Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle
Eleven-towered stone fortress above the Smotrych canyon, the core of a state museum-reserve.
The castle stands on a rock spur almost encircled by the gorge of the Smotrych, guarding the narrow neck of land that leads to the old town. A stone fortress existed here by the fourteenth century on earlier Ruthenian foundations, and in the sixteenth century it was rebuilt and extended under the direction of Job Pretfes into the eleven-towered enceinte seen today, with towers of differing dates and profiles linked by curtain walls, casemates and a bridge over the moat.
Between 1617 and 1621 an outwork of earth and stone bastions, the New Castle, was thrown up to the west against artillery. The fortress fell to the Ottomans in 1672 and was held by them until 1699. It is now the central site of the Kamianets-Podilskyi State Historical Museum-Reserve, with displays on fortification, archaeology and local history in the towers and casemates, and it was voted one of the Seven Wonders of Ukraine in 2007. Ukraine has placed the town and its fortifications on its UNESCO tentative list.
Highlights
- Eleven towers of differing dates linked by curtain walls and casemates
- Bastioned New Castle earthworks of 1617-21 facing west
- Bridge and approach above the Smotrych river canyon
- Displays on fortification and archaeology inside the towers
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