Starozaslavsky Castle is the only partially preserved building of the castle complex of the 15th century, located in the old part of the city of Izyaslav in Volyn at the confluence of the Soshenya River to the Goryn River.
History
The construction of the Starozaslavsky castle in the 15th century is associated with the name of Prince Vasily Fedorovich the Red (*? - after 1461).
The existence of the castle at the designated time is also indicated by the fact that the Zaslavl castle books were kept since 1512. Books for 1572-1575 is still a valuable source on the history of the Zaslavskaya volost, which, in addition to the city of Zaslav, in the second half of the 16th century. included 70 more towns and villages.
In the future, Starozaslavsky Castle is mentioned in documents dated August 21, 1533 and 1535. However, among scientists involved in architectural research, there is an erroneous dating of the structure, conditionally "castle", in 1539, thus identifying it with the Zaslavska storeroom (customs), which was first mentioned on August 15, 1539.
Volyn ethnographer of the XIX century. Nikolai Teodorovich wrote about this structure in the following way: “In the middle of the old city, on a high mountain, above the Goryne River, a stone structure of ancient architecture rises. According to Stetsky, once it was the prince's treasury. However, perhaps it was a fortress for the imprisonment of criminals and prisoners of war of the Tatars, or maybe it was an arsenal where weapons were kept in peacetime."
The structure, which we can observe in the photographs of the first half of the 20th century, acquired during the reign of Prince Pavel Karl Sanushkova (* 1680 - 1750) and his wife Barbara Sanushkova (* 1718 - 1791). A brick second floor and a tower in front of the western entrance were completed. It is plausible that the work was supervised by the court architect Paolo Fontana. Although, in this case, the completion, perhaps, did not go without the participation of Frederic Opitz.
During the time of tsarist Russia, the building was used as an army warehouse. Grain was stored on the second floor, as indicated by the structure of the roof.
The castle did not change its purpose during the Soviet era either; it remained a warehouse and was slowly losing its appearance. First, the roof collapsed, and then he was completely left unattended. During the 20th century, the soil was repeatedly chosen from Detynets. The last time in the late 1990s, to fill up the neighboring hill, on which the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of Christ was being rapidly reduced, the actions of excavators were stopped by the deputy of the city council Vitaly Klimchuk, together with several young Slavs, but a few years later, when the equipment of the Izyaslavsky housing and communal enterprise destroyed the western tower, There was no one to stop the vandals.
In 1994, research carried out by the archaeologist Mikhail Nikitenk directly on Detinets, starting from the town of Soshen and almost close to the Bernardine monastery, localized the old Russian city (late 11th – 12th - first half of the 13th centuries).
In 2006, the Ukrainian state allocated funds for the preservation and restoration of the castle for the first time. The funds were quickly "used". The rubble on the second floor was removed, and gratings and a fence around the structure were installed. Now part of the grate is no longer there, the gates are wide open, the townspeople continue to quietly plant potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke and corn on Detinets, funding was stopped. In recent years, the castle has been repeatedly attacked by building material hunters and black archaeologists. The main damage occurred to the northern facade of the building.
Description
The structure has a two-story rectangular (almost square) shape. Only the first floor and stone cellars are authentic. The second floor is brick built in the 18th century. The first floor is divided into two equal parts thanks to a wide passage oriented along the north-south axis, on either side of which there are three rooms. The windows of the first floor were repeatedly walled up. Both floors are interconnected by in-wall channels, the functional purpose of which has not yet been studied. It is speculated that they could have been used for lifts. Although it is also possible as a hood for powder smoke. The uniqueness of the structure lies in the so-called isolation of levels. Once on the first floor, it is impossible to climb from it to the second.
The castle was entered in the State Register of National Cultural Heritage, security number 757/0.
