Kremenets Castle - Castles on Waymarking.com

Kremenets Castle

This castle has protected the people of Kremenets since the 8th century when a wooden fort was first built under the Kyivan Rus. The hill overlooking the town resembles an arrow from above. A long narrow ridge leads to a triangular plateau. The castle had three towers of which two have been preserved. The Nad Novym Domom (Above A New House) was the main entrance into the later 16th century stone castle. The other existing tower is the Cherlena (Red) Tower. In addition to the two towers, some sections of the 3-meter thick walls with battlements are still standing.

The castle was first mentioned in a Polish encyclopedic dictionary written in 1064. The town was first mentioned in 1226 when Mstislav the Bold defeated the attacking Hungarian army under the leadership of King Andrew II. Andrew “being demoralized left this land rapidly” the document records - but not for long because the following year Mstislav turned all of his holdings over to Andrew and retired.

It was one of the few castles that withstood the Mongolian invasion of 1240-1241 led by Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. Five years later the Mongolian hordes returned under command of Burundai and the castle again could not be taken. But the resulting peace treaty between Danylo of Halych and the Mongolian invaders required that the walls of this mighty castle be torn down.

Kremenets briefly came under control of the Hungarian Kingdom in the 14th century. The Lithuanian Count Liubartas captured the town in 1382 adding it to the Volhynian Principality of the Lithuanian Kingdom. The town then became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth upon its creation in 1569 until its destruction by the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 when the Russian Empire annexed Kremenets.

The castle, having been rebuilt during the Commonwealth, was finally destroyed in 1648 when the Cossack Colonel Maksym Kryvonis surrounded ir and laid siege for six months. When the Polish garrison surrendered the Cossacks destroyed the castle and it was never rebuilt.

Accessibility: Full access Condition: Completely ruined Admission Charge?: no Website: Not listed

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