Ukrainian city honors Hürrem Sultan with monument, street and museum center

A monument has been erected, a street named and a center created at the historical museum in Rohatyn, in Ukraine's Ivano-Frankivsk region, in memory of Hürrem Sultan, also known as Roxelana, the wife of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman, Report's Eastern European bureau informs.

Olha Balaha, director of the Rohatyn Historical Museum, told Report that today every woman in the region considers Roxelana her ancestor.

"Rohatyn is one of the oldest cities of Eastern Galicia. One of the most famous women in the history of the Ottoman Empire and world history, Hürrem Sultan, was born here. Her real name in our sources is Roxelana, and another name is Anastasia Lisovska. Roxelana was the daughter of a local priest of the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Rohatyn. This wooden church is one of the oldest religious buildings preserved to this day. In 2013, it was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of Ukraine's eight oldest wooden churches," she said.

The museum director noted that, according to claims, Roxelana was taken captive from the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Rohatyn and brought to the Ottoman harem.

"Roxelana's abduction from that church is confirmed by various sources," Balaha said.

She added that Roxelana is believed to have been born in 1506 and to have officially married Sultan Suleiman in 1530. The sultan was 11 years older than her.

Roxelana gave birth to five sons and one daughter. One of her sons, Sultan Selim II, later became heir to the Ottoman throne.