|Synagogues, prayer houses and others||Cemeteries||Sites of martyrdom||Judaica in museums||Andere|
|Province:||inne / tarnopolskie (before 1939)|
|County:||Тернопільська область [obwód tarnopolski], Борщівський район [rejon borszczowicki] / borszczowski (before 1939)|
|Community:||Скала -Подільська [ Skala-Podilska ] / Skała (before 1939)|
|Other names:||Скала-Подільська [j.ukraiński]|
Скала-Подольская [j.rosyjski]; סקאלה[j.hebr]
In September 1942, the Nazis transported the Jews from Skała Podolska to the Bełżec death camp.
Robert Kuwałek /
A fortified settlement (Polish: gród), which existed here as early as the first half of the 13th century, was destroyed by Mongol invaders in 1240 and it was not until 1331 that Lithuanian dukes from the Koriatowicz family had the settlement restored. In 1394, the gród and the castle were granted to Spytek of Melsztyn (Polish: Spytko z Melsztyna). In 1430, Skała was granted the Magdeburg rights, but the town could not develop due to numerous Tatar invasions. It was as late as the 1530s that Stanisław Lanckoroński, official administrator of Kamieniec, had the castle reconstructed and the town surrounded with a wall. The 1560 audit of Podolia Province revealed that Skała Podolska had 186 Christian houses, 10 Jewish ones, 4 Orthodox ones, and 3 that belonged to the nobility. Apart from that, there were also houses owned by servants working at the castle and in the town. It is estimated that there were about 1,000 people here at that time.
The entire population was taken hostage by the Tatars in 1615. In 1648, the town and the castle were seized by Cossack troops commanded by Maksym Krzywonos. Rakoczy’s Transylvanian troops were stationed here in 1657, wreaking havoc on the area. The 1655 audit contained information about as few as 15 townsmen residing in Skała.
The Lanckoroński family held Skała in ownership until the first half of the 18th century when it was taken over by the Tarło family. The new owner had a palace built where the remains of the former castle were left. However, a thunderbolt burned down the palace in 1795 and the only thing left of it today is its picturesque ruins.
Austria had Skała under its rule from 1772 onwards. The Austrian-Russian border on the River Zbrucz separated the town from the rest of Podolia and was a contributing factor in its becoming cut off from the market square in Kamieniec Podolski. Nevertheless, the local border trade, either legal or not, which was conducted mostly by Jews, continued to play a significant role here. In the 19th century, the town came under the ownership of the Gołuchowski family, who built their own palace here. Skała Podolska was the center of the Gołuchowski family’s estate in Galicia
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