It is located in the valley of the upper Styr River, approximately 90 kilometres (56 miles) northeast of the oblast capital, Lviv.

Brody was granted Magdeburg town rights by Polish King Stephen Báthory by virtue of a privilege issued in Lublin on 22 August 1584.

[citation needed] From 1629, the city became the property of Stanisław Koniecpolski, another of the most distinguished military commanders in Polish history,[7] who ordered the construction of the Brody Castle (1630–1635).

The castle, or rather the fortress, was designed by the French military engineer Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan.

[8] King Władysław IV Vasa, wanting to reward and assist Koniecpolski in the construction of the fortress, issued a privilege in 1633 in Kraków, in which he equated fairs in Brody with those in Lublin and Toruń, granted staple right and exempted city residents from taxes for 15 years.

The Jews of Brody were found not to have been engaged in alleged maltreatment of the Orthodox Christian (Rus) population and were only required to pay a "moderate tribute" in kind.

In 1734, the fortress was destroyed by Russian troops and was later replaced by Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki's palace in the Baroque style.

It was the site of a battle during the Polish-Soviet War of 1920[8] and heavy destruction by both Polish and Russian forces, and is described extensively in stories of the Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel.

[8] Between 26 and 30 June 1941, a tank battle was fought nearby between the German Panzer Group 1 and five Soviet mechanized corps with heavy losses on both sides.

It was particularly famous for the Brodersänger or Broder singers, who were among the first to publicly perform Yiddish songs outside of Purim plays and wedding parties.

The promulgation of the May Laws, and the massive exodus of Russian Jews which was its result, took the leaders of Western Jewry completely by surprise.

When German troops occupied the city on 1 July 1941, the Jewish population of some 9,000 was forced to wear an arm band with the yellow badge.

Two hundred fifty intellectuals were arrested on 15 July 1941 and shot two days later at the Jewish cemetery after being brutally tortured.

Encouraged by German occupation authorities, the Ukrainian population started a pogrom in August 1941, looting Jewish possessions.

In December 1942 the German occupiers forced the Jewish population to resettle in a ghetto inside the town, where 6,000 people lived in January 1943.