The first written mention of the town of Pochaiv, spread on the hills of the Gologoro-Kremenets ridge, dates back to 1442. That year the Great Lithuanian Duke Casimir Jagiellon (Kazimierz Jagiellończyk) provided the settlement with a “granted letter” (“privilege”), among others, to the mayor of Kremenets Heorhii.
The name of the town probably comes from the name of Pochaiv, which in ancient times was extremely popular. Some researchers associate this name with the Slavic word “pocha” – marshland.
Pochaiv was a village, a town, a city and belonged to the gentry possessions of the families of Berezhetskyi, Gothskyi (Goiskyi), Firlei, Tarnovskyi and only in the XIX century acquires the status of state town. Already in the 30s of the XVII century Pochaiv appears as a town. An important point in its development was the founding of the Tarnovsky family New Pochaiv, along with the existing ancient Pochaiv, which began to be called Old Pochaiv, this happened according to inventory books – in the XVII century. Also in 1778 the nobleman Tarnovskyi received a privilege from the Polish king to establish a town with the same name in Pochaiv, and granted Magdeburg law for it. That is, originally there was an old settlement, but thanks to the development and strengthening of the monastery around it formed a new settlement, today known as Pochaiv, previously New Pochaiv. Given this fact, the registers of the XVIII century gives us Old Pochaiv as a town with 74 smokes, while New is only 21 smoke. During this period, town received a coat of arms on which was represented the figure of the Virgin, which is still used today. Pochaiv developed around the monastery, which was laid in the Assumption Church that has existed since ancient times, however, the memories of the foundation of which are lost in the darkness of centuries. Residents of town were mainly artisans in the manufacture of church paraphernalia, since pilgrims constantly came to the Pochaiv for pilgrimage.
Pochaiv is known thanks to prominent figures who were born here or lived and worked for some time: Oleksa Smikh-Shatkivskyi, Ivan Khvorostetskyi, Fedir Lozovych, Andronyk and Ipolyt Lazarchuk, Afanasii Kryzhanivskyi, Milentii Kostytskyi, Mykhailo Rozhko, Irena Karel, Hanna Khvorostetska, Nadia Khomich.