Волочиська

Volochysk hromada lies in the west of Khmelnytskyi Oblast, where the Zbruch River for centuries separated Podillia from Galicia. The town was first mentioned in 1463 as Volochyshche; according to tradition, merchants dragged (volochyly) their cargo across the marshy Zbruch floodplain, hence the name. It belonged to the Zbarazki, Vyshnevetski and later Potocki families, and after the partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth it found itself on the border between the Russian and Austrian empires. This frontier position made Volochysk a customs post and an important railway station: the line across the Zbruch was built in 1870–1871, when a sugar factory also appeared. In Soviet times a branch of Motor Sich operated here; today the economy relies on agricultural holdings and food producers. Visitors should see the classicist Holy Trinity Church with its columned portico, the old railway station, the bridge over the Zbruch and the riverbank with an ancient settlement site. The villages are the real highlight: Tarnoruda boasts the Baroque Church of Our Lady of the Holy Scapular (1643), a historic pilgrimage centre of Podillia, as well as the Mordvinov manor, an Austrian customs house and the pond of a former hydroelectric station. Rocky hills at the edge of Medobory, the canyon-like Zbruch valley, ponds and forests make the area attractive for cycling and hiking. The hromada unites 53 settlements, so routes can easily include village churches and manors.