Dubno Castle - Castles on Waymarking.com

Dubno Castle

The town of Dubno was first mentioned in a chronicle of 1099 being in the possession of David of Brest, grandson of Rus King Yaroslavl the Wise. It was annexed by Poland in the 14th century and ruled by the famous Ostrogski family. Vasyl Ostrogski the Fine built the first castle in Dubno in the 14th century. Konstanty Ostrogski renovated the castle between 1489-1506 while he served as the first Grand Hetman of Lithuania. He is considered to be the father of the Belarusian language and is a national hero in Belarus. Under his military leadership Lithuania achieved many victories against the Tatar and Muscovy armies.

The castle was rebuilt in stone in the 16th century containing a church, a two-story palace, and an impressive array of 73 cannons. The castle’s location defied all contemporary theories of defense in that it was built on flat land instead of on the precipice of a high hill. But its triangle shape was flanked on two sides by the Ikva River and a swamp on the hypotenuse. It proved to be a formidable defense and the Ostrogski family treasury was kept within its walls. These treasures made the fortress a desirable target of the predatory Crimean Tatars who attacked on several occasions, twice in 1577 alone, but were never able to penetrate its defenses.

Prince Janusz Ostrogski, the last of the family line, undertook major renovations of the castle in the early 17th century. He incorporated the new “Italian style” of fortification transforming the Dubno Castle into the most advanced fortress in the region. As a result it withstood the siege of Cossack troops during the Khmelnitsky Uprising in 1648 and an attack from Moscow in 1660.

Janusz Ostrogski died without a male heir and the castle passed to his grandson Wladyslaw Dominik Zaslawski in 1620. It was at this time that the fortress came under attack during the Khmelnitsky Uprising that was immortalized by Nikolai Gogol in his short-story “Taras Bulba”. Ernest Hemingway called it “one of the ten greatest books of all time.” In the story Taras Bulba sends his two sons, Ostap and Andriy, to war against the Poles west of the Dnieper River. They besiege the Dubno Castle and soon the inhabitants begin to starve. A Tatar woman sneaks into the camp and awakens Andriy whom he recognizes as the servant of the Polish girl he fell in love with while studying at the Orthodox seminary in Kyiv. He betrays his heritage and sneaks food into the fortress to save the girl he loves. When Taras Bulba discovers the treachery of his son, he shoots him at point blank. Eventually the Polish army arrives and saves the fortress.

The Khmelnitsky Rebellion laid the groundwork for the Russian invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the north and east in 1654. The following year Sweden invaded from the west. Thus began the Deluge when Poland was under attack from three sides. It was during this turmoil that Wladyslaw Dominik Zaslawski died in 1656. All of the Ostrogski domains became the property of his six-year-old son Aleksander Janusz. The Russian troops had captured Rivne and Ostroh and reached the Dubno Castle by 1660. The defenders held out while peace was made with Sweden and the Polish army could concentrate their forces against Russia. Once again the Dubno Castle would survive.

Aleksander Janusz Zaslawski died in 1682 without any heirs and his brother-in-law Jozef Karol Lubomirski inherited the Ostrogski and Zaslawski domains. Dubno lost its military relevance in the 18th century and became a residence of the Lubomirski family. Prince Stanislaw Lubomirski, who owned 31 cities and 738 villages, built a new two-storey palace in 1780.

The Lubomirski family sold the Dubno Castle to Princess Nadezhda Boryatinsky in 1871 who commenced with some remodeling of her own, but the interiors of both palaces were gutted during World War I. Dubno Castle became barracks for the newly formed Polish Border Protection Corps that were formed in 1924 when Soviet saboteurs began striking within Poland. By the end of the decade it was transformed into a prison. When the Soviet Union invaded Poland in 1939, Dubno Castle prison became the property of the Bolsheviks where the NKVD (People’s Ministry of Internal Affairs), predecessor of the KGB, executed 550 prisoners in 1941. Today the Dubno Castle has been restored as a museum.

The castle is open to the public everyday from 08:00 - 17:00. Admission is 5 UAH (adults) and 3 UAH (children). There is an additional charge of 10 UAH for cameras and video cameras. The admission allows you to peruse inside the castle walls, north tower, and southern casemates. For an additional 5 UAH per person, you can arrange a tour inside the Lubomirski Palace. The Ostrogski Palace is closed to the public. This information was current as of February 2012.

Accessibility: Partial access Condition: Intact Admission Charge?: yes Website: Not listed

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