The Ostroh Castle (; ) is a castle in the city of

Ostroh Ostroh ( , ) is a city in Rivne Oblast, western Ukraine. It is situated on the Horyn River. Ostroh was the administrative center of Ostroh Raion until 2020, but as a city of oblast significance did not belong to the raion. Currently the city is ...

, located in the

Rivne Oblast Rivne Oblast (), also referred to as Rivnenshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Rivne. The surface area of the region is . Its population is: Before its annexation by the ...

of western Ukraine. In the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, the castle was the key stronghold of the powerful House of Ostroh. Today it is in ruins.

Location

Ostroh Castle is a castle in the town of

, located in the

, in western Ukraine. The castle complex consists of four main structures: the Guard Tower () where the is located, the Bohoiavlenska Church, the New Tower, and the Belltower, constructed in 1905. The castle is located in a relatively small elevated oval plaza. The area's natural geography helped to fortify the complex; the southern and eastern sides of the fortress raised upon a high cliff, and the northern and western sides separate the city by series of moats that replaced the big ravine.

History

The first wooden fortifications were built in the area before the 1241

Mongol invasion of Rus The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered much of Kievan Rus' in the mid-13th century, sacking numerous cities such as Ryazan, Yaroslavl, Pereyaslavl and Vladimir, including the largest: Kiev (50,000 inhabitants) and Chernigov (30,000 inh ...

, during which they were subsequently destroyed. During the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, the castle was the key stronghold of the powerful House of Ostroh. From 1386, the town of Ostroh belonged to the

Ostrogski family The House of Ostrogski (; ; ) was one of the more prominent families in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The family spanned from the 14th century Ruthenian noble Daniil Ostrogski ...

, who built the castle. Under the Ostrogski, the town grew in importance. The ruins were later reconstructed by the founder of the family, Danylo Ostrozki, on the city's Sudovyi Hill. Since then, more additions and reconstructions have carried out, although the complex retains its

medieval architecture Medieval architecture was the architecture, art and science of designing and constructing buildings in the Middle Ages. The major styles of the period included pre-Romanesque, Romanesque architecture, Romanesque, and Gothic architecture, Gothic. In ...

. Both towers were built in the second half of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries from sandstone. They are three-tiered structures, with a plan that combines an oval with a rectangle. Since 1985, the Lutsk Tower has housed a book museum. The Tatar Tower is worse preserved, with a significant portion of the elliptical part of the building lost.

Legacy

The castle is a ruin. A small park sits right 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 The Ostroh Academy (; ) was an influential institute of higher learning located in Ostroh in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is considered the first institution of higher education in the Eastern Slavic world, dating to 1576 and foun ...

. A building used to stand in the same location, in which the "Azbuka" (''alphabet'') and the

Ostrog Bible The Ostrog Bible (; ) was the first complete printed edition of the Bible in Church Slavonic, published in Ostrog (now Ostroh, Ukraine) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by the printer Ivan Fyodorov in 1581 with the assistance of Konst ...

were printed by Ivan Fedorov. In 2007, the castle was awarded a "Significant Landmark of Spiritual Ukraine", as part of competition to find the

Seven Wonders of Ukraine The Seven Wonders of Ukraine ( ) are seven historical and cultural monuments of Ukraine, which were chosen in the ''Seven Wonders of Ukraine'' contest held in July, 2007. This was the first public contest of that kind which was followed by the ...

References

External links

Ostroh
from the Castles and Churches of Ukraine website (self-published)
Article
from the ''Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine'' {{Castles in Ukraine Castles in Ukraine Historic house museums in Ukraine Museums in Rivne Oblast Gothic architecture in Ukraine Ostrogski family Buildings and structures in Rivne Oblast

Location

History

Legacy

References

Further reading

External links