Dubensky castle, Dubno

Shrouded in the history of the Middle Ages, Dubensky Castle today is one of the seven wonders of Ukraine, and by age it is one of the oldest. The fortress is located in the city of Dubno, on the banks of the River Ikva. The total land area is 4.9992 m².

 

Dubensky castle
At first, no castle in Dubno existed. It was only a wooden-earthen fortification, did not provide sufficient protection. Therefore, through troubled times and danger, there was a need to build a powerful castle complex with strong stone structures that have survived to this day. On the territory of the castle are the palaces of the princes of Lubomir and Ostroh, two bastion towers, dungeons, ballrooms, a museum, an exhibition of the history of torture and punishment. One of the towers of the bastions was named "Beatka" or Maiden's Tower, in honor of the brave princely from the past. In general, it was a tower from which they reported the attack of enemies. You can get inside the tower, which overlooks the city and the Iqua River.

 

Castle Complex
According to the plan of the architect Heinrich Attar, the castle consisted of three parts: the Ostrog palace, the Lyubomirsky palace and the Main gate building. Two dug deep moats captured by the Tatars, filled with the waters of Iqua and were a good line of defense. You will be able to see them when it passes over the bridge, which was once suspended, and which was lifted every evening. Actually, the wise location and terrain features (it was impossible for enemy artillery to get to the walls through the swamp and the Ikva River) made Dubensky Castle one of the most stable in history. It is known that for five centuries he was never taken by storm, but there were many attempts to capture it. Only for one XVII century the castle was attacked about a hundred times! This is not surprising, because the castle was the richest in Europe.

 

Before entering the castle, you can see the three-story gate building on which the entrance gates are located, which are decorated with the magnificent coat of arms of the Ostrog family. The courtyard of the castle extends for 300 meters, from it you can admire the view of the river. In this courtyard you can see 3 guns that once defended the city. Under the city there were underground tunnels, which allowed during the siege to get to any part of the city, as well as store provisions. All the dungeons have not yet been opened, but they can show a certain part.

 

History
The city of Dubno, rich in history, far and wide. The first mention of the city of Duben appears in 1100 in the "Tale of Bygone Years". The city received the name, as you might have guessed, because oak forests grew nearby, which gave the name to the settlement. For some time the city was part of the Galicia-Volyn principality, and in the 14th century the Lithuanians conquered the region. The Grand Lithuanian Prince Vitovt and the Polish King Jagiello in 1386 transferred to the possession of Prince Fyodor of Ostrog Dubno, which for several centuries was assigned to the glorious Ostrog family.

 

At the time when Columbus discovered America (1492), Prince Constantine of Ostrog built the Dubensky Castle. The wooden fortification was here before, but it was Konstantin who strengthened it with a stone. In 1498, it was rebuilt by the Ostrog settlement, officially receives the status of a medieval city, and after 9 years, King Sigismund I gives Dubno the Magdeburg Law, which allowed fairs and tenders. In numerous battles against the Muscovites, Ostrogsky received many trophies, which he kept in the dungeon of Dubensky Castle. In total, there were 49 chests of various treasures. Interestingly, products that were stored in special casemates in case of a siege of the city might not have been spoiled for years were equated with treasures. Therefore, not only its inhabitants, but also residents of nearby settlements could take refuge in the castle. Underground tunnels allowed access to different parts of the city. Not every metro station boasts this size. They say that in Soviet times, when there was a military unit in the castle, there were lower tiers, but when the soldiers began to run into the "AWOL" command ordered everyone to pour concrete.

In 1577, the Tatars attacked the castle when the wedding of the niece of Ostrog, Beata, took place. An angry bride went to the tower and fired from a cannon and got into the tent of the Crimean khan, thereby killing his son. The death of the Crimean Khan is a historical fact, buried in Krasilov. That's what happens if a woman gets angry. In 1648, the vanguard detachments of the troops of Bogdan Khmelnytsky led by Maxim Krivonos tried to take Dubensky Castle, but after seeing the fortifications, the Cossacks did not dare to attack. The reason for the attack is the same Ostrog treasures. Already in 1660, the troops of the boyar Sheremetyev were standing under the walls of the castle, but the arrival of the Crimean khan Islam-Girey prevented them from realizing their intentions. The castle survived both during the Northern War of 1700-1721 and during the uprising of Tadeusz Kosciuszko at the end of the 18th century and the French-Russian war of 1812.

 

The next owner of the castle was Janusz Sangushko, who was drunk and heavily abandoned the fortress. Subsequently, Sangushko divided the land between several dozen Polish families, and gave the castle to Stanislav Lubomirsky, who built the palace, it hosted balls and also played games of chance. They say that in one night the poor could turn into a rich man and vice versa. In 1774, after the Austrians seized Galicia, the contracts were transferred to Dubno from Lviv, which contributed to the cultural and financial recovery of the city, and also made it the most populated city by Jews in Volyn. Dubno, whose population at that time was approximately six and a half thousand people, received up to 30,000 merchants annually. Contracts existed here for 20 years, and then were transferred to Kiev, which gave the name Kontraktova Square on Podil, and Dubno began to decline. Lubomirsky, along with his son, lost a large sum of money in cards and was forced to sell the castle to the military department. By the beginning of the 20th century no one could ever take the castle, only during the First World War it was severely destroyed by Austrian artillery. The ruins stood until 1934, when Poland rebuilt the castle.

 

Interesting Facts
It was under the walls of Dubensky Castle that one famous drama took place. Taras Bulba lost both of his sons here. Andrei, the son of Taras, fell in love with a Polish young lady and made his way into the castle with one of the underground passages. Trying to return his brother, Ostap was caught and brutally tortured by the Poles, and Andrei Taras personally killed for treason. The prototypes of this story are very real people, whom Gogol described. This was the Miklukho family, with whom Gogol was friends, and the ancestor of the famous Ukrainian researcher Miklukho Maklay was the ataman Ephraim Makhlukho, who became the direct prototype of the protagonist "Taras Bulba".

 

How to get there
By public transport: go to Dubno by bus or train, then from the railway station by minibus No. 1, 11, 15, 17. Get off at the Ploshchad stop. Then you should go back until you reach the triple fork on the road, cross it and turn left, after two minutes of walking you will see the castle. You can get back by the same minibuses, only a stop on the other side. There is no possibility to set up a tent on the territory of the castle, but it can use the services of the Dubno or Eden hotel.

 

By car: in Dubno there is one main road, you will need to get to the center. If from the side of the railway station, then after the Bazarchik area, without turning left on the triple branch, go straight and on the right side you will see a castle, there is a parking lot for cars. If from the side of the bus station, then after passing the “Ploshchad” stop, at the three-way branch, turn left.