Ivano-Frankivsk city (Ukrainian: Івано-Франківськ; formerly Stanyslaviv, Stanislau or Stanisławów) is a historic city located in the western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (province), and is designated as its own separate region (city of regional significance) within the oblast, city municipality.
Built in the mid 17th century as a private fortress of the Potocki family, with the partition of Poland in 1772 Ivano-Frankivsk was passed to the Habsburg Empire, after which it became the property of the State authorities of the Austrian Empire. It was during that time that the fortress was transformed into one of the most prominent cities at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. After World War I, for a short stint it served a temporary capital of the West Ukrainian People's Republic, after the fall of which Stanisławów became part of the Second Polish Republic. At the dawn of World War II, the city was "liberated" by the Soviet forces which were soon overran by the Nazi Germany. With the liberation of Ukraine in 1944, Soviet regime was established in the city for the next 45 years. A few years before the fall of the Soviet Union the blue-yellow flag was raised in the city as the symbol of independent Ukraine.
A city visitor may find elements of various cultures intertwined within Ivano-Frankivsk, the Polish Rathaus, the Austrian city's business center, the Soviet panel multi-stories residential apartment buildings at the city's urban-rural fringe, and others. The city is the third in population among other cities in the Carpathian Euroregion, yielding only to Lvov and Kosice.
Stanisławów was founded as a fortress in 1650 and was named after the Polish hetman Stanislaw, although other sources claim it was named after his grandson (see History of Ivano-Frankivsk). In 1772 its name was transliterated into German as Stanislau when it became part of the Austrian Empire and later Austria-Hungary; however, after the revolution of 1848 the city carried three different linguistic renderings of its name: German, Polish, and Ruthenian (German: Stanislau; Polish: Stanisławów; Ukrainian: Станиславів, Stanyslaviv). Other spellings used in the local press-media included: Russian: Станиславов and Yiddish.
After World War II it was changed by the Soviet authorities into a simplified version Stanislav (Ukrainian: Станіслав; Russian: Станислав). In 1962, on the city's 300th anniversary, it was renamed to honor the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko. Due to the city's over-sized name, unofficially it is sometimes called simply Franyk by its residents. Even though Ivano-Frankivsk is the officially accepted name, the city's original name was never fully abandoned and/or forgotten and can be found throughout the city in all kinds of variations.
Timeline
• 1650–1662: establishing a private fortress of Potocki and seeking the Magdeburg rights
• 1662–1772: Stanisławów, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (within the Kingdom of Poland),
• 1772–1809: Stanislau, Austrian Monarchy (within the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria),
• 1809–1815: Stanislav, Russian Empire,
• 1815–1918: Stanislau, Austrian Empire, then Austria–Hungary,
• November 1918 – May 1919: Stanyslaviv, West Ukrainian National Republic,
• May 1919 – September 1939: Stanisławów, Poland, seat of the Stanisławów Voivodship,
• October 1939 – June 1941: Stanyslaviv, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic,
• July 1941 – August 1944: Stanislau, seat of the Stanislau Kreis, Distrikt Galizien, Generalgouvernement,
• August 1944 – 1991: Stanislav, (renamed in 1962: Ivano-Frankivsk), oblast seat, Ukrainian SSR,
• after 1991: Ivano-Frankivsk, independent Ukraine.