 A battle between Ukrainian Cossack and Polish forces took place here in 1655 (see Battle of Horodok (1655)), in which Ukrainian Cossack Bohdan Khmelnytsky defeated Polish forces and than laid siege to Lviv.In 1772, Gródek was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, as part of Austrian Galicia, where it remained until late 1918.German-speaking settlers established their own colony, called Vorderberg (1788).