Mezhyrich

The outstanding architectural ensemble of the defensive Holy Trinity Monastery in Mezhyrich has been decorating the cape formed by the confluence of the Viliya and Svitenka rivers for six centuries.

This monument of the Volyn school of architecture combines the traditions of ancient Rus constructive techniques with elements of Gothic-Renaissance architecture of the XV-XVII centuries.

According to legend, the Orthodox monastery at this place was founded by Kyiv-Pechersk monks during the Mongol-Tatar invasion. In the 15th century, Prince Kostyantyn Ostrozky began the construction of a wooden castle with the Trinity Church in the center of the courtyard, which became the basis of a fortified monastery. His descendants soon built a stone temple in ancient Rus forms.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the monastery came under the control of the Catholic order of Franciscans, who added Gothic and Renaissance decor to the temple, added two two-story cell buildings with paired round towers at the corners, and also surrounded the complex with stone fortress walls with crenellated defensive towers in the Renaissance style. All this gave the monastery the appearance of an elegant medieval castle.

In the middle of the 19th century, the complex was destroyed by fire, it remained abandoned for a long time.

Now the monastery has been handed over to the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Mezhyrich icon of the Mother of God "Zhyttiepodavnytsia" (XVI century) crowned by Catholics is kept here - the ancestral icon of the princes of Ostroh, as well as the miraculous icon of Anthony the Great.

"Yanush's Furnace" is the name of the only structure that survived from the palace of Yanush Ostrozki in Mezhyrich near Ostroh.

The palace was located next to the Holy Trinity monastery-fortress. All that remains of it is a huge fireplace-type stove with large arched openings, a pyramidal roof and a tall chimney with Renaissance decoration. The fire was lit in the center, the side passages could be closed during the cold season.

It is assumed that the palace guards warmed themselves near the Yanush Furnace. It could also be used during banquets to roast large animal carcasses on spits.

Zaslav (Izyaslav) gate is the only surviving stone element of the outer defensive fortifications of medieval Mezhyrich.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the defensive Holy Trinity Monastery was the citadel of the Mezhyrich fortress. Its defensive ramparts were organically united and incorporated into the system of earthen fortifications of the village itself. Then earthen ramparts with hexagonal bastions placed at the corners of the ramparts were built around Mezhyrich. You could get to Mezhyrichthrough two gates: the Zaslav Gate on the road to Izyaslav (former Zaslav), which has survived to this day, and the Dubno Gate, which was located where the center of the village is now.