1.
Castle
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A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. Usage of the term has varied over time and has applied to structures as diverse as hill forts. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with different features, although some, such as curtain walls. A European innovation, castles originated in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes. Although their military origins are often emphasised in castle studies, the structures served as centres of administration. Many castles were built from earth and timber, but had their defences replaced later by stone. Early castles often exploited natural defences, lacking features such as towers and arrowslits, in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, a scientific approach to castle defence emerged. This led to the proliferation of towers, with an emphasis on flanking fire, many new castles were polygonal or relied on concentric defence – several stages of defence within each other that could all function at the same time to maximise the castles firepower. These changes in defence have been attributed to a mixture of castle technology from the Crusades, such as concentric fortification, not all the elements of castle architecture were military in nature, so that devices such as moats evolved from their original purpose of defence into symbols of power. Some grand castles had long winding approaches intended to impress and dominate their landscape, while castles continued to be built well into the 16th century, new techniques to deal with improved cannon fire made them uncomfortable and undesirable places to live. As a result, true castles went into decline and were replaced by artillery forts with no role in civil administration, and country houses that were indefensible. From the 18th century onwards, there was a renewed interest in castles with the construction of castles, part of a romantic revival of Gothic architecture. The word castle is derived from the Latin word castellum, which is a diminutive of the word castrum, meaning fortified place. The Old English castel, Old French castel or chastel, French château, Spanish castillo, Italian castello, the word castle was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote this type of building, which was then new to England. In its simplest terms, the definition of a castle accepted amongst academics is a fortified residence. Feudalism was the link between a lord and his vassal where, in return for service and the expectation of loyalty. Castles served a range of purposes, the most important of which were military, administrative, as well as defensive structures, castles were also offensive tools which could be used as a base of operations in enemy territory
2.
Navahrudak
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Navahrudak is a city in the Grodno Region of Belarus. In the 14th century it was a see of the Metropolitanate of Lithuania. It is a possible first capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and it was first mentioned in the Sophian First Chronicle and Fourth Novgorod Chronicle in 1044 in relation to a war of Yaroslav I the Wise against Lithuanian tribes. In 1241 it was destroyed by the Mongols, later hypothesis is disputed, as there are earliest archaeological findings from 11th century only. The Early East Slavs splintered along preexisting tribal lines into a number of independent, Mindaugas of Lithuania made use of the plight to annex Navahrudak, which also became part of Kingdom of Lithuania, later Grand Duchy of Lithuania. During the 16th century, Maciej Stryjkowski was the first who, in his chronicle, proposed theory, vaišvilkas, the son and successor of Mindaugas, took monastic vows in Lavrashev Monastery near Novgorodok and founded an Orthodox convent there. Navahrudak was a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth following the Union of Lublin in 1569, in 1795 it was incorporated into Grodno Governorate of Imperial Russia due to the Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was transferred to Minsk Governorate in 1843, the town was a center of thriving Jewish community, its 1900 population was 5,015. In the course of the First World War the town was under the German occupation from 22 September 1915 to 27 December 1918. During the ensuing Polish-Bolshevik war it was occupied by the Polish Army in 18 April 1919 and later the Red Army in 19 July 1920 and it was ceded to Poland in the Peace of Riga signed on 18 March 1921 by the Soviet Russia and Poland thus ending the hostilities. In the interwar period, Nowogródek served as capital of the Nowogródek voivodship, until the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Soviet troops entered the city in 18 September 1939 and it was annexed into the Soviet Union via the Byelorussian SSR. The Polish people living there were transported by train to Siberia where they were forced to work in camps under harsh conditions. These were among the millions of Poles deported from their homes to Siberia by the Soviet Union, in the administrative division of the new territories, the city briefly was the centre of the Navahrudak Voblast. Afterwards the administrative centre moved to Baranavichy and name of voblast was renamed as Baranavichy Voblast, during the German occupation it became part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland territory. The Bielski partisans made of Jewish volunteers operated in the region, on 1 August 1943, Nazi troops shot down eleven nuns, the Martyrs of Nowogródek. The Red Army reoccupied the city almost exactly three years after its German occupation on July 8,1944, during the war more than 45,000 people were killed in the city and in the surrounding area, and over 60% of housing was destroyed. Navahrudak was an important Jewish center and shtetl, before the war, the population was 20,000, of which about half were Jewish, Meyer Meyerovitz and Meyer Abovitz were the Rabbis there at that time. During a series of actions in 1941, the Germans killed all but 550 of the approximately 10,000 Jews and those not killed were sent into slave labor
3.
Belarus
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Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres is forested and its strongest economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian Peoples Republic, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922 and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921, during WWII, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years, in 1945 the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR. The parliament of the declared the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990. Alexander Lukashenko has served as the president since 1994. Belarus has been labeled Europes last dictatorship by some Western journalists, Lukashenko continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. Though not directly espousing communism like the five remaining communist countries of China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea, in 2000 Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, with some hints of forming a Union State. Over 70% of Belaruss population of 9.49 million resides in urban areas, more than 80% of the population is ethnic Belarusian, with sizable minorities of Russians, Poles and Ukrainians. Since a referendum in 1995, the country has had two official languages, Belarusian and Russian, the Constitution of Belarus does not declare any official religion, although the primary religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Belarus is the only European country to retain capital punishment in both law and practice, the name Belarus is closely related with the term Belaya Rus, i. e. White Rus. There are several claims to the origin of the name White Rus, an alternate explanation for the name comments on the white clothing worn by the local Slavic population. A third theory suggests that the old Rus lands that were not conquered by the Tatars had been referred to as white, other sources claim that, before 1267, the land not conquered by the Mongols was considered White Rus. The name Rus is often conflated with its Latin forms Russia and Ruthenia, in some languages, including German and Dutch, the country is generally called White Russia to this day. The Latin term Alba Russia was used again by Pope Pius VI in 1783 to recognize the Society of Jesus there, exclaiming Approbo Societatem Jesu in Alba Russia degentem, approbo, approbo. The first known use of White Russia to refer to Belarus was in the century by Englishman Sir Jerome Horsey. During the 17th century, the Russian tsars used White Rus to describe the lands added from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
4.
Belarusian language
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Belarusian is an official language of Belarus, along with Russian, and is spoken abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and small parts in far-eastern Poland. Following independence, it became known as Belarusian. Belarusian is one of the East Slavic languages and shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group, to some extent, Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian are mutually intelligible. Its predecessor stage is known as Ruthenian, in turn descended from Old East Slavic, at the 1999 Belarus Census, the Belarusian language was declared as a language spoken at home by about 3,686,000 Belarusian citizens. About 6,984,000 of Belarusians declared it their mother tongue, other sources put the population of the language as 6,715,000 in Belarus and 9,081,102 in all countries. According to a study done by the Belarusian government in 2009, 72% of Belarusians speak Russian at home,29. 4% of Belarusians can write, speak, and read Belarusian, while 52. 5% can only read and speak it. Although closely related to other East Slavic languages, especially Ukrainian, Belarusian phonology is distinct in a number of ways, the phoneme inventory of the modern Belarusian language consists of 45 to 54 phonemes,6 vowels and 39 to 48 consonants, depending on how they are counted. When the nine geminate consonants are excluded as mere variations, there are 39 consonants, the number 48 includes all consonant sounds, including variations and rare sounds, which may be semantically distinct in the modern Belarusian language. The Belarusian alphabet is a variant of the Cyrillic script, which was first used as an alphabet for the Old Church Slavonic language, the modern Belarusian form was defined in 1918, and consists of thirty-two letters. Before that, Belarusian had also written in the Belarusian Latin alphabet, the Belarusian Arabic alphabet. The Glagolitic script had been used, sporadically, until the 11th or 12th century, there are several systems of romanizing written Belarusian text in existence, see Romanization of Belarusian. Standardized Belarusian grammar in its form was adopted in 1959. It was developed from the form set down by Branislaw Tarashkyevich. Historically, there had existed several other alternative standardized forms of Belarusian grammar and it is mainly based on the Belarusian folk dialects of Minsk-Vilnius region. Belarusian grammar is mostly synthetic and partly analytic, and overall is similar to Russian grammar. The most significant instance of this is in the representation of vowel reduction, and in particular akannye, the merger of unstressed /a/ and /o/, Belarusian always spells this merged sound as ⟨a⟩, whereas Russian uses either ⟨a⟩ or ⟨o⟩, according to what the underlying phoneme is. This can significantly complicate the task of foreign speakers in learning these paradigms, besides the literary norm, there exist two main dialects of the Belarusian language, the North-Eastern and the South-Western. In addition, there exist the transitional Middle Belarusian dialect group, the North-Eastern dialect is chiefly characterized by the soft sounding R and strong akanye, and the South-Western dialect is chiefly characterized by the hard sounding R and moderate akanye
5.
Lithuanian language
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Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.9 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania, Lithuanian is a Baltic language, related to Latvian. It is written in a Latin alphabet, Lithuanian is often said to be the most conservative living Indo-European language, retaining many features of Proto-Indo-European now lost in other Indo-European languages. Anyone wishing to hear how Indo-Europeans spoke should come and listen to a Lithuanian peasant, among Indo-European languages, Lithuanian is extraordinarily conservative, retaining many archaic features otherwise found only in ancient languages such as Sanskrit or Ancient Greek. For this reason, it is one of the most important sources in the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language despite its late attestation, the Proto-Balto-Slavic languages branched off directly from Proto-Indo-European, then branched into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. Proto-Baltic branched off into Proto-West Baltic and Proto-East Baltic, according to some glottochronological speculations, the Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones between AD400 and AD600. The Greek geographer Ptolemy had already written of two Baltic tribe/nations by name, the Galindai and Sudinoi in the 2nd century AD, the differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after AD800, for a long period, they could be considered dialects of a single language. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th or 15th century, also, the 13th- and 14th-century occupation of the western part of the Daugava basin by the German Sword Brethren had a significant influence on the languages independent development. The earliest surviving written Lithuanian text is a translation dating from about 1503–1525 of the Lords Prayer, the Hail Mary, printed books existed after 1547, but the level of literacy among Lithuanians was low through the 18th century, and books were not commonly available. Brought into the country by book smugglers despite the threat of prison sentences. Jonas Jablonskis made significant contributions to the formation of the standard Lithuanian language and his proposal for Standard Lithuanian was based on his native Western Aukštaitijan dialect with some features of the eastern Prussian Lithuanians dialect spoken in Lithuania Minor. These dialects had preserved archaic phonetics mostly intact due to the influence of the neighbouring Old Prussian language, Lithuanian has been the official language of Lithuania since 1918. During the Soviet era, it was used in official discourse along with Russian, Lithuanian is one of two living Baltic languages, along with Latvian. An earlier Baltic language, Old Prussian, was extinct by the 18th century, such an opinion was first represented by the likes of August Schleicher, and to a certain extent, Antoine Meillet. Endzelīns thought that the similarity between Baltic and Slavic was explicable through language contact while Schleicher, Meillet and others argued for a kinship between the two families. An attempt to reconcile the opposing stances was made by Jan Michał Rozwadowski and he proposed that the two language groups were indeed a unity after the division of Indo-European, but also suggested that after the two had divided into separate entities, they had posterior contact. The genetic kinship view is augmented by the fact that Proto-Balto-Slavic is easily reconstructible with important proofs in historic prosody, vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov believed in the unity of Balto-Slavic, but not in the unity of Baltic. In the 1960s, they proposed a new division, that into East-Baltic, West-Baltic, the Ivanov–Toporov theory is gaining ground among students of comparative-historic grammar of Indo-European language, and seems to be replacing the previous two stances in most PIE textbooks
6.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
7.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
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The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 13th century until 1795. The state was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija, the Grand Duchy later expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus and other Slavic lands, including territory of present-day Belarus, parts of Ukraine, Poland and Russia. At its greatest extent in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe and it was a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state with great diversity in languages, religion, and cultural heritage. Consolidation of the Lithuanian lands began in the late 12th century, Mindaugas, the first ruler of the Grand Duchy, was crowned as Catholic King of Lithuania in 1253. The pagan state was targeted in the crusade by the Teutonic Knights. The multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state emerged only at the reign of Gediminas. The reign of Vytautas the Great marked both the greatest territorial expansion of the Grand Duchy and the defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and it also marked the rise of the Lithuanian nobility. After Vytautass death, Lithuanias relationship with the Kingdom of Poland greatly deteriorated, Lithuanian noblemen, including the Radvila family, attempted to break the personal union with Poland. However, the unsuccessful Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars with the Grand Duchy of Moscow forced the union to remain intact, eventually, the Union of Lublin of 1569 created a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this federation, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania maintained its political distinctiveness and had separate government, laws, army, shortly after, the unitary character of the state was confirmed by adopting the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations. The newly reformed Commonwealth was invaded by Russia in 1792 and partitioned between the neighbours, with a truncated state remaining only nominally independent, after the Kościuszko Uprising, the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Austria in 1795. The Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania name the name of the state as Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. The title of Grand Duchy was consistently applied to Lithuania from the 14th century onward, in the 12th century, Slavic chronicles refer to Lithuania as one of the areas attacked by the Rus. Pagan Lithuanians initially paid tribute to Polotsk, but they grew in strength. The sudden spark of military raids marked consolidation of the Lithuanian lands in Aukštaitija, the Livonian Order and Teutonic Knights, crusading military orders, were established in Riga in 1202 and in Prussia in 1226. The Christian orders posed a significant threat to pagan Baltic tribes, the peace treaty with Galicia–Volhynia of 1219 provides evidence of cooperation between Lithuanians and Samogitians. This treaty lists 21 Lithuanian dukes, including five senior Lithuanian dukes from Aukštaitija, although they had battled in the past, the Lithuanians and the Žemaičiai now faced a common enemy. Likely Živinbudas had the most authority and at least several dukes were from the same families, the formal acknowledgment of common interests and the establishment of a hierarchy among the signatories of the treaty foreshadowed the emergence of the state
8.
Maciej Stryjkowski
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Maciej Stryjkowski was a Polish historian, writer and a poet, notable as the author of Chronicle of Poland, Lithuania, Samogitia and all of Ruthenia. The work is considered to be the first printed book on the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Maciej Stryjkowski was born around 1547 in Stryków, a town in the Rawa Voivodeship in the region of Masovia. He graduated from a school in the town of Brzeziny, after which he joined the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He served in a garrison in Vitebsk under Alexander Guagnini and he spent most of his life in the Grand Duchy, initially as a soldier. Around 1573, at the age of roughly 25, he retired from service and became a protégé of Melchioras Giedraitis. Eventually Stryjkowski became a Catholic priest and ended as a provost at the parish of Georgenburg, there he devoted his life to writing a monumental chronicle of the lands of Poland-Lithuania, eventually published in Königsberg in 1582. Some fragments of his work are written in Lithuanian language and he also encouraged Lithuanian nobility to use the Lithuanian language. The chronicle was a compilation of earlier chronicles by Jan Długosz and Maciej Miechowita. Until the 19th century the works of Stryjkowski were considered to be the sources of information on early period of history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1577 Stryjkowski also authored a large epic poem On the beginnings of the nation of Lithuania. He died around the year 1593, though the exact date, J. Radziszewska, Maciej Stryjkowski, historyk-poet z epoki Odrodzenia, Katowice,1978. Maciej Stryjkowski, historyk-poeta z epoki Odrodzenia, * List of Lithuanian Gods Found in Maciej Sryjkowski chonicle by Gintaras Beresnevičius Front page of Strykowskis chronicle and his contemporary portrait
9.
Mindaugas
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Mindaugas was the first known Grand Duke of Lithuania and the only King of Lithuania. Little is known of his origins, early life, or rise to power, he is mentioned in a 1219 treaty as an elder duke, the contemporary and modern sources discussing his ascent mention strategic marriages along with banishment or murder of his rivals. He extended his domain into regions southeast of Lithuania proper during the 1230s and 1240s, during the summer of 1253 he was crowned King of Lithuania, ruling between 300,000 and 400,000 subjects. While his ten-year reign was marked by various state-building accomplishments, Mindaugass conflicts with relatives and other dukes continued and his gains in the southeast were challenged by the Tatars. He broke peace with the Livonian Order in 1261, possibly renouncing Christianity and his three immediate successors were assassinated as well. The disorder was not resolved until Traidenis gained the title of Grand Duke c, although his reputation was unsettled during the following centuries and his descendants were not notable, he gained standing during the 19th and 20th centuries. Mindaugas was the only King of Lithuania, while most of the Lithuanian Grand Dukes from Jogaila onward also reigned as Kings of Poland, in the 1990s the historian Edvardas Gudavičius published research supporting an exact coronation date –6 July 1253. This day is now a national holiday, Statehood Day. Contemporary written sources about Mindaugas are very scarce, much what is known about his reign is obtained from the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle and the Hypatian Codex. Both of these chronicles were produced by enemies of Lithuania and thus have anti-Lithuanian bias and they are also incomplete, both of them lack dates and locations even for the most important events. For example, the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle devoted 125 poetry lines to Mindaugas coronation, other important sources are the papal bulls regarding baptism and coronation of Mindaugas. The Lithuanians did not produce any surviving records themselves, except for a series of acts granting lands to the Livonian Order, due to lack of sources, some important questions regarding Mindaugas and his reign cannot be answered. Because written sources covering the era are scarce, Mindaugas origins and his year of birth, sometimes given as c. 1200, is at times left as a question mark. His father is mentioned in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle as a powerful duke, Dausprungas, mentioned in the text of a 1219 treaty, is presumed to have been his brother, and Dausprungas sons Tautvilas and Gedvydas his nephews. He is thought to have had two sisters, one married to Vykintas and another to Daniel of Halych, Vykintas and his son Treniota played major roles in later power struggles. In addition to Vaišvilkas and his sister, two sons, Ruklys and Rupeikis, are mentioned in written sources, the latter two were assassinated along with Mindaugas. Information on his sons is limited and historians continue to discuss their number and he may have had two other sons whose names were later conflated by scribes into Ruklys and Rupeikis
10.
King of Lithuania
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The Kingdom of Lithuania was a Lithuanian monarchy which existed from 1251 to roughly 1263. King Mindaugas was the first and only crowned king of Lithuania, the status of a kingdom was lost after Mindaugas assassination in 1263. Other monarchs of Lithuania are referred to as Grand Dukes, even though their status was almost identical to that of a king, two attempts were made to reestablish the Kingdom – by Vytautas the Great in 1430 and by the Council of Lithuania in 1918. In the early 13th century, Lithuania was inhabited by various pagan Baltic tribes, by the 1230s, Mindaugas emerged as the leader of the Grand Duchy. In 1249, a war erupted between Mindaugas and his nephews Tautvilas and Edivydas. The status of a kingdom was granted on July 17,1251, two years later, Mindaugas and his wife Morta were crowned as the King and Queen of Lithuania. In 1255, Mindaugas received permission from Pope Alexander IV to crown his son as King of Lithuania, the coronation and the alliance with the Livonian Order allowed a period of peace between Lithuania and Livonia. During that time the Lithuanians expanded east, while Livonia attempted to conquer Samogitia, enticed by his nephew Treniota, Mindaugas broke the peace after the Order was defeated in the Battle of Skuodas in 1259 and Battle of Durbe in 1260. Treniotas influence grew as he waged a war against the Order, the conflict resulted in assassination of Mindaugas and two of his sons in 1263. The country reverted to paganism and its status as a kingdom was lost, the state survived as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the subsequent monarchs are known as Grand Dukes as they could not be crowned as kings until they converted to Christianity. There was an attempt by Grand Duke Vytautas the Great to receive the royal crown, soon afterwards Vytautas died, without being crowned as king. After Lithuania declared independence in February 1918, the monarchy was reestablished, however, the monarchy was short-lived and Mindaugas II never visited Lithuania. The Kingdom of Lithuania was a client-state of the German Empire and following Germanys defeat in World War I in fall 1918, Duchy of Lithuania Grand Duchy of Lithuania Kingdom of Lithuania Lithuania proper
11.
Tower of Kamyenyets
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The Tower of Kamyenyets, often called by the misnomer the White Tower, is the main landmark of the town of Kamyenyets in Belarus. Erected in 1271–1289 by the architect Oleksa as a stronghold on the northern border of the principality of Volhynia. Standing atop a rise overlooking the Liasnaja river, the tower is the main landmark of Kamyenyets today. The first record in the chronicles about the foundation of the dates from 1276. It was erected in the 1270s, today it is a national historic site. Since 1960 the tower houses a branch of the Brest regional museum, once similar towers were built in Brest, Grodno, Turaw, Navahradak, but they were destroyed in the course of wars. The tower of Kamieniec is the one that survived in Belarus until the present. Vladimir Vasilkovich, the prince of Volhynia, liked the place, the castle was built as an enclosed community. Like many European castles, it had a round tower, on the raised mound, enclosed by a moat and the river on the northern side, and an adjoining enclosure. The red-brick tower with service and residential rooms on 5 levels inside was actually a donjon or a keep and it is 30 meters high, the redbrick walls are about 2.5 m thick, with a pitched roof at the top. The tower was built of brick, that makes it unique. The brick construction was used in this part of Europe until the close of the Middle Ages. Till the 16th century mostly rubbleworks prevailed in fortifications and churches and monasteries, the tower traces the influence of Western Europe, where brickwork was used extensively in the late 13th – early 14th century. Unlike the narrow loopholes on lower levels, the pointed big lancet windows, the openings of the windows and niches were plastered and whitewashed. The windows were designed to permit the entry of light into the apartments, glass windows was another contribution to Gothic architecture. It is apparent that the residents were eager to make themselves at home in the keep, the upper part of the tower was furnished with battlements and a pattern of surface modeling of the brickwork, several nice ring dog tooth courses running below the battlements. The brickwork features a peculiar Baltic bond, a course consists of 2 stretchers and 1 header, some bricks on the exterior were damaged or dismantled by the local peasants, the brickwork was repaired in 1903 while the archeological excavations were going on around the tower. 10,000 bricks were used for the work, Oleksa lived in the 13th century
12.
Teutonic Order
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The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious order founded as a military order in the 12th century in Acre. Purely religious since 1929, it still confers limited honorary knighthoods, the order was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Formed in the year 1190 in Acre, in the Levant, after Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, the Order moved to Transylvania in 1211 to help defend the South-Eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Kipchaks. Starting from there, the Order created the independent Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights, adding continuously the conquered Prussians territory, the Order theoretically lost its main purpose in Europe with the Christianization of Lithuania. However, it initiated numerous campaigns against its Christian neighbours, the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Novgorod Republic. The Teutonic Knights had an economic base, and so hired mercenaries from throughout Europe to augment their feudal levies. In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power at the Battle of Grunwald, however, the capital of the Teutonic Knights was successfully defended in the following Siege of Marienburg and the Order was saved from collapse. In 1515, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made an alliance with Sigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Thereafter, the empire did not support the Order against Poland, in 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to Lutheranism, becoming Duke of Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Soon after, the Order lost Livonia and its holdings in the Protestant areas of Germany, the Order did keep its considerable holdings in Catholic areas of Germany until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings. However, the Order continued to exist as a charitable and ceremonial body and it was outlawed by Adolf Hitler in 1938, but re-established in 1945. Today it operates primarily with charitable aims in Central Europe, the Knights wore white surcoats with a black cross. A cross pattée was sometimes used as their coat of arms, the motto of the Order was, Helfen, Wehren, Heilen. The full name of the Order in German is Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in Jerusalem or in Latin Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum, thus, the term Teutonic refers to the German origins of the order in Latin. It is commonly known in German as the Deutscher Orden, historically also as Deutscher Ritterorden, Deutschherrenorden, Deutschritterorden or Die Herren im weißen Mantel. However, based on the model of the Knights Templar, it was transformed into an order in 1198. It received papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Christianity, during the rule of Grand Master Hermann von Salza the Order changed from being a hospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a military order. The Order was founded in Acre, and the Knights purchased Montfort, northeast of Acre, the Order also had a castle at Amouda in Armenia Minor
13.
Vytautas
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Vytautas, also known as Vytautas the Great from the 15th century onwards, was one of the most famous rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which chiefly encompassed the Lithuanians and Ruthenians. He was also the Prince of Hrodna, Prince of Lutsk, in modern Lithuania, Vytautas is revered as a national hero and was an important figure in the national rebirth in the 19th century. Vytautas is a male given name in Lithuania. In commemoration of the 500-year anniversary of his death, Vytautas Magnus University was named after him, monuments in his honour were built in many towns in the independent Republic of Lithuania during the interwar period, from 1918–1939. Vytautas uncle Algirdas had been Grand Duke of Lithuania until his death in 1377, Algirdas and Vytautas father Kęstutis had practically ruled jointly, with Algirdas governing the east and Kęstutis the west, primarily responsible for defense against the Teutonic Order. Algirdas was succeeded by his son Jogaila, and a struggle for power ensued, in 1380, Jogaila signed the secret Treaty of Dovydiškės with the Teutonic Order against Kęstutis. When Kęstutis discovered this in 1381, he seized Vilnius, imprisoned Jogaila, however, Jogaila escaped and raised an army against Kęstutis. The two sides confronted each other but never engaged in battle, Kęstutis was ready to negotiate, but he and Vytautas were arrested and transported to Kreva Castle. One week later, Kęstutis was found dead, whether he died of natural causes or was murdered is still a matter of debate. In 1382, Vytautas escaped from Kreva and he sought help from the Teutonic Order, who were negotiating with Jogaila at the time. Jogaila and the Order agreed to the Treaty of Dubysa, by which Jogaila promised to accept Christianity, become an ally of the Order, however, the treaty was never ratified. In summer 1383, the war between Jogaila and the Order resumed, Vytautas was baptised as a Catholic, receiving the name of Wigand. Vytautas participated in raids against Jogaila. In January 1384, Vytautas promised to cede part of Samogitia to the Teutonic Order, however, in July of the same year, Vytautas broke with the Order and reconciled with Jogaila. He then burned three important Teutonic castles, and regained all Kęstutis lands, except for Trakai, in 1385, Jogaila concluded the Union of Krewo with Poland, under which he married Jadwiga of Poland and became King of Poland as Władysław II Jagiełło. Vytautas participated in the Union and in 1386 was re-baptised as a Catholic, Jogaila left his brother Skirgaila as regent in Lithuania. However, Skirgaila was unpopular with the people and Vytautas saw an opportunity to become Grand Duke, in 1389, he attacked Vilnius but failed. In early 1390, Vytautas again allied with the Teutonic Order, Vytautas had to confirm his agreement of 1384, and cede Samogitia to the Order
14.
Crimean Tatars
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Crimean Tatars constituted the majority of Crimeas population from the time of its ethnogenesis until mid-19th century, and the relative largest ethnic population until the end of 19th century. Starting in 1967, some were allowed to return to Crimea, today, Crimean Tatars constitute approximately 12% of the population of Crimea. There remains a large diaspora of Crimean Tatars in Turkey and Uzbekistan, in the latest Ukrainian census,248,200 Ukrainian citizens identified themselves as Crimean Tatars with 98% of them living in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. An additional 1,800 citizens live in the city of Sevastopol, also on the Crimean peninsula, about 150,000 remain in exile in Central Asia, mainly in Uzbekistan. The official number of Crimean Tatars in Turkey is 150,000 with some Crimean Tatar activists estimating a figure as high as 6 million. The activists reached this number by taking one million Tatar immigrants to Turkey as a starting point, Crimean Tatars in Turkey mostly live in Eskişehir Province, descendants of those who emigrated in the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. In the Dobruja region straddling Romania and Bulgaria, there are more than 27,000 Crimean Tatars,24,000 on the Romanian side, and 3,000 on the Bulgarian side. However, the Cuman language is considered the ancestor of the current language of the Crimean Tatars with possible incorporations of the other languages like Crimean Gothic. Another theory suggests Crimean Tatars trace their origins to the waves of ancient people Scythians, Greeks, Goths, Italians and Armenians. Goths, Gypsies, and Greeks were assumed to be some of the ancestors of the Tatars on the coast of Crimea, while there were mixed hill Tatars, Italians and Greeks mixed with the coastal Crimean Tatars. The Crimean Tatars emerged as a nation at the time of the Crimean Khanate, the Turkic-speaking population of the Crimea had mostly adopted Islam already in the 14th century, following the conversion of Ozbeg Khan of the Golden Horde. Until the beginning of the 18th century, Crimean Tatars were known for frequent, at some periods almost annual, devastating raids into Ukraine and Russia. For a long time, until the late 18th century, the Crimean Khanate maintained a massive trade with the Ottoman Empire. One of the most important trading ports and slave markets was Kefe, slaves and freedmen formed approximately 75% of the Crimean population. Some researchers estimate that altogether up to 3 million people were captured and enslaved during the time of the Crimean Khanate, the Don Cossacks and Kalmyk Mongols also managed to raid Crimean Tatars land. The last recorded major Crimean raid, before those in the Russo-Turkish War took place during the reign of Peter the Great, however, Cossack raids continued after that time, Ottoman Grand Vizier complained to the Russian consul about raids to Crimea and Özi in 1761. In 1769 one last major Tatar raid, which took place during the Russo-Turkish War, after a period of political unrest in Crimea, Russia violated the treaty and annexed the Crimean Khanate in 1783. After the annexation, the wealthier Tatars, who had exported wheat, meat, fish and wine to other parts of the Black Sea, began to be expelled, further expulsions followed in 1812 for fear of the reliability of the Tatars in the face of Napoleons advance
15.
Swedish Empire
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The Swedish Empire refers to the Kingdom of Swedens territorial control of much of the Baltic region during the 17th and early 18th centuries, a time when Sweden was one of the great European powers. The beginning of the Empire is usually taken as the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, who ascended the throne in 1611, in Swedish history, the period is referred to as stormaktstiden, literally meaning the Great Power era. The interests of the high nobility contrasted with the uniformity policy, in territories acquired during the periods of de facto noble rule, serfdom was not abolished, and there was also a trend to set up respective estates in Sweden proper. The Great Reduction of 1680 put an end to efforts of the nobility. However, in the course of this war as well as in the subsequent Scanian War, Sweden was able to maintain her empire only with support of her closest ally. Charles XI of Sweden consolidated the empire and ensured a period of peace, before Russia, Saxony and Denmark started an attack on his successor. Sweden emerged as a great European power under Axel Oxenstierna and King Gustavus Adolphus, during the Thirty Years War, Sweden managed to conquer approximately half of the member states of the Holy Roman Empire. After France had intervened on the side as Sweden, the fortunes would shift again. As the war continued, it turned more and more grim, although exact population estimates do not exist, historians estimate that as many as one-third of the people in the Holy Roman Empire may have died as a result of the war. At the same time, Sweden joined the other important northern European nations in founding overseas colonies, New Sweden was founded in the valley of the Delaware River in 1638, and Sweden later laid claim to a number of Caribbean islands. A string of Swedish forts and trading posts was constructed along the coast of West Africa as well, at the conclusion of the Thirty Years War, the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 granted Sweden territories as war reparations. Sweden demanded Silesia, Pomerania pay a sum of 200,000 Riksdaler out of the lands they would receive, or 2) surrender a fourth of the property itself. Against this, the over-taxed lower estates protested, and the Diet had to be suspended, the king intervened, not to quell the commons, as the senate insisted, but to compel the nobility to give way. He proposed a committee to investigate the matter before the meeting of the next Riksdag. Charles X Gustav had done his best to recover from the extravagance of Christina. However, his own desire for military glory may have caused problems for his country, in three days, he persuaded the Swedish estates of the potential of his attack on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, when he left Stockholm for Warsaw on July 10,1654, the Polish-Swedish War expanded into a general European war. He achieved passage over the Belts and emerged triumphant, only to die of sheer exhaustion, immediately after his death, a regency was appointed to govern Sweden during the minority of his only son and successor, Charles XI of Sweden, who was four years old
16.
Great Northern War
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The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway. George I of Great Britain and of Brunswick-Lüneburg joined the coalition in 1714 for and for Hanover in 1717, Charles XII led the Swedish army. Swedish allies included Holstein-Gottorp, several Polish magnates under Stanisław I Leszczyński, the Ottoman Empire temporarily hosted Charles XII of Sweden and intervened against Peter I. The treaty also secured the extradition and execution of Johann Reinhold Patkul, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Russian-Moldavian army in the Pruth River Campaign, but that peace treaty was in the end without great consequence to Russias position. After Poltava, the anti-Swedish coalition revived and subsequently Hanover and Prussia joined it, the remaining Swedish forces in plague-stricken areas south and east of the Baltic Sea were evicted, with the last city, Riga, falling in 1710. The coalition members partitioned most of the Swedish dominions among themselves, Sweden proper was invaded from the west by Denmark–Norway and from the east by Russia, which had occupied Finland by 1714. Sweden defeated the Danish invaders at the Battle of Helsingborg, Charles XII opened up a Norwegian front, but was killed in Fredriksten in 1718. The war ended with Swedens defeat, leaving Russia as the new dominant power in the Baltic region, by these treaties Sweden ceded her exemption from the Sound Dues, and lost the Baltic provinces and the southern part of Swedish Pomerania. The peace treaties also ended her alliance with Holstein-Gottorp, Hanover gained Bremen-Verden, Brandenburg-Prussia incorporated the Oder estuary, Russia secured the Baltic Provinces, and Denmark strengthened her position in Schleswig-Holstein. In Sweden, the monarchy had come to an end with the death of Charles XII. Between the years of 1560 and 1658, Sweden created a Baltic empire centred on the Gulf of Finland and comprising the provinces of Karelia, Ingria, Estonia, and Livonia. During the Thirty Years War Sweden gained tracts in Germany as well, including Western Pomerania, Wismar, the Duchy of Bremen, during the same period Sweden conquered Danish and Norwegian provinces north of the Sound. However, the Swedish state ultimately proved unable to support and maintain its army in a prolonged war. The cost of the proved to be much higher than the occupied countries could fund, and Swedens coffers. The foreign interventions in Russia during the Time of Troubles resulted in Swedish gains in the Treaty of Stolbovo, the treaty deprived Russia of direct access to the Baltic Sea. In the late 1690s, the adventurer Johann Patkul managed to ally Russia with Denmark and Saxony by the secret Treaty of Preobrazhenskoye, Charles XII of Sweden succeeded Charles XI of Sweden in 1697, aged 14. From his predecessor, he took over the Swedish Empire as an absolute monarch, Charles XI had tried to keep the empire out of wars, and concentrated on inner reforms such as reduction and allotment, which had strengthened the monarchs status and the empires military abilities
17.
Medieval reenactment
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Medieval reenactment is a form of historical reenactment that focuses on re-enacting European history in the period from the fall of Rome to about the end of the 15th century. The second half of period is often called the Middle Ages. This multiplicity of terms is compounded by the variety of terms used for the period. The first period is called the Migration Period or Dark Ages by Western European historians. This term is reserved for the 5th and 6th centuries. Re-enactors who re-create the next period of history - 7th to 11th centuries - often refer to this as Early medieval, the 12th to 14th centuries fall under the term High medieval, while the 15th century is often termed Late medieval. Medieval period oriented living history groups and reenactors focus on recreating civilian or military life in period of the Middle Ages and it is very popular in Eastern Europe. Examples of living history activities include camping, cooking, practicing historical skills and trades. Renaissance Fair participants generally borrow from a range of history and often incorporate fantasy or Hollywood-inspired elements into a presentation for public entertainment, the principal aim of this sort of reenactment is to re-create historical battles or methods of combat. The variations range from training of historical dueling practices, to reenactment of historical or legendary battles of the medieval period, some groups treating historical combat as a martial art do not fit the traditional definition of a reenactment group and are more similar to fencing clubs. An example is the SCA, which uses rattan swords to avoid injury, others combine the sport with more traditional forms of reenactment, such as living history. It is usual to fight using more restricted target areas than in a fight and with less speed and force. Many societies try to reenact actual battles on or near the battle site and these events are usually open to the public to watch. Other societies such as the SCA hire venues for events, including combat. The Federation of the Wars of the Roses is a British–based society which specialises in reenactments of the 15th Century and it stages events at historical sites all over Britain, including those on or near actual battle sites. There are rules on weapons, clothing and armour which are observed by the Households that are Federation members, new Households wishing to enter the Federation are sponsored by established ones, and endure a probationary period to ensure standards are observed. There have been many isolated examples of medieval reenactment in Europe, many UK battles are reenacted at their original battle sites by enthusiasts with a high degree of authenticity, together with Medieval traders, musicians, caterers. UK reenactors can be throughout the country during the summer months at battles, fairs, carnivals, fetes, pubs
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Theatrical jousting
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Alternative terms are jousting reenactment or choreographed jousting. The Hanlon-Lees Action Theater is credited with developing the theatrical joust format in 1979, its first appearance was at the New York Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo and this type of performance has become very popular at various renaissance fairs by the early 2000s. Typically a three-act affair, the theatrical joust consists of a display of skill, a battle which results in a verbal challenge. A variety of characters, either villainous or heroic, give the audience a particular person to root for or against. As the show must be repeated on a daily or weekly basis, horses must be trained to withstand such peculiarities as the clatter of steel weaponry, the occurrence of a rider being knocked from the saddle, and the roar of large crowds. Special makeup and/or property effects are incorporated into the performance to provide the illusion of violent death or shattering equipment. Renaissance Men,3 Alarm Carnival Productions
19.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
20.
Ukraine
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Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
21.
Old Grodno Castle
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The Old Grodno Castle originated in the 11th century as the seat of a dynasty of Black Ruthenian rulers, descended from a younger son of Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev. The 13th-century keep of the castle belonged to a type of Belarusian defensive tower represented by the Tower of Kamyanyets, Vytautas the Great added five Brick Gothic towers in 1391–98, transforming the castle into one of his main residences. Casimir IV Jagiellon also favoured Hrodna over Lithuanias official capital and it was there that the Polish Crown was offered to him, and it was there that he died in 1492. The next notable tenant of the castle was Stephen Báthory who envisaged Hrodna as the capital of his vast empire in Eastern Europe and he engaged Scotto of Parma to replace the Vytautas Castle with his own residence in the advanced Renaissance taste of Northern Italy. After Bathorys death in Hrodna in 1586, his pet project was abandoned, the citadel was devastated by the Russians during a Russo-Polish War in 1655. The castles revival was owing to Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac who raised sufficient funds to finance the refurbishing of the royal residence, the restored castle was selected by King Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki of Poland as the location for every third Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The castle suffered damage during the Great Northern War, forcing the royal court to move into the New Hrodna Castle. After the partitions of Poland the castle was given over to the Russian army, the authorities of interwar Poland restored the chamber of the ambassadors and the Sejm Hall. At present the castle is classed as a museum, Ленинград, Изд-во Академии наук СССР,1962
22.
New Hrodna Castle
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The New Castle in Hrodna, Belarus is a royal palace of Augustus III of Poland and Stanisław August Poniatowski where the famous Grodno Sejm took place in 1793. New Hrodna Castle is 116 metres above sea level, the two castles are joined by a 300-year-old arch bridge. The palace compound was designed by Carl Friedrich Pöppelmann, construction was carried out between 1734 and 1751 under the supervision of several other Saxon architects, including Johann Friedrich Knöbel and Joachim Daniel von Jauch. The palace was completed under the direction of Giuseppe de Sacco in 1789, used as a hospital and barracks throughout most of the 19th century, the palace was renovated by the Polish administration in the interwar period. Scarcely anything is left of the fabric of the castle. There followed a hasty and rather superficial refurbishing of the palace by the Soviets with a view to making it the headquarters of a local obkom. A plaque on the wall of the palace commemorates the council of war held in the residence by Tadeusz Kościuszko on 30 October 1794. Ленинград, Изд-во Академии наук СССР,1962
23.
Lida Castle
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Lida Castle was one of several citadels erected by Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania in the early 14th century to defend his lands against the expansion of the Teutonic Knights. Other links in this chain of defense included Hrodna, Navahrudak, Kreva, Medininkai, the modern town of Lida, Belarus grew up around this castle. Lida Castle is 141 metres above sea level, the site selected for the castle is naturally defended by the Kamenka and Lida rivers to east and west. Construction of boulder walls was carried out in 1323,1324, later they were faced with red brick. The castle had two towers and a church, which was moved outside the walls in 1533. The upper storeys of both towers were lived in, despite its strong fortifications, Lida was taken by the Teutonic Knights on several occasions. Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas gave it to his ally, Khan Tokhtamysh, in 1406, the family of Yury of Smolensk was locked up in Lida as hostages, his attempt to take the castle and liberate them was not successful. In 1433, Lida was a point of contention between Švitrigaila and his cousin Sigismund Kęstutaitis, the following decades were somewhat less stormy. Lida was ravaged by the Crimean Tatars in 1506 and it was stormed by the Russians during the Russo-Polish War in 1659, the Swedes, taking it twice during the Great Northern War, had both towers blown up. In 1794, the grounds were the site of a battle between Kościuszkos followers and the Russians. After the city fire of 1891, the tower and parts of the western wall of the castle were torn down to provide stone for repairing fire-damaged houses. A team of archaeologists from St. Petersburg intervened to halt vandalism, there was only a slight restoration of the walls in the 1920s. During much of the 20th century, an itinerant zoo or circus occupied the castle compound, every December a Christmas tree was placed within the walls. It was not until 1982 that a campaign was launched. The red brick was used to denote the newly reconstructed sections, each year, the Lida Castle hosts a medieval-style tournament. A museum is being created within its towers, Город Лида и Лидский замок Lida Castle on official website of the Republic of Belarus
24.
Mir Castle Complex
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The Mirsky Castle Complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Belarus. It is in the town of Mir, in the Karelichy District of the Hrodna voblast, at 53°27′4. 46″N 26°28′22. 80″E,29 kilometres north-west of another World Heritage site, Mir Castle Complex is 164 metres above sea level. From 1921 to 1939 the castle belonged to the territory of Poland, duke Yuri Ivanovich Ilyinich began construction of the castle near the village of Mir after the turn of the 16th century in the Belarusian Gothic style. Five towers surrounded the courtyard of the citadel, the walls of which formed a square of 75 metres on each side, plastered facades were decorated with limestone portals, plates, balconies and porches in the Renaissance style. Later the castle became a possession of their daughter Maria, who married Prince Chlodwig Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst and their son, Maurice Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, sold the castle to Nikolai Svyatopolk-Mirsky, of the Bialynia clan, in 1895. Nikolais son Mikhail began to rebuild the castle according to the plans of architect Teodor Bursze, the Svyatopolk-Mirsky family owned the castle until 1939, when the Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland. When German forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, they occupied the castle and converted it to a ghetto for the local Jewish population, between 1944 and 1956, the castle was used as a housing facility, resulting in damage to the castles interior. In December 2000, the Mir Castle was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, Старажытнае дойлідства Міра Photos on Globus. tut. by Mir Castle on 3D F4 Map
25.
Nesvizh Castle
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Niasvizh Castle or Nesvizh Castle is a residential castle of the Radziwiłł family in Nesvizh, Belarus. It is 183 metres above sea level, from 1921 to 1939 the complex was in Poland and was considered one of the most beautiful Polish castles in the Kresy region. The estate was owned by the Radziwiłł magnate family from 1533, in 1586 the estate was turned into an ordynacja. After the Union of Lublin the castle one of the most important residences in the central part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1582 Mikołaj Krzysztof Sierotka Radziwiłł, the Marshal of Lithuania, Voivode of Trakai–Vilnius and castellan of Šiauliai, although the works were based on a pre-existing structure of a medieval castle, the former fortifications were entirely turned into a renaissance-baroque house. Construction was completed by 1604, and they added several galleries half a century later, the châteaus corners were fortified with four octagonal towers. In 1706, during the Great Northern War, Charles XIIs army sacked the castle, several decades later, the Radziwiłłs invited some German and Italian architects to substantially renovate and enlarge the castle. Antoni Zaleski decorated its yellow facades with baroque stucco work, the 16th-century castle gates were also reconstructed, and the two-storey gatehouse tower was crowned with a helm. It was at time that the three separate buildings surrounding the central courtyard were joined into a single structure. Apart from elaborate princely sepulchers, its interior features some late baroque frescoes from 1760s, in 1772, following the third and last partition of Poland, the castle was seized by Russian forces and the Radziwiłł family was expelled. Abandoned both by the owners and by the Russian army, the palace gradually fell into disrepair. However, it was restored by the Radziwiłłs and between 1881 and 1886 the castles interiors were renovated by Prince Antoni Radziwiłł and his French wife and they also designed a landscape park in English style. With an area of more than one kilometre, the park is one of the biggest such facilities in Europe. After the Polish–Bolshevik War of 1920 the surrounding area and the complex became part of the newly established Second Polish Republic. During the invasion of Poland in 1939, the Radziwiłł family was expelled from the castle by the Red Army, in Soviet times, the castle was used a sanatorium, while the park gradually fell into neglect. In 1994, the complex was designated the national historical and cultural reserve. In 2005 the castle complex was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the ongoing reconstruction has drawn sharp criticism for its unjustified reconstruction of several long-demolished structures, notably a bell-tower. In 2002, the upper storey of the residence was destroyed by fire, olyka Castle Lubcha Castle Mir Castle Biržai Castle Dubingiai Castle Official website of the Nesvizh Museums Nesvizh castle on official website of the Republic of Belarus
26.
Halshany Castle
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Paweł Stefan Sapieha commissioned its construction and it was erected circa 1610 to replace the older castle, built by of the Holszanski princely family, of whom Sapiehas were descendants and heirs. Also known as the Black Castle, the residence formerly rivaled Mir Castle as the most elegant private château of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The name Black Castle in fact applies to a fictional building from a book by Uladzimir Karatkievich. The castle and the estates were devastated, robbed and looted, twice, by the invading Swedes troops during the Deluge. Due to financial stress experienced by the Sapiehas in the wake of the Domestic War and ongoing Great Northern War, the castle had never been fully restored. Later during the 18th century the castle with its estate diminished by creditors passed to the Żaba family, currently, the castle continues to crumble away. An annual tournament is held near its walls each summer, Збор помнікаў гісторыі і культуры Беларусі, Гродзенская вобласць. Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, filipa Sulimierskiego i Władysława Walewskiego, 1880-1914, Volume III, p. 102-103. Halshany Castle page at radzima. org Halshany Castle page at globus. tut. by International Festival Golshany Castle 2010 on the Official Website of Belarus Charity account opened for Halshany Castle
27.
Kreva Castle
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Kreva Castle is the ruins of a major fortified residence of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in the village of Kreva, Belarus. Algirdass brother Kęstutis was imprisoned and murdered in the Kreva Castle in 1382, Kreva Castle is 220 metres above sea level. The Union of Krewo, the first step towards the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, was signed in the three years later. The castle was sacked by the Crimean Tatars in the early 16th century, by the 19th century, much of the walls had crumbled away. The World War I dealt a blow to the decaying structure. In 19th and 20th centuries, the ruins were partially conserved, media related to Kreva Castle at Wikimedia Commons Krevo Castle on official website of the Republic of Belarus Kreva Castle on globus. tut. by History of the Kreva Castle The Kreva Castle Charity Fund
28.
Lubcha Castle
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Lubcha Castle was a residential castle of the Radziwill family on the left bank of the Neman River at Lubcha near Navahradak. The castle began its life in 1581 as a residence of Jan Kiszka. It had timber walls, a stone tower, and was surrounded by moats on three sides, the fourth side protected by the river. Lubcha later passed to Janusz Radziwiłł, Great Hetman of Lithuania, in 1655 it was taken and devastated by the rebellious Cossacks under Ivan Zolotarenko. Only the barbican and one other tower were left standing after the Cossack incursion, the deserted estate changed owners several times, remaining untenanted until the mid-19th century, when a Gothic Revival palace was built on the grounds. The Lubcha estate suffered much damage during both world wars, the palace was reduced to a shell in 1914 and was remodeled into a school building by the Soviets in 1947. Lyubchа Castle at globus. tut. by History and Restoration of Lyubcha Castle
29.
Ruzhany Palace
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Ruzhany Palace is a ruined palace compound in Ruzhany village, Pruzhany Raion, Brest Voblast, Western Belarus. Between the 16th and 19th centuries Ruzhany, then called Różany, was the seat of the senior line of the Sapieha noble family. The castle is currently under reconstruction, with the palace ornate gate. Ruzhany began its life in the late 16th century as the site of Lew Sapiehas castle, the Sapieha residence was destroyed in the course of the internecine strife in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania when it was attacked by Michał Serwacy Wiśniowieckis forces in 1700. Aside from the palace, there was a theatre, an orangery, becker also designed the local church. By the time of King Stanisław IIs visit in 1784, work on the palace had been suspended, the Sapieha estates were nationalised in the aftermath of the November Uprising. Three years later, the compound was sold to be used as a textile mill. In 1914 the palace was set on fire by factory workers. The ornate palace gate survives and has recently been restored, biaroza monastery, a family vault of the Sapieha family not far from Ruzhany Halshany Castle, another ruined Sapieha residence in Belarus List of castles in Belarus Photos at Radzima org. Photos at Globus Belarus Guide Unofficial Ruzhany site
30.
Volhynia
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Volhynia or Volyn is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe straddling Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, while the territory that still carries the name is Volyn Oblast, Volhynia has changed hands numerous times throughout history and been divided among competing powers. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it has been part of the independent nation of Ukraine, among important cities are Lutsk, Rivne, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Iziaslav, Novohrad-Volynskyi. In other versions, the city was located over 20 km to the west of Volodymyr-Volynskyi near the mouth of Huczwa River, before the partitions of Poland, eastern edge stretched a little west along the right-banks of Sluch River or just east of it. Volhynia is located in basins of Western Bug and Prypyat, therefore most of its rivers flow either in northern or western directions, relative to other historical regions, it is northeast of Galicia, east of Lesser Poland, and northwest of Podolia. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, and it is considered to overlap a number of other regions, among which are Polesia. Territories of historical Volhynia are now part of the Volyn, Rivne, major cities include Lutsk, Rivne, Kovel, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Kremenets, and Starokostiantyniv. Before World War II, many Jewish shtetls, such as Trochenbrod, at one time all of Volhynia was part of the Pale of Settlement designated by Imperial Russia on its southwesternmost border. The land was mentioned in works of the Arabian scholar Al-Masudi who denoted the local tribe as people of Valin, in his work of 947-948 Al-Masudi mentions that Valinians as an intertribal union were ruled by their leader Madjak. In the opinion of Ukrainian historian Yuriy Dyba, the chronicle phrase «и оустави по мьстѣ, и по лузѣ погосты и дань и ѡброкы» reflects the actual route of the Olgas raid against Drevlians further to the west up to the Western Bugs right tributary Luha River. As early as 983, Vladimir the Great appointed his son Vsevolod the ruler of the Volhynian Principality and in 988 established the city of Volodymer. The first records can be traced to the Ruthenian chronicles, such as the Primary Chronicle, which mentions tribes of the Dulebe, Buzhan, volhynias early history coincides with that of the duchies or principalities of Halych and Volhynia. These two successor states of the Kievan Rus formed Halych-Volhynia between the 12th and the 14th centuries, after 1569 Volhynia formed a province of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During this period many Poles and Jews settled in the area, the Roman and Greek Catholic churches became established in the province. In 1375 was established a Roman Catholic Diocese of Lodomeria but it was suppressed in 1425, many Orthodox churches joined the latter organization in order to benefit from a more attractive legal status. Records of the first agricultural colonies of Mennonites date from 1783, after the Third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Volhynia was annexed as the Volhynian Governorate of the Russian Empire. It covered an area of 71,852.7 square kilometers, many Roman Catholic church buildings were also given to the Russian Church, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lutsk was suppressed on orders of Empress Catherine II. In 1897, the population amounted to 2,989,482 people and it consisted of 73.7 percent East Slavs,13.2 percent Jews,6.2 percent Poles, and 5.7 percent Germans
31.
Dubno Castle
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Dubno Castle was founded in 1492 by Prince Konstantin Ostrogski on a promontory overlooking the Ikva River not far from the ancient Ruthenian fort of Dubno, Volhynia. Ostrogski castle was rebuilt in stone in the early 16th century under the Polish rule when the city was part of the Kingdom of Poland and it had a church, a two-story palace, and an impressive array of 73 cannons. It was there that the treasury of the Ostrogski family was kept and these fabulous treasures brought the predatory Crimean Tatars to the castle on several occasions. Prince Janusz Ostrogski, the last of his family, undertook major renovations of the castle in the early 17th century and he made use of the trace itallienne, or Italian style of fortification, to transform Dubno into the most advanced fort in the region. It is the only Volhynian castle featuring a hornwork, Prince Januszs palace still stands in Dubno. During the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the vicinity of Dubno Castle was the scene of fighting between the Poles and the Cossacks, some of it described by Nikolai Gogol in the novella Taras Bulba. The castle passed to Polish Prince Władysław Dominik Zasławski as part of the Ostroh inheritance, in the 18th century Dubno lost much of its military relevance. Some of the gave way to a plain rectangular palace of two stories, commissioned in the 1780s by Prince Stanisław Lubomirski from architects Henryk Hyacynt Ittar. The palaces interior layout and design did not survive the First World War, after the Lubomirskis sold their Dubno residence to Princess Boryatinsky in 1871, the castle was subjected to a new campaign of remodeling. It held a military garrison of the Border Defence Corps. The old barbican was transformed in the 1920s into a prison where about 550 political prisoners were executed by the NKVD in 1941, Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР. Media related to Dubno Castle at Wikimedia Commons
32.
Klevan Castle
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Klevan Castle is one of the oldest forts in Volynia, Ukraine. It was built in the century by Prince Michael Chortoryisky in order to control a ford over the Stubla River. Klevan was the seat of the Orthodox princely house of Chortoryisk until its members converted to Catholicism in the 17th century. After that the castle was given to a Jesuit school, after the partitions of Poland the castle was confiscated by the Habsburgs, and stood untenanted. Its western wall was pulled down in the 19th century, the remaining portions include two towers, three fortified buildings, and a high four-arched bridge leading to the main gate. Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР, media related to Klevan Castle at Wikimedia Commons
33.
Korets Castle
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The Korets Castle is a castle built in Korets ca.1400 by either Prince Theodor Ostrogski or Prince Dymitr Korybut. Its main tower is featured in the towns emblem, the moated castle on the bank of the Korchyk River was the seat of the princely House of Korets between the 15th and 17th centuries. After the main line died out in 1651, Korets passed through inheritance to a junior line of the Czartoryski family. In 1780, Józef Klemens Czartoryski rebuilt the castle to serve as his main residence, as Józef Klemens had no male issue, the castle was neglected after his death. It burnt down in the wake of the November Uprising in 1832, over the years the ruins have steadily deteriorated and by the late 20th century have all but disappeared. Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР, media related to Korets Castle at Wikimedia Commons
34.
Lubart's Castle
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Lutsk High Castle, also known as Lubarts Castle, began its life in the mid-14th century as the fortified seat of Gediminas son Liubartas, the last ruler of united Galicia-Volhynia. It is the most prominent landmark of Lutsk, Ukraine and as such appears on the 200 hryvnia bill, another city castle, built by the Czartoryski family starting from the 14th century, is now a ruin. The Kievan town of Luchesk had a wall as early as 1075. Yury Dolgoruky failed to take Lutsk after a siege in 1149. In 1255, the walls of Lutsk were stormed by Jochis grandson Kuremsa, the current castle, towering over the Styr River, was built mostly in the 1340s, although some parts of the earlier walls were used. It repelled sieges by numerous potentates, including Casimir the Great, Jogaila and it was there that the Lutsk Conference of 1429 took place, attended by Emperor Sigismund, Vasily II of Moscow, Jogaila, Vytautas the Great, and the voivode of Wallachia. During the long reign of Vytautas, Lutsk Castle was further fortified to guard against artillery, the principal entrance, now bricked in, was from the west and adjoined a bridge over outer moat. Three main towers, named after Lubart, Švitrigaila and the Bishop, were built up in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries, the walls of the castle formerly enclosed St. Johns Cathedral, the residence of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and an episcopal palace. Of these buildings, only the Neoclassical palace of the bishops still stands, on 2 July 19411,160 Jews were murdered within the walls of the castle. There is no monument or marker for this tragedy in the castle, Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР. Media related to Lutsk castle at Wikimedia Commons
35.
Olyka Castle
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Olyka Castle, located in Olyka, Ukraine was the principal seat of the Radziwill princely family in Volhynia from 1564 until the late 18th century. The founder of the castle was Prince Mikołaj the Black Radziwiłł who gave Olyka to his youngest son Stanisław, two senior branches of the Radziwill family were based in Nesvizh and Kletsk. The Olyka Castle was immensely influential as the first square fort with bastions in the Kresy. It was almost continuously under construction for eight decades and sustained numerous sieges between 1591 and 1648, during Napoleons invasion of Russia a Russian military hospital moved in and continued in use until 1837. An 1840 document refers to the castle as untenanted, in 1883, a campaign of restoration was launched but it was not taken to its conclusion until after the First World War. The Olyka Castle comprises four buildings of unequal height, forming a court in the middle. The towers of the castle have crumbled to the ground. The main palace of three storeys, although built in the 16th century, is essentially the upshot of renovations carried out in the 17th and 18th centuries. Other buildings of the complex include a 17th-century gateway, a two-storey clock tower, and the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity. Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР
36.
Ostroh Castle
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The Ostroh Castle is a castle in the city of Ostroh, located in the Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine. In the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, the castle was the key stronghold of the powerful House of Ostroh, the castle itself is located in a relatively small elevated oval plaza. The first wooden fortifications were built in the area before the 1241 Mongol invasion of Rus, the ruins were later reconstructed by Knyaz Daniil from the Ostrogky family on the citys Sudovy Hill. Since then, more additions and reconstructions were carried out, although the complex still retains its Medieval architecture, the castle complex consists of four main structures, the Guard Tower where the castles museum is located, the Bohoyavlenska Church, the New Tower, and the Belltower. A small park sits next to the castle, separated by a small moat. A monument was placed in the park in 1978, commemorating the 400 anniversary of the foundation of the Ostroh Academy, a building used to stand in the same location, in which the Azbuka and the Ostrog Bible were printed by Ivan Fedorov. Seven Wonders of Ukraine Starokostiantyniv Castle - another castle of the Ostrogski family Castle complex of the city of Ostroh, national Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv
37.
Starokostiantyniv Castle
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The Starokostiantyniv Castle is a Volhynian castle built at the confluence of the Sluch and Ikopot rivers by Prince Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski in the 1560s. The castle of Starokostiantyniv has withstood many attacks by the Turks, the castle played an important part in Ukraines struggle for independence when Starokostiantyniv was visited by such national leaders as Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Petro Doroshenko. The grounds still contain a fortified residence and a small church, the latter is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and has a single apse. A sacristy building adjoins it from the side of the river, the wall had five towers of which little remains. It used to be encircled by 6-metre-high earthen ramparts and a moat traversed by a drawbridge, Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР. Media related to Ostrogski Castle at Wikimedia Commons Lubomyr Wynar, ostrozky in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol.3
38.
Red Ruthenia
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Red Ruthenia, Red Rus is a historic term used since the Middle Ages for southeastern Poland and Western Ukraine. First mentioned in a 1321 Polish chronicle, Red Ruthenia was the portion of Rus incorporated into Poland by Casimir the Great during the 14th century. From the 14th century, after the disintegration of Rus, Red Ruthenia was contested by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Ruthenia. After the Galicia–Volhynia Wars, for about 400 years most of Red Ruthenia became part of Poland as the Ruthenian Voivodeship, there are at least three theories concerning the origins of the name Red Ruthenia. A popular belief that it was derived from the associations of particular colours with cardinal points of the compass. This originated with mythology of the pre-Christian god Svetovid, who had four faces, his face was white, the southern black, eastern green. According to a theory, many place names in Red Ruthenia start in cherv-. These include the so-called Cherven Cities, the first known inhabitants of Red Ruthenia were Lendians, with Boykos and Lemkos on its perimeters. Later Walddeutsche, Jews, Armenians and Poles also made up part of the population, according to Marcin Bielski, although Bolesław I Chrobry settled Germans in the region to defend the borders against Hungary and Kievan Rus the settlers became farmers. Maciej Stryjkowski described German peasants near Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Sanok, Casimir the Great settled German citizens on the borders of Lesser Poland and Red Ruthenia to join the acquired territory with the rest of his kingdom. In determining the population of late medieval Poland, colonisation and Polish migration to Red Ruthenia, Spiš, during the second half of the 14th century, the Vlachs arrived from the southeastern Carpathians and quickly overspread southern Red Ruthenia. Although during the 15th century the Ruthenians gained a foothold, it was not until the 16th century that the Wallachian population in the Bieszczady Mountains, from the 14th to the 16th centuries Red Ruthenia underwent rapid urbanization, resulting in over 200 new towns built on the German model. During the Middle Ages, the region was part of the Ruthenian Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia and it came under Polish control in 1340, when Casimir the Great acquired it. During his reign from 1333 to 1370, Casimir the Great founded several cities, the name Ruś Czerwona has been used for the territory extending to the Dniester, centring on Przemyśl. Since the reign of Władysław Jagiełło the Przemyśl Voivodeship was called the Ruthenian Voivodeship, the voivodeship consisted of five regions, Lwów, Sanok, Halicz, Przemyśl, and Chełm. The town of Halych gave its name to Galicia, in October 1372, Władysław Opolczyk was deposed as count palatine. Although he retained most of his castles and goods in Hungary, as compensation, Opolczyk was made governor of Hungarian Galicia. In this new position, he contributed to the development of the territories entrusted to him
39.
Berezhany Castle
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In 1630, the castles fortifications were expanded. It was so fortified that neither Khmelnitskys Cossacks nor the Turks succeeded in taking it. In 1655, it was surrendered to the Swedes without a fight, the local Jewish community was made responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the walls in 1667. After Maria Zofia Sieniawskas marriage to August Aleksander Czartoryski, the passed to the Czartoryski family, then to the Princes Lubomirski. Those new owners allowed it to fall into disrepair that in 1908 visitors were cautioned not to enter the castle for fear of being smashed by falling masonry. The castle was damaged during the First World War, as was the late Gothic church from 1554 which contains a number of elaborate tombs of the Sieniawskis. The Brzeżany tombs were executed by Jan Pfister and other leading Polish artists of the 16th and 17th centuries, Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР,4 volumes, Kiev, Будивэльнык, 1983-86, the article on Бережанский замок Media related to Castle in Berezhany at Wikimedia Commons
40.
Olesko Castle
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Olesko Castle is located within the borders of the present-day Busk Raion in Ukraine. The first historical records of the castle are in a document dated 1327, when Pope Boniface IX gave Halych, a Catholic bishop and it is located about seventy-five kilometers from Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine. Olesko Castle, oval in shape, stands on top of a small hill, a moat and a wall surrounds it, which serves as a defence for the castle. The castle is surrounded by a dense swamp. The land that the castle sat on changed ownership many times and it was originally on the border of land of Volhynia and land of Lviv. The castle was, at different times, owned by Poland, Lithuania and it became a political landmark in the 14th century when movable borders between the three aforementioned countries ran through its territory. Battles for ownership of the castle were constant, a deep well in the basement of the castle was used as an escape route for besieged prisoners. In the 15th century, the castle was changed from being a defense point, in 1605, the castle was bought by the nobleman Jan Daniłowicz h. Sas, a local landowner and Voivode of the Ruthenian Voivodeship. It was then sold to the family of Koniecpolski, in early 18th century, Olesko was bought by the family of Rzewuski, and its collection of antiques was moved to another castle the Rzewuscy owned, Pidhirtsi Castle. The castle is perhaps most famous for being the birthplace of the Polish king Jan III Sobieski and he often lived there, and collected many of the artworks displayed in the present-day museum. Another Polish king, King Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, was born here. It is also said that Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, the most prominent leaders of Ukrainian Cossacks spent his years here. The castle was restored in the late 16th to the early 17th centuries, paintings and mosaics were brought in to decorate the different rooms of the castle. The castle was remodeled in the Italian Renaissance style, which was popular at that time, in 1838, an earthquake rocked the castle, partly destroying some areas. In 1882, the castle, regarded as a Polish national monument was bought by the Committee of Preservation of the Olesko Castle, both World War I and World War II affected the castle negatively, undoing previous restoration work. In 1956, the castle was struck by lightning, the castle was restored again, beginning in 1961 and lasting until 1985. Today, it is a museum, displaying the collections of antique furnishings and it also features sculptures, paintings, still lives, applied arts, tapestries, period weapons, and objects used in everyday life at the time
41.
Pidhirtsi Castle
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Pidhirtsi Castle is a château type residential castle-fortress located in the village of Pidhirtsi in Lviv Oblast western Ukraine, located eighty kilometers east of Lviv. It was constructed by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan between 1635–1640 by order of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealths Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, on the place of the older fortress. The castle was part of the Kingdom of Poland and it is regarded as the most valuable of palace-garden complexes in the eastern borderlands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The structure, built brick and stone, was designed in the characteristic palazzo in fortezza style. The palace itself is built into the slope of the hill, in the 17th century, it was surrounded by vineyards and Italian-style parterre gardens, its wine celebrated by the poetry of Jakub Sobieski and Andrzej Morsztyn. Guarded by a moat and drawbridge, fortified walls with bastions, the castle takes the form of an open square nearly 100 meters on a side, with three floors. Its western part served as a residency for guests, the eastern range was private, reserved for the owner. Above the entrance gate, a plaque to this day bears a Latin inscription. There also was a grange, a zoo, vineyards, an apiary, a trout pond. In its heyday under Jakub Ludwik Sobieski, the castle was furnished, with several halls and a library. Next to the entrance was the Guardroom, then there was the room, filled with hussar equipment. There followed the suite of the Crimson Room, a Chinese Room, the Mirror Room, Yellow Room, Green Room and these rooms collected the names from the color of a trim or from what was kept in them. Walls of all rooms were covered with paintings, portraits, wallpapers, floors were made of marble tiles, each room also had a marble fireplace. Among the stylish furnishings, there were numerous examples from the booty taken by Stanisław Koniecpolski during wars with the Turks and Tatars, mostly Persian rugs, in the library, there was an archive of the Koniecpolski and Rzewuski family. King Wladyslaw IV Vasa and his French wife Ludwika Maria Gonzaga, were impressed by the complex, soon after their visit, Stanisław Koniecpolski died. It has not been established who designed the complex, that, most probably, was planned by Italian architect Andrea del Aqua, Hetman Koniecpolski wrote in his memoirs that he wanted to own a place for relaxation, but the castle location made it impossible. In 1648 it was attacked by Ukrainian Cossacks during Khmelnytskyi Uprising, although they could not capture the complex, three years later the Cossacks returned and failed again. In 1682, Stanisław Koniecpolski, grandson of the builder and owner
42.
Pomoriany Castle
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Pomoriany Castle is a ruined castle in the village of Pomoriany, Zolochiv District, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It originated in the 16th century as a noble residence on the bank of the Zolota Lypa River. The castles early owners included Mikolaj Świnka and Jan Sienieński, the estate suffered badly at the hands of the Cossacks and Turks but Jan III Sobieski invested in the restoration in order to make Pomorzany one of his country residences. Sobieskis death in 1696 was followed by another period of decline. A real change came about in the castles fortunes when, in 1789 and he had the barbican gate, three towers and several wings of the old structure torn down, however. As recently as 1939, Pomorzany was owned by the famous Potocki family, following the September Campaign, the building was adapted for use as a school, but it was finally abandoned to rot in the late 1970s. Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР
43.
Stare Selo Castle
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Stare Selo Castle is a castle in Stare Selo village, Pustomyty Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. This castle, or fortress, was built by the princely Ostrozky family and its original timber fortifications, first mentioned in 1448, were destroyed by the invading Turks in the late 15th century. A more secure stone fort, intended to defend the Bârlad Road from Lviv to Romania, was built in Stare Selo in the 1580s and those walls were breached and rendered useless by Khmelnytskys Cossacks during the Siege of Lviv in 1648. The citadel was erected in 1649-54 and formerly contained the residence of Prince Zaslawski, one of the richest landowners of Eastern Europe. After Prince Zaslawski died in Stare Selo in 1656, the fortress fell into disrepair. Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР
44.
Svirzh Castle
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Svirz Castle is a fortified aristocratic residence in Svirzh, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It was originally built by the noble family in the 15th century. Inside the castle is a church dating from 1546. The stronghold was rebuilt in the 17th century at the behest of its new owner. It is believed that General Paweł Grodzicki was responsible for the modernisation of the castles fortifications, though surrounded on all sides by moats, lakes, and marshes, the fort was taken by the rebellious Cossacks on several occasions. In 1648, the Turks set it on fire, they were successful during the Lwow raid of 1672. The castle stood in ruins for many years and it was restored in 1907, only to be devastated by fire in 1914. Rebuilding and restoration have occurred on several occasions since, Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР. Media related to Svirzh at Wikimedia Commons Photos of Svirzh castle
45.
Ternopil Castle
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The Ternopil Castle is a stronghold which gave birth to the city of Ternopil. It was built in the 16th century to protect the border of the Kingdom of Poland. The castle originated as the residence of a Polish nobleman, Jan Amor Tarnowski, construction works on the marshy bank of the Seret River were authorized by King Sigismund the Old. The castle, around which the town has developed, was encircled by a wooden fence. The latter was connected in 1548 to the castle pond, King Sigismund granted land ownership and rights erecting the castle to dubded Polish Crown Hetman, Jan Tarnowski. Concurrently in the valley of Seret river a levee and dam with a crossing were constructed, resulting in the stream pooling. Out from the north the castle and the city was protected by the Rudka river harboring a boggy holm, a narrow, dry strip of land factually being a moat banked by a mound with inside masonry reinforced with an oak stockade would set the castle ground apart. Rectangular-shaped towers housing embrasures stood tall on the outer fringes, the entrance was permitted from the east via stone gatehouse secured with a chain hoist drawbridge. The first record in Ternopils annals entered on April 15,1540 was related to the kings ascent given to Kraków nobleman Jan Tarnowski regarding constructing the castle over the Seret river and this fortification had to seal nomad advancement through the wide plains from Terebovlya to Busk. At the same time the terrain of the environment would permit security provisions for a given locale. Castle construction lasted for 8 years and completed in 1548, perquisites of 1566 mention Ternopils fortress and its founder. Due to significant losses sustained on construction project, the city was relieved of much of the taxation burden, consequently, the castle was reinforced and upgraded by Tarnowskis son, Krzysztof. In the early 17th century, Ternopil, known then as Tarnopol and it was besieged by the Turks in 1544,1575,1589 and 1672. The Ottoman army under Şişman İbrahim Paşa reduced the castle to ruins in 1675, Count Korytowski revived it in the 1840s as his summer residence, he also had its towers, walls and other fortifications dismantled. In the course of its history Ternopil Castle was a subject of frequent attacks, no sooner development projects began, as Tatars attempted inroads on the city. Owing to the home guard spearheaded by Bernard Pretwicz, Jan Gerburt, and Prokyp Sieniawski. The castle sustained significant damage in 1575,1589, and 1672, in 1675 Şişman İbrahim Paşa broke a camp next to Ternopil and besieged the city. As Tatars and Turks committed assaults, town dwellers sought refuge in the castle cellars accommodated to withstand prolonged confrontation, a network of underground passageways connected the bulwark with Nadstavna, Serrednya to Monastirska churches, Dominikan, and Jesuit cathedral and synagogues
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Black Ruthenia
Volynia
Red Ruthenia
Podolia