Lubchansky castle

The castle was built in 1581, as evidenced by the weather vane found in it with a date stamped “1581”. The initiator of the construction of the castle was the influential tycoon and lord of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Jan Kishka, who owned Lyubcha. Initially, almost all the buildings of the castle, except for one stone tower that protected the entrance, were wooden. The territory of the castle complex, except for earthen ramparts, was surrounded on three sides by a moat, and on the fourth - by the water of the river.

At the end of the XVI century, the new owner significantly rebuilt the castle: three more stone towers and stone internal buildings were erected, which significantly increased the fortification characteristics of the fortress.

In the middle of the XVII century, the master of the Lubchansky castle was a talented commander, the Great Lithuanian Hetman Janusz Radziwill , who distinguished himself in the war with the Cossacks of Bohdan Khmelnitsky in 1648-1651. However, in 1655, the troops of the hetman Ivan Zolotarenko captured and burned the Lyubchansky castle, destroying two towers, after which it forever lost its significance both as a military fortification and as one of the Radziwills residences ^[1] .

Since then, the castle has repeatedly changed owners, until in the XIX century the remains of the internal buildings were demolished, and in their place, next to the two surviving towers, a two-story palace in the style of the English Gothic Revival was erected, partially destroyed during the First World War . In 1947-1949 Using the foundations and fragments of the walls of the palace, a high school was built. By the middle of the 20th century only two towers survived from the castle ^[1] .

In 1964 , at the school that occupied the palace, a local history museum was organized, the creation of which contributed to the preservation of the history and the remaining buildings of the castle ^[1] .

In 1983 , 1984 , 1986 on the territory of the castle conducted archaeological research Igor Chernyavsky ^[1] .

In 2003 , the Lyubchansky Castle charity foundation was created, which was headed by Ivan Antonovich Pechinsky. Through the efforts of the faculty and students of the Belarusian National Technical University , the development of design documentation for the restoration work in the Lyubchansky castle was carried out ^[1] .

In 2011 , the eastern slope of the castle was unearthed by Irina Ganetskaya , a stone wall was found that went from the gateway to the east tower, towards the town, as well as the remains of the old porch, which was located between the castle wing and the gate tower. In 2012 , Andrei Metelsky studied a section of cleared walls between the entrance and southeast towers. In July 2014, work was carried out to identify the north-western tower, which stood on the steep bank of the Neman. In addition to the foundation of the tower, clothing was found. This is mainly kitchen utensils and stove tiles of the 17th – 19th centuries, ceramic tiles, and occasionally there are glass dishes of the 18th – 19th centuries. it is also planned to open the remains of the fourth - north-western tower and the remains of castle buildings ^[1] .

The Lyubchansky castle complex is located on the left bank of the Neman on a loose hill with an area of ​​about 0.7 hectares, which rises 6-7 meters above the floodplain of the river. In the plan - a rectangle of 64 × 87 m in size, four corner towers, a palace (not preserved) and fortress walls 1.3 m thick created a closed courtyard. The territory is surrounded on three sides by a moat about 30 m wide and 7-10 m deep, and on the fourth - by a river. Such a closed spatial composition was typical of most palace and castle ensembles of the 16th – 18th centuries. Of the four towers of the castle, two were preserved ^[2] . The towers are made of bricks and boulders. In its style, the castle is located on the border of Gothic and Renaissance .

Towers

The main southwestern tower, the so-called The gateway, in terms of cubic (about 10 × 10 m), at about half the height goes into an octagon , completed by a renaissance dome with a lantern. On the wall, oriented to the side of the courtyard, was a clock. The windows of the 2-3rd tiers were adapted for cannon fighting, round loopholes at the top for guns . The remaining floors were used as residential and utility rooms. The overlap of the first floor is vaulted, the second and third - girder ^[2] . There were gates in the tower and there was a lifting wooden bridge ^[2] . In the past, only through it could one get into the castle courtyard. The tower was decorated with a weather vane with the coat of arms of the Radziwills . In its volumetric and spatial composition, this tower is similar to the towers of Mir , Novogrudok and Vitebsk castles ^[3] .

The square in plan (8.3 × 8.3 m) southeast tower was built in the 17th century, has three tiers and is covered by a tent roof ^[2] . On the first floor there were four loopholes for guns, on the second - four cannon, on the third - 12 loopholes for guns. The basement floor of the tower in 1601 was occupied by a brewery with wooden doors on the curtains and an iron grate. the floor, which was above, then played the role of a cellar and was closed with iron-covered doors. The windows were closed with iron bars. The tower was decorated with a weather vane with the coat of arms of the Radziwills ^[3] . In Soviet times, the tower was abandoned and destroyed, only the foundations remained of it. Nowadays restored.

The remains of the north = western tower, excavated during excavations in 2014 , lay at a depth of 3.85-5 m from the level of the modern surface and were fixed into the ground for another 3.5 m. Its dimensions at the base were approximately 11.6 × 12.6 m. The foundation of the tower was composed of huge boulders in two rows to a height of about one meter. Then, walls were erected with a width of about one meter from the outer and inner sides of brick-glove. The space between the walls was filled with broken bricks, lime, boulders and small stones. Renaissance masonry (three-layer) - alternating continuous rows of spoons and pokes. In addition to Lyubcha, it was recorded, for example, during excavations of the fortifications of Vitebsk castle . The tower gradually narrowed and took the form of a truncated cone. At a height of 3.5 m from the base, its dimensions were already 9.4 × 9.4 m. The width of the western, eastern and northern walls of the tower was 2.2 m, and the south - 1.2 m. The internal space of the tower occupied an area of ​​about 30 m² The tower is oriented by walls to the cardinal points. On the south side, it connects to the back of the wall, which goes to the Gate Tower ^[1] .

Palace

In the XIX century. on the territory of the castle there was a stone palace with neo-Gothic features. The palace had a symmetrical three-part composition, which was created by rectangular in plan lateral one-story wings covered with a gable roof (the main two-story volume with a hip roof ). The facades of the main volume were highlighted by risalits : northwest, ending with a pediment , southwest and central, which ended with a parapet . In the places of unfastening and at the corners there were towers decorated with battlements . The walls of the ends of the side wings were completed by step pediments with rectangular openings. The rectangular windows of the palace were decorated with cornices . the main volume housed halls and living rooms, layout - corridor, in the side wings - utility rooms. The interiors of the halls and rooms had rich molding, tiled stoves. Three stairs leading from the first to the second floor were decorated with balusters ^[2] .

Other buildings

On the perimeter of the castle courtyard housed farm buildings. In the eastern part of the fortress wall there was a gate overlooking the second bridge ^[2] . On the site from the southeastern tower to the entrance gate there was a “house on the basement”, three “large buildings” and a “palace” where the officers lived, and a castle distillery nearby ^[3] . Behind the earthen fortifications are two two-story buildings built on the site of ancient buildings of the XVIII - 1st floor. XIX century

• Tkachev, M.A. Castle in Lubche // Castles of Belarus. - Mn. : "Fire", 2007. - 200 p. - 10,000 copies. - ISBN 978-985-01-0706-0 .
• Vyalikae of the Principality of Litoskae: Enceklapedyya. At 3 T. / red. G.P. Pashkoў і іnsh .. - Minsk: Belarussian encyclopedia, 2005. - T. T. 2: Kadetsky corps - Yatskevich. - 788 p.: Il. with. - ISBN 985-11-0378-0 .
• Charyaўskі, I., Saitgareeva, S. Zamak u Lyubcha // Memories of history and culture of Belarus.
• Architects of Belarus: Entsykladpelichny davennik. - Mn. : BelEn, 1993 .-- S. 19-20. - 620 p.: Il p. - ISBN 5-85700-078-5 .
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• Belarussian Encyclapedia: At 18 t. / Redkal .: G.P. Pashkoў іnsh .. - Mn. : BelEn, 1999. - T. 9: Kulibin - Malaita. - S. 400 .-- 560 s. - 10,000 copies. - ISBN 985-11-0155-9 .

• Official site of the foundation "Lyubchansky castle" (belor.)
• Lččany castle Radzima.org (belor.)
• Lubchan Castle on WikiMapia
• Lyubchansky castle on the site "Legends of Belarus" (inaccessible link)
• Attractions on the portal globus.tut.by (inaccessible link)
• The article “Hunting for Landmarks: Lyubcha” on Interfax.by (inaccessible link)