The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a crown land of Austria-Hungary, was subdivided into political districts (German: Bezirkshauptmannschaften) for administrative purposes, which were referred to in Polish as powiaty (administrative counties). When they were introduced in 1867 there were 74 of these administrative counties;^[1] in 1900 there were 78 counties. The administrative counties were responsible for storing vital records. These counties were introduced following the 1867 December Constitution.

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Prior to 1867, while a crown land of the Austrian Empire and before that as part of the Habsburg monarchy, the kingdom had instead been divided into Kreise since the late 18th century, which from 1854 were subdivided into Bezirke (referred to as Amtsbezirke [de] ('office districts'), to distinguish them from other types of Bezirk).

The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was the largest and most populous crown land of Cisleithania (i.e. the non-Hungarian parts of the Habsburg realms) between 1772 and 1918. More widely, the central European region of Galicia is today split between the modern states of Poland and Ukraine. Despite having passed through several intermediate states during the great wars of the 20th century, the regions have mainly preserved their territorial integrity and continue to demarcate the jurisdiction of local government authorities in their successor states.

The Kreise (lit. 'circles'; sg. Kreis; Polish: cyrkuły, sg. cyrkuł; Ukrainian: округи okruhy, sg. округ okruh) of Galicia and Lodomeria go back in some form to the aftermath of the First Partition of Poland in 1772 which led to the Kingdom's creation, but did not take something resembling their final form until 1782. They were (generally) named after their capital/seat; usually this would take the form [genitival adjectival form of the name] Kreis (usually simply [Name]er Kreis e.g. Lemberger Kreis from Lemberg, the German name for Lviv), but Kreis [standard form of the name] (e.g. Kreis Lemberg) was also used, especially later, and the two forms were interchangeable.

At first, Galicia and Lodomeria was divided into 6 large Kreise, which were subdivided into 59 Kreisdistrikte ('circle districts') in 1773. In 1777 the number of Kreisdistrikte was reduced to 19.

In 1782 the two-level system was abolished and Galicia and Lodomeria was divided into 18 Kreise of the type used in the other non-Hungarian Habsburg realms (what would later be called Cisleithania). Over the next decade these would mostly take the forms which would persist until the mid-19th century.

As the border of Galicia and Lodomeria itself, the Vistula formed the northern borders of the Myslenicer, Bochnier, Tarnower and (partially) Rzeszower Kreise.

The Bukowiner Kreis (an exception where the name derives from the region, although it was also known as Czernowitzer Kreis) was added to Galicia and Lodomeria in 1786, having previously been a separate military district.

By the 1790s the Kreise were:^[2]

The lands gained by the Habsburgs in the 1795 Third Partition of Poland became West (or New) Galicia, a separate part of the kingdom. It too was divided into Kreise; the western Myślenicer, Sandecer and Bochnier Kreise, which lay in the vicinity of the capital Krakau, were also attached to West Galicia. The area around Krakau on the right (southern) bank of the Vistula was transferred to the Krakauer Kreis. West Galicia was incorporated into Galicia-proper in 1803 as a semi-autonomous region.

West Galicia was largely bounded by the Vistula, Bug and Pilica rivers. The Vistula also formed the eastern border of the Radomer Kreis, the western border of the Josefower and Wiazownaer Kreise, the eastern and southern border of the Opatower Kreis, the southern border of the Stopnicer Kreis and part of those of the Slomniker and Krakauer Kreise.

The West Galician Kreise c. 1803:

By the early 19th century the Dukler Kreis had become the Jasłoer Kreis when its capital moved there.

In 1804 the Habsburg monarchy, which until then had been de jure a collection of nominally separate states in a personal union under the Habsburg(-Lorraine)s, was formally united into the Austrian Empire, making Galicia and Lodomeria an Austrian crown land.

In 1809 the Treaty of Schönbrunn ceded the third-partition-territory plus the Zamośćer Kreis [de; pl] and an area around Krakau on the right bank of the Vistula to the Duchy of Warsaw,^[3] a Napoleonic client. It also ceded the Tarnopoler Kreis and most of the Zalestschyker Kreis to the Russian Empire,^[4] where they became the Tarnopolsky Krai [de; pl; ru; uk]. Most of the rump of Zalestschyker Kreis was merged with a part of the Stanislauer Kreis to become the Kolomeaer Kreis with the rest going to the Stanislauer Kreis itself.

The Tarnopolsky Krai was returned to Austria in 1815 (Congress of Vienna); the former Zalestschyker Kreis became the Czortkower Kreis. The area adjacent to Krakau on the right bank of the Vistula, which had been part of the Duchy of Warsaw, went to the Myslenicer and Bochnier Kreise, re-establishing the Vistula as the border. (The other territories which had been ceded to the Duchy of Warsaw on the other hand went to the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, other than the city of Kraków and its environs, which became the Free City of Cracow.)

In 1819 the Myslenicer Kreis became the Wadowicer Kreis.

The Free City of Cracow was annexed by Austria in 1846, nominally becoming the Grand Duchy of Kraków but administratively added to Galicia as the Krakauer Kreis. The extent of this Kreis, which matched that of the former free city, was similar but not identical to the earlier Krakauer Kreis of West Galicia.

The Bukowiner Kreis was detached as the Duchy of Bukovina in 1849.^[5]

In 1850, following the Revolutions of 1848 the Kreise were abolished and replaced with a system of political districts (see § Regierungsbezirke and political districts (1850–53)) but these changes were reversed in Bach's reforms from 1853.^[6] The changes to Galicia and Lodomeria were specifically laid out in 1854: they divided the crown land into two Verwaltungsgebiete (administrative regions/territories) based in Lemberg (Lviv/Lwów) and Krakau (Krawów), which each oversaw some of the land's Kreise; the two cities themselves were directly subordinate to the crown land. The Kreise were also subdivided into Bezirke ('districts'; also referred to as Amtsbezirke [de] ('office districts')).^[7]

In 1860 Verwaltungsgebiet Krakau and Bukovina were dissolved and re-subordinated to Lemberg; the Jasłoer Kreis was partitioned between the Sandecer, Tarnower, Rzeszower and Sanoker Kreise; the Wadowicer and Bochnier Kreise were merged into Kreis Krakau.^[8] Bukovina was detached again in the 1861 February Patent.^[9]

Below is a list of the divisions (Verwaltungsgebiete, Kreise and Bezirke) as of 1854,^[7] with changes after that noted. (Divisions are listed with the names used in the legislation, i.e. mostly in contemporary German and/or Polish. Capitals are in bold.):

In 1850, in the aftermath of the revolutions of 1848, Galicia and Lodomeria was divided into three Regierungsbezirke ('government districts'), named after their capitals: Lemberg (Lviv/Lwów), Krakau (Kraków) and Stanislau (Stanislaviv/Stanisławów; today called Ivano-Frankivsk). The Kreise were abolished and replaced with political districts (Bezirkshauptmannschaften).^[11] While political districts where also introduced in many other crown lands, they generally either retained their Kreise (often with a reduced number) or were not divided other than into political districts; the Regierungsbezirke were specific to Galicia and Lodomeria. This first attempt to introduce political districts to the Empire ended in 1853 with Bach's reforms.

In 1867 political districts (German: Bezirke, Polish: powiaty; also called counties (in the administrative sense) when translated from the Polish – see Powiat § Names and English equivalents) were reintroduced to Galicia and Lodomeria. They originally numbered 74:^[1]

Some other districts were created later:

• Bezirk Strzyżów  [de] (Strzyżów) and Bezirk Podgórze  [de; pl] (Podgórze) in 1896
• Bezirk Peczeniżyn  [de] (Pechenizhyn) in 1898
• Bezirk Przeworsk  [de] (Przeworsk) in 1899
• Bezirk Zborów  [de; uk] (Zboriv) in 1904
• Bezirk Oświęcim/Auschwitz  [de; pl] (Oświęcim) in 1910
• Bezirk Skole  [de] (Skole) in 1911
• Bezirk Radziechów  [de] (Radekhiv) in 1912

In 1902 the Galician-Hungarian border was adjusted slightly, now running along the mountain ridge through the peak of Rysy; prior to this it had run through the Morskie Oko lake about a kilometre to the west. This therefore slightly expanded Neumarkt/Nowy Targ district.

The government assigned some towns the status of Jewish Administrative Center. These Administrative Centers were responsible for maintaining Jewish vital records.

• Subdivisions of Ukraine
• Voivodeships of Poland