Attractions of Kamyanets-Podilskyi

The main City Gate is one of the key elements of the defense system of the Old City of Kamyanets-Podilskyi.

It belongs to the oldest defensive structures of the city. The gate closed the entrance to Kamyanets through the Turkish Bridge from the Old Fortress.

The City Gate complex was rebuilt in 1746 by the military engineer Christian Dahlke. The entrance to the city was carried out through the Gate Tower, in the premises of which there is now a small cafe. The current passage is cut in the defensive wall. On the opposite side, there is a casemate-laboratory for testing gunpowder, which was produced at gunpowder mills on the Smotrych River. Currently, the laboratory complex houses the restaurant "Under the Gate".

A little above the gate is the Armenian bastion - a powerful hexagonal structure with large embrasures, built under the leadership of the military engineer Kamilus.

From the viewing platform above the laboratory, a classic view of the Old Fortress opens.

The old fortress of Kamyanets-Podilskyi is one of the most outstanding monuments of fortification art of Ukraine.

It is a part of Kamyanets-Podilskyi State Historical Museum-Reserve.

Nowadays, the name "Old Castle" is most often used, although formally this fortress was a castle (residence of the feudal lord) only at the very beginning of its existence, under the princes Koriatovych (Koryatovych).

A powerful defensive junction at the entrance to the city on the main road across the bridge over the narrow isthmus of Smotrych Canyon was built in the XVI century. on the basis of ancient n fortifications of the XI-XII centuries. The old fortress consists of 11 towers: Papska (Karmalyukova), Kovpak, Tenchinska, Lyaska (Billa), Denna, New (Velyka) Western, Small Western, Rozhanka, Komendantska, Lyantskoronska Tower, New Eastern. The towers are connected by defensive walls, barracks and a siege well are located on the territory. The oldest of the towers - Denna (possibly built on the foundations of Roman fortifications).

In the XVII century. the earthen bastions of the New Fortress were added, which withstood the artillery fire more effectively. The strength of the Kamianets fortifications impressed contemporaries. The phrase of the Turkish khan Osman became winged, who in 1621 approached the walls of the fortress and asked who had strengthened it so much. "God himself," replied the khan. "Then may God take her," Osman replied, withdrawing his troops. However, in 1672 Kamianets-Podilskyi was captured by the Turkish army of Sultan Mohammed IV and the Cossacks of Petro Doroshenko.

In the western bastion of the fortress, the defense scene was reconstructed, which was led by Mykolay Potocki and during which Yuriy Volodievskyi died. People's hero Ustym Karmalyuk escaped from prison three times from the Old Fortress. The papal tower, in which he was kept, has been named after him ever since, and an exposition has been arranged in it. An exposition of light metal weapons is located in the eastern bastion.

Night excursions are conducted. The old fortress is often the scenery of numerous festivals and historical reconstructions.

The Ruska Gate (Ruska Brama) is a unique hydrotechnical fortification structure of Kamyanets-Podilskyi, which, together with the Polish Gate, formed a system for flooding the canyon of the Smotrych River in case of danger.

Construction began around 1527. The ensemble of the Ruska Gate consisted of 8 towers, a barbican and defensive walls connecting them, 230 meters long, which completely crossed a canyon 90 meters wide. There were sluices in the wall at the crossing of the river bed.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, as a result of frequent floods, the coastal fortifications of the Ruska Gate began to collapse, and by the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries, four towers collapsed. The Clock Tower, Nadbramna, Pryvorotna, Pryberezhna towers and the Barbican have been preserved.

Currently, the restoration has been carried out. Part of the premises of the Ruska Gate is used as a creative workshop of potters, and the creation of a cultural and craft center is planned.

The building of the Polish magistrate was built in the center of Kamyanets-Podilskyi after the city was granted the Magdeburg right in 1374.

Kamyanets-Podilskyi Town Hall is considered to be the oldest in Ukraine. This is the main civil structure of the Old Town. It consists of a two-story council building and an eight-story clock tower. Initially, the building was Gothic, but later it was layered with different architectural styles.

The museum "Court of Medieval Kamyanets" with an exposition of instruments of torture was opened in the cleared part of the multi-level basements. On the ground floor there is an inexpensive cafe "Town Hall".

The Museum of the History of Magdeburg Law and the Museum of Money are located on the second floor.

The Art Gallery of the Art Department of the Kamyanets-Podilskyi State Historical Museum-Reserve is located in the former educational building of the Theological Seminary (XVIII century) on the Armenian Market Square.

Mykhaylo Dostoevskyi, Stepan Rudanskyi, Mykola Leontovych, Anatoliy Svydnytskyi, and others studied at the Kamyanets-Podilskyi Orthodox Seminary.

The museum exposition presents works of painting, graphics and sculpture of the XVII-XX centuries, as well as a collection of icons of various religious denominations.

In 2008, the room-museum of Hodovanets was opened. Thematic exhibitions are held.

The wooden Church of the Ascension of the Holy Cross with a bell tower is located in the suburb of Kamyanets-Podilskyi Karvasary on a narrow coastal strip on the Smotrych River, under the walls of the Old Castle.

The church was built in the 18th century on the site of a temple that existed in the 17th century. The foundation of the church is made of limestone. The church itself is three-log, single-headed with a porch and sacristy on the north side and a belfry attached to the west.

The Church of the Ascension of the Cross is a vivid work of the Podillya school of folk wooden architecture.

The Casemate Tower is one of the least known fortifications in Kamyanets-Podilskyi, although it is located in the heart of the Old Town, in the courtyard behind the district council building (passage through the arch of the hospital from Hospitalna Street).

According to one version, built in 1667 as part of the city fortifications. According to another version, built in 1783-1791 as part of the guardhouse complex and in peacetime served as a toilet for detainees.

The building is round in plan, 9.5 m in diameter, with a rectangular vestibule on the north side. The walls of the upper tier, at a height of about 2 m, cut through six loophole windows.

Currently, the Casemate Tower houses an exhibition "History of fortifications of the XV-XIX centuries" with three models of fortifications, samples of cold steel and firearms, copies of ancient plans, engravings, lithographs, drawings, diagrams and more.

The annex presents a collection of Podillya smoking pipes of the XVIII century.

The Castle Bridge connecting the Old Town with the fortress looks like a solid stone wall, but in fact is a kind of sarcophagus containing an earlier structure.

According to one of the versions, the foundation of the current bridge is a construction of the Roman era. Originally, the Castle Bridge was arched. It is built above the Smotrych Canyon where the loop of the river forms a thin rocky isthmus that separates the Old Town from the mainland. It is said that this is the only bridge in the world built along, and not across, the river bed.

The Castle Bridge acquired its current appearance in the 17th century, when Kamyanets-Podilskyi was captured by the Turks. They rebuilt the bridge, using stone from the dismantled monastery of the Barefoot Carmelites. Since then, it is often called the Turkish Bridge.

On the side of the city, the powerful defensive structures of the City Gate (XVI-XVIII centuries) and the Armenian Bastion (XVI-XVII centuries) have been preserved. There is a cafe in the laboratory casemate.

The Cathedral Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul is the main religious building of the Old City.

The Peter and Paul Church was built by the Dominican monastic order, which appeared in Kamyanets-Podilskyi in the 14th century. The construction of the stone church in the years 1502-1517 is attributed to Bishop Yakub Buchachskyi. During the Turkish rule (1672-1699), the temple was used as the main mosque, and a 36-meter minaret was attached to it. After the return of the Poles, according to the peace treaty, the minaret was preserved, but a gilded statue of the Madonna was installed on top. Now the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Kamyanets-Podilskyi is the only Christian church in the world with a minaret.

It houses a wonderful sculptural tombstone of 21-year-old Laura Przezdetska by Viktor Brodzkyi (1874). During a horse ride, the girl fell off her horse, broke her spine and died. In two years, on the order of the disappointed parents, the sculptor created a marble masterpiece: the beauty with the shadow of a smile on her face looks asleep, but the grieving angel has already lowered the extinguished torch, and the unread book is open on page 21. The sculpture is often called the "Sleeping Queen".

The magnificent Triumphal Arch (1781) in honor of the arrival of the last Polish king, Stanislav Avhust, leads into the courtyard of the Peter and Paul Church.

Excursions are held during the time free from religious services.

The sculptural composition "Concord Table" on the hill behind the Old Fortress symbolizes the cultural diversity of Kamyanets-Podilskyi.

The monument was erected in 2001, after the first international festival "Seven Cultures" (sculptor Anatoliy Ihnashchenko). The giant concrete millstone in the center of the composition symbolizes the city, the metal pipe with a crown-shaped break is a fortress, and the limestone blocks spread around the millstone represent the seven nations that together created Kamyanets: Ukrainians, Poles, Russians, Lithuanians, Armenians, Turks and jews

The eighth stone lying aside is interpreted as a symbol of the fact that in the future any other nation or nationality may also affect the development of the city.

The exhibition hall of the art department of the Kamyanets-Podilskyi Historical Museum-Reserve is located in the modern city center, on the ground floor of a multi-storey building.

The institution acquaints visitors with the works of contemporary artists of Ukraine. The reserve implements exhibition projects here, holds personal and collective art exhibitions, organizes concerts, workshops, fairs of handicrafts and more.

The large complex of buildings of the barracks of the Kamyanets-Podilskyi fortress looks especially impressive from the opposite side of the Smotrych canyon - from the pedestrian bridge or from the Holy Intercession church in the arboretum.

They were designed to house a military garrison by the commandant of the Kamyanets fortress, Yan de Vitte, and were built at the end of the 18th century by the architect Stanislav Zavadskyi.

From the side of the river, the building looks like a fortress thanks to powerful retaining walls and loophole windows. Russian writer and poet Kostyantyn Batyushkov, Decembrist and hero of Borodino Volodymyr Rayevsky, scientist-lexicographer Volodymyr Dal, writer Mykhaylo Bulhakov served here.

In Soviet times, a tobacco factory was located in the barracks. Now the complex is in an abandoned state.

The Greek-Catholic Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Kamyanets-Podilskyi was founded in 1722 by Basilian monks.

The Orthodox Trinity Church was first mentioned in 1582. It is likely that in this place there was an ancient temple of the XIII-XIV centuries. During the Turkish rule, the church was turned into a mosque, and after the departure of the Turks, it passed to the Greek Catholics and became a cathedral. After the annexation of Podillya to the Russian Empire, the Uniate monasteries were handed over to the Orthodox.

In 1836, a two-story stone wing with the warm church of Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersky was added to the monastery building, and in 1855, the reconstruction of the Trinity Church was completed, giving it Orthodox forms.

During the Soviet era, the temple was completely destroyed. In recent years, the Trinity Church was restored on cleared foundations by the forces of Basilian monks.

The Trinitarian church in Kamyanets-Podilskyi was founded in the 18th century by monks of the Trinitarian order, who specialized in the redemption of slaves from Turkish captivity.

The temple is made in baroque style. Attention is drawn to the main facade, which is given the slenderness of the pilasters of the Tuscan order. The facade is finished with a pediment decorated with sculptures and vases. The church is surrounded by a stone wall. The gates are decorated with statues of Jean de Mat and Felix Valois, the founders of the Trinitarian monastic order. The stairs leading to the gate are surrounded by a parapet, on which a statue of the Virgin Mary is installed.

After the Second World War, the funds of the Khmelnytskyi Regional State Archive were housed in the Trinity Church.

Today it is the Greek Catholic Church of Saint Josaphat.

The Museum of Miniatures "Castles of Ukraine" presents miniature models of 21 most famous architectural monuments of Ukraine, including medieval fortresses and aristocratic palaces located in different regions of Ukraine.

The open-air museum gives an opportunity to get acquainted with all at once, learn the details of their history, interesting facts, secrets and legends, as well as appreciate the work of Kyiv masters who accurately conveyed the smallest details of buildings.

Museum of Miniatures "Castles of Ukraine" is a great place for family vacations and spending time with friends.