METAMORPHOSES OF THE ZBARAZH CASTLE: From Fortress to Museum
Zbarazh Castle from a bird’s eye view / wikipedia.org
Where to go in the Ternopil region? If you’re interested in castles, you’ve chosen the right direction. Historical period? Let’s take, for instance, the 17th century. Let’s head to Zbarazh Castle, as it is truly one of the most remarkable historical landmarks of this region.
It all began with the Italians…
STRENGTH IN BEAUTY
T
he design of the castle was commissioned by Kshyshtof Zbaraski — starosta of Kremenets, Crown Master of the Horse, and diplomat — from Italian architect Vincenzo Scamozzi, a devotee of classicism. Scamozzi was assisted by fellow Italian military engineer Andrea dell’Aqua, who actually supervised the construction of the castle, which began in 1620.
After Kshyshtof’s death seven years later, his elder brother Yurii (Jerzy) took up the project. It was decided to make the castle more defensible, and this task was entrusted to a military architect from Flanders — Henryk van Peene, author of the Zbaraski Palace in Kraków and a master of fortification. He applied the most advanced fortification techniques of the time. Thus arose a castle-fortress — or rather, a palace within a fortress — completed in 1631.
What we see today is a square with four bastions connected by curtain walls. The castle is surrounded by earthen ramparts 24 meters wide and 12 meters high, each 88 meters in length. Stone casemates are arranged along the inner perimeter of the fortress. Tunnels were dug from the corner bastions to the palace.
A moat up to 40 meters wide encircled the castle and could be filled with water. The entrance to the outside world was through a gate in a two-story tower, accessed by a drawbridge. The total area of the castle fortifications reached 16 hectares. To the east, the castle was bordered by forests, marshes, and ponds; to the west and north — by the high banks of the Hnizna River; and to the south — by a steep ravine.
MILITARY GLORY
The two-story palace was built in the style of late Renaissance and early Baroque. Above its main entrance is a balcony supported by stone corbels. In the northern corner of the courtyard, there is a well over 60 meters deep, once accessible through a passage leading from the palace dungeons.
After the death of the last of the Zbaraski princes, Yurii, in 1631, the castle passed to Prince Janusz Wiśniowiecki and then to his son Dmytro. It was the Wiśniowiecki princes who gave the structure its bastion-like character.
In the summer of 1649, Zbarazh became the center of dramatic historical events. The Zaporizhian forces under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, together with their Tatar allies led by Khan Islam-Girey III, surrounded the Polish army near Zbarazh.
The siege lasted for more than six weeks. Ukrainian Cossacks and their allies attempted to take the castle. However, despite their numerical superiority, they failed to breach its formidable walls. Khmelnytsky’s army did not manage to defeat the army of the Polish king, as the monarch swiftly signed a peace agreement with the Khan.
THE TREATY OF ZBORIV
In August of the same year, Khmelnytsky was forced to sign the Treaty of Zboriv — an unfavorable agreement for the Cossacks — a peace deal with King John II Casimir of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which brought an end to the siege of the Polish camp. Under the terms of the treaty, Poland recognized the existence of Cossack Ukraine, but in return demanded the preservation of serfdom on the lands of the Polish Crown (which at the time included the Volhynian and Podolian Voivodeships). Thus, Zbarazh remained under Polish control.
These events were described in the novel With Fire and Sword by the renowned Polish writer and Nobel Prize laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz. In 1999, the famous director Jerzy Hoffman adapted the novel into a film of the same name. In the following years, Cossacks and Tatars repeatedly returned to Zbarazh Castle.
In 1675, the castle was approached by the Janissaries of the Turkish commander Ibrahim Shishman Pasha. They stormed the fortress, completely burned it down, and blew up the defensive walls. As a result, the city was exempted by the Sejm from paying taxes for twelve years. The structure was later restored by Dmytro Yurii Wiśniowiecki.
THE CASTLE AS A FEUDAL ESTATE
After the Wiśniowiecki family, the castle came into the possession of Stanisław Potocki in 1682 and remained in his family until the mid-19th century. Once the powerful Potocki magnates became the new owners, the castle was transformed into an ordinary feudal estate. A lush green garden was laid out, and the town was granted Magdeburg rights.
Tatar raids ceased in 1699, when, under the terms of the Treaty of Karlowitz, Zbarazh — along with many other fortresses in Podillia and Volhynia — was returned to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
However, in 1707, the castle was seized by Muscovite troops and partially destroyed. That same year, Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa and Tsar Peter I passed through here on their way to the city of Zhovkva to meet with Polish King Augustus I… The castle was again damaged by Muscovite forces in 1734.
The current appearance of the castle complex is the result of numerous later reconstructions. The first attempts to restore it date back to 1908, when the government obliged Zbarazh’s owner, Emil Jawec, to begin restoration works. However, nothing came of it.
Actual restoration only began on the eve of World War I, carried out by the castle’s last private owner, Tadeusz Niementowski. But soon after, Muscovite forces returned again — they blew up the casemates and badly damaged the palace…
CASTLE LEGENDS
Zbarazh Castle is shrouded in numerous legends. The most famous one tells of underground tunnels that connected the castle with other fortifications in the region, including the Vyshnevetsky Palace located 25 kilometers away. It is said that during sieges, these tunnels were used to deliver food and reinforcements.
Another legend is about the ghost of Anna. You see, the owners of Zbarazh Castle — brothers Yurii and Kshyshtof Zbaraski — were never married. However, each of them, of course, had women they loved. For generations, stories have been told of mistresses secretly brought to the princes’ bedchambers. Hidden staircases were built inside the thick castle walls, connecting the bedchambers to the underground chambers for these clandestine visits…
One day, Prince Kshyshtof fell in love with a young beauty named Anna. Her appearance closely resembled that of his mother, Princess Anna Chetvertynska. The couple met for several months until one day, Anna confessed she was pregnant. Kshyshtof had no intention of marrying her — she cried and pleaded with him, but the marriage was never part of his plans. In despair, Anna lost her mind.
Eventually, the prince grew tired of her pleas and tears and found a simple solution — he ordered that she be bricked up alive in the castle’s dungeon. According to local guides, to this day, one can still hear Anna’s sobs and moans echo through the castle after midnight. Some even claim that under a full moon, a tall woman with disheveled black hair in a long white gown appears along the walls of Zbarazh Castle…
POST-WAR HISTORY OF THE CASTLE
In the 1920s and 1930s, the reconstruction of the castle was taken up by an organization of Polish reserve officers. There were plans to convert it into a secondary school… Later, in 1935, the castle housed a restaurant — and then World War II broke out. As a result, in 1945, Zbarazh Castle was partially destroyed.
In the post-war period, it was turned into an NKVD prison. Dozens of Ukrainians were executed here, and their bodies were dumped into the well and covered with concrete. Local residents reburied the remains in the cemetery in the early 1990s. Reconstruction of Zbarazh Castle began in 1965, based on a design by Kyiv architect Marionila Moiseyivna Hovdenko. The work continued for about 20 years.
Since 1989, the castle has served as a museum, and it was here that the collections of the Zbarazh District Museum of Local History were transferred. In 1994, by resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Zbarazh State Historical and Architectural Reserve was established, and in 2005 it was granted national status. Today, it is known as the National Reserve «Castles of Ternopil Region».
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