The town of Buchach was first mentioned in 1260 when the Kyivan Rus Kingdom was in decline and the Galician Kingdom was on the rise. The name means “native water” which is a reference to the Strypa River that runs nearby. From the 14th – 17th centuries the noble Buchatsky family ruled from this castle. They built a system of towers and castles in the vicinity as a defense against the constant attacks by Turks and Tatars. An underground tunnel allowed the inhabitants to escape if the castle was overrun.
When the last of the Buchatskys died off, the castle became the property of the powerful Potocki family. Mykola Potocki changed the castle from a residence into a strong fortress. His son, Stefan, built the Church of St. Mykola, the first stone church, in 1610. Recent excavations in the cellar have discovered human skeletons, evidence of Soviet torture.
The Turks seized the strategic fortress of Kamianets Podilsky in 1672 and the Turkish forces under the command of Mahomet IV were soon laying siege to the castle in Buchach. At the time, a woman – Teresa Potocki, led the castle’s defense. She tried to shame the sultan for attacking a woman. The ruse worked because a peace delegation from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth arrived before the castle was stormed. But all was for naught because a disgraceful treaty was signed within the castle walls relinquishing all the territory of Ukraine and Podilya to the Ottoman Turks.
Buchach Castle was spared destruction but the Turks returned in 1675 and again in 1676 and inflicted much damage. Once peace had been restored and Ukraine and Podilya were again under the Commonwealth in 1699, Jan Potocki began reconstruction of the fortress.
In the early 17th century Stefan had invited Basilian priests from Lithuania to found a theological school. In 1751, a later Mykola Potocki began construction of the magnificent Basilian Monastery that stands today.
Mykola also erected the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in 1761 on the ruins of the church that had been founded by the Buchatskys at the end of the 14th century.
In 1772 the Commonwealth was partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria. Buchach became part of the Austrian Habsburg Empire. The castle was abandoned and the nearby residents tore down the walls for building materials over the next centuries.