Kamianets-Podolsky Castle fortress in Kamianets-Podolsky was built at the end of the XII, at the beginning of the XIII century, 150-200 years after the founding of the city on the island. From the very beginning and almost to the end of the XV century . it was a feudal castle, in which the appanage princes and boyars constantly lived. The castle stands on a high cliff. It has two tiers of fortifications. The first lower one runs at the level of the Turkish Bridge. It’s a suburb fortification. The second tier is, in fact, the fortifications of the fort itself – with towers and stone walls that stand in the highest spire of the rock.
In 1621, on the western side of the fortress, on the side of Pidzamcha, the earthen fortifications of the New Castle were built.
The strengthening of the Suburb began at the very bridge that connects the Old Town on the island with the fortress. Here, at the bridge itself, there was a Red Tower, in which there was a gate leading to the Suburbs (to the lower part of the fortress). At night, they were closed with an iron grating, which descended on chains from the top of the tower. The Red Tower was built in the XIII century.
On the right, at the Red Tower above the cliff, there was a New tower, which was built in 1544 by the architect Job Pretwich. Opposite, across the road, from the side of Karvasar (Caravanserai) there is an underground passage to the underground bastion. This bastion was excavated in June 1973 by an expedition of Kiev cavers led by Mark Militsin. The Red and New towers at the bridge were dismantled in 1876.
After 1812, the tsarist government turned the fortress into a prison. Before reaching the city gate of the fortress, there is an empty place on the left. In the XIX century there was a small hut in which there was a guardhouse.
We enter the fortress through the City gates, they were defended by the T-34 tank of Lieutenant I. Kopeikin from the 49th brigade of the 6th Tank Corps during the liberation of the city from the Fascist invaders from March 28 to April 2, 1944.
A black tower darkens to the right. It was mentioned as early as 1494. In this tower in 1672, during the siege of the city and fortress by the Turks, gunpowder was stored. The head of the artillery of the fortress, a foreigner Major Getling, concerned about the failures in the defense of the fortress during negotiations with the Turks, set fire to gunpowder and tore down the castle. At the same time, about 800 people died. Getling himself and his friend Yuri Volodievsky died. In the XIX century, the Polish writer Heinrich Sienkiewicz wrote a historical novel “Pan Volodyovski”, in which he described these events.
On the left is the tall Papal Tower, or Karmalyuk Tower, built in 1503. Ustim Karmelyuk was imprisoned in it three times. There was a strong bastion between the Black Tower and the Karmalyuk Tower until the XIX century, which had a descent. With the help of it, cannons were raised to the bastion, which were then installed on the Black Tower. This eastern bastion was dismantled when the tsarist government turned the fortress into a prison.
During the archaeological excavations that were carried out in the fortress in 1959-1960 pp., a room of a gunner was discovered under the bastion, and 57 stone cores were found nearby. A few meters later, the tomb of the Princes Koriatovich of the XIV century was discovered, 8 meters deep, which was knocked out in the rock. And an underground prison has been excavated nearby, in which spies sentenced to death by starvation were imprisoned. Already in the XX century, the fortress became a museum, and now it is the main attraction of the city of Kamenets-Podolsky.
