The village was divided into 3 parts: the upper part (now the Hlynica corner), the middle part (Hukiv) and the lower part (the site of the present village). In the next hundred years, the middle and lower parts of the village were sold several times, passing from hand to hand.

In 1636, Isac Stârcea was forced to give the governor Gavrilas Mateiaş the upper third of Boyany, a prosperous mill, and the village of Lezanii, because he had stolen "1360 gold pieces, furs, fox fur, etc." Two years later, the owner Vasyl Lupul secured Mateiş's ownership of these estates.

In the second half of the eighteenth century, the village belonged to the family of Ion Neculcea, a Moldovan chronicler. His father married in 1670 Katrina, the daughter of the boyar Iordache Cantacuzino, one of the richest landowners in seventeenth-century Moldova. As a dowry for her wedding, Katrina received 21 estates, including several villages in northern Moldova (Boiani, Cernovita, Bochkivtsi, Grozintsi, and others).

In 1702, Ion Neculcea shared his mother's inheritance with his sisters, but Boyany remained his. After Neculcea lost in the Battle of Stănilești (1711), his property was confiscated and handed over to the grand magistrate Lupu Costache. In 1720, Neculce was allowed to return to Moldova and began to sue Lupu Costache's son, Iordache, convincing the government to return his estate to him. Later he discovered that his property had been bought by the descendants of Isaac Stirce, who came with new documents. In order to develop the entire estate, he bought shares owned by Styrche's heirs.

In January 1775, as a result of neutral relations, during the military conflict between Russia and Turkey (1768-1774), the Habsburgs (today's Austria) received a part of Moldavian territory, the area known as Bukovina. After the annexation of Bukovina by the Habsburg Empire in 1775, the village of Boiani was part of the Duchy of Bukovina, governed by the Austrians and belonging to the Sadagura district.

In 1775, due to the fact that Boyany was involved in military operations, an Austrian customs office was established here. The residence of the inspector of the customs service of Bukovyna and Podillia was located in the village. In 1780, the village had five mills and two shops. When the Austrians annexed Bukovyna, Vasile Neculce, who owned the village, remained in Moldova. In 1782, he substantiated his ownership at the Austrian Boundary Commission of Bukovina (founded in 1781), a commission headed by Colonel Metzger and including two other representatives, Ion Calmuţchi and Alexandru Ilsche. Since Vasile Neculce could not manage his property remotely, on April 26, 1792, he leased the village of Boiani and half of his property to Ion Calmuţchi, who was the owner of the Kalinesti property on Cheremush.

As a result of the difficult economic situation, some residents began to emigrate to Canada in the late 80s of the nineteenth century; during the whole year of 1913, at least 983 people were forced to leave the village. The migrants settled in Alberta and founded a village with the same name, Boyany.

After the union of Bukovina with Romania on November 28, 1918, the village of Boiany was part of Romania, in the county of Chernivtsi. At that time, most of the population was Romanian, and there were also Ukrainian and Jewish communities. Because the front line passed through the village, Boyany was almost completely destroyed. Only two houses remained intact. In the interwar period, a court and branches of the League of Culture worked here.

In July 1941, Romania gave back the lost territories under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. After the Romanian troops entered the village, some villagers forced 80 Jews out of their homes and brought them to the center of the village, where they were shot by Romanian soldiers who were in the village. The Jews were buried in a mass grave, where the remains were moved in 1976 to the cemetery of the village of Stroeşti.

In March 1944, Northern Bukovyna was again occupied by the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR. One day in the summer of that year, all men aged 18 to 40 were gathered in the center of the village, taken by force from the village, put on trains, and taken to labor camps near Lake Onega, not far from the USSR's border with Finland.

Since 1991, the village of Boyany has belonged to the Novoselytsia district of the Chernivtsi region as part of independent Ukraine.

Currently, there are 3 churches in Boiany, two schools (including the "Ion Neculce" gymnasium with this status since 1990), which teaches Romanian and Ukrainian languages. There is a modern hotel ("Bukovynska Zirka") - it was opened in 2003, a supermarket ("Dzhereltse") - a restaurant ("Prince") and several shops, a recreation center ("Sonyachna Dolyna").