Virgin Mary was built in Sokal. The complex is located in the district of Zhvirka, and until World War II, it housed a painting of Our Lady of Sokal, which attracted Catholic pilgrims. Jan Ostrorog, one of the first Polish humanists was buried in the town. After World War II, the painting was moved to a church in Hrubieszow, while the monastery was turned into a prison. On March 27, 2012, the historic complex was almost completely destroyed by fire. Until 18 July 2020, Sokal was the administrative center of Sokal Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Lviv Oblast to seven. The area of Sokal Raion was merged into Chervonohrad Raion. Notable people Mieczyslaw Klimowicz, World War II historian Franciszka Halamajowa, subject of No. 4 Street of Our Lady Czesław Hernas, philologist and folklorist Omelan Pleszkewycz, co-founder of the Selfreliance Ukrainian American Credit Union in Chicago and president of the World Council of Ukrainian Credit Unions Walter Smishek, politician and labour leader in Saskatchewan In fiction Sokal is the location of the opening of the 2009 novel The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell, which takes place immediately following the German invasion of Soviet-occupied Poland in June 1941. Sokal is mentioned in The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek as the town passed by Austro-Hungarian soldiers on the way to the battlefields of World War I. The short story Squadron Commander Trunov by Isaac Babel centres around the burial of the title character in the public gardens next to Sokal's cathedral. In film Sokal was the setting for two documentary films: One was the No.4 Street of Our Lady (2009) about the rescue of three Jewish families in Sokal by Franciczka Halamajowa family, and the other was The Same Snowy Ground (2020), that featured the ruined synagogue and the new park and told the tale of the town's Jewish community. Gallery References External links Sokal in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland (1890) Golos z-nad Bugu Cities in Lviv Oblast Lwów Voivodeship Cities of district significance in Ukraine Holocaust locations in Ukraine