Belz (Ukrainian: Белз, IPA: [bɛlz] ⓘ; Polish: Bełz; Yiddish: בעלז) is a small city in Lviv Oblast, western Ukraine, located near the border with Poland between the Solokiya River (a tributary of the Bug River) and the Richytsia stream.

[2] There are a few theories as to the origin of the name: The name occurs only in two other places, the first being a Celtic area in antiquity, and the second one being derived from its Romanian name: Duchy of Poland 970 - 981 Kievan Rus 981-1018 Duchy of Poland 1018-1025 Kingdom of Poland 1025-1031 Kievan Rus 1031-1170 Duchy of Belz 1170-1234 Principality of Galicia–Volhynia 1234-1340 Grand Duchy of Lithuania 1340-1366 Kingdom of Poland 1366-1377 Kingdom of Hungary 1378-1387 Kingdom of Poland 1387-1569 Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 1569-1772 Habsburg monarchy 1772-1804 Austrian Empire 1804-1867 Austria-Hungary 1867-1918 West Ukrainian People's Republic 1918-1919 Second Polish Republic 1919-1939 Nazi Germany 1939-1944 Polish People's Republic 1944-1951 Soviet Union 1951-1991 Ukraine 1991-present Belz is situated in a fertile plain which tribes of Indo-European origin settled in ancient times: Celtic Lugii,[3][4] next (2nd-5th century) Germanic Goths,[5][6] slavized Sarmatians (White Croats),[7] and at last Slavic Dulebes[8] (later Buzhans), who eventually become part of the Kievan Rus' in 907, when Dulebs took part in Oleg's military campaign against Czargrad (Constantinople).

On October 5, 1377, the town was granted rights under the Magdeburg law by Władysław Opolczyk, the governor of Red Ruthenia.

[16] With the collapse of Austria-Hungary following World War I in November 1918, Belz was included in the Western Ukrainian People's Republic.

[26] The Yiddish song “Beltz, Mayn Shtetele” is a moving evocation of a happy childhood spent in a shtetl.

Originally this song was composed for a town which bears a similar-sounding name in Yiddish (belts), called Bălți in Moldovan/Romanian, and is located in Bessarabia[27] (presently the Moldova Republic).

[citation needed] The song has special significance in Holocaust history, as a 16-year-old playing the song was overheard by an SS guard at Auschwitz extermination camp, who then forced the child to play it repeatedly to ease the moods of Jews being herded into the gas chambers.

[citation needed] Belz is also a very important place for Ukrainian Catholics and Polish Catholics as a place where the Black Madonna of Częstochowa (this icon was believed to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist) had resided for several centuries until 1382, when Władysław Opolczyk, duke of Opole, took the icon home to his principality after ending his service as the Royal emissary for Halychyna for Louis I of Hungary.

[28] Literature – Belles-lettres: a poem Maria: A Tale of the Ukraine written by Antoni Malczewski, and a novel Starościna Bełska: opowiadanie historyczne 1770–1774 by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski.