The Kamenetsk tower ( Belorussian. Kamyanetskaya tower , mistakenly [1] : White tower ) is the best-preserved defensive tower of the Volyn type [2] [3] and at the same time the highest (about 31 meters). Built in 1271 - 1288 years . Monument of the Romanesque style with elements of early Gothic . It is located in the city of Kamenets ( Brest region , Belarus ).
| Tower | |
| Kamenetsk tower | |
|---|---|
| Belor. Kamyanetsky vezha, White | |
| A country | |
| Location | |
| Architectural style | and |
| Founder | Olexa |
| Building | 1271 - 1288 years |
| Status | Memorial |
| Height | 31 m |
| Material | |
 | Object of the State list of historical and cultural values of the Republic of Belarus Code: 110G000321 |
The tower is a memorial, since 1960 there is a branch of the Brest Regional Museum.
Content
History
In the article of the Galicia-Volyn annals for 1276, news is given about the founding of Kamenets by the Volyn Prince Vladimir Vasilkovich :
| And then God put a good thought into the heart of Prince Vladimir, he thought to set up a city somewhere beyond Berestye. |
According to the prince’s order, the “city slave” of Olex was sent to build a new city. Under his leadership, a “pillar of stones with a height of 17 fathoms was built. It is like a surprise to all those who see it. ” The construction time, based on the Galician-Volyn annals , is considered to be the period from 1276 to 1288 .
In the XIV century. the tower withstood many times the raids of the crusaders, the assaults of the troops of the Polish and Lithuanian princes. In the XVII century. ruthless battles unfolded near the walls of the Kamenetz Castle between the armies of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , Sweden and the Russian state (in 1661, Kamenetz was even exempted from paying taxes for 4 years).
The tower served as a warehouse and an arsenal - in the lower, coldest tiers, stored provisions, in the upper, next to the battlefield - weapons and ammunition. Free space was occupied by fighters. The tower survived many raids, but it suffered not from warriors, but from looters, who in the 18th century got into the habit of breaking bricks out of it for household needs.
With the improvement of technology, the tower has lost its defensive value. The inventory of the XVIII century depicts a sad picture of abandonment: “The lower tier without doors and some kind of closure; the tower is walled up from above, it is destroyed inside, there are no windows in the windows (1728). ”Like many historical and architectural monuments, they tried to disassemble it into a brick in 1822, but could not: the bunch and calcareous bricks were so solidified over the centuries that the whole tower as if turned into one big stone.
The tower was inside the ring shaft and dominated the wooden fortifications. A swampy lowland approached the fortifications from the side of the river, and a moat surrounded them on three sides. The remains of the earthen rampart and wooden castle finally disappeared in 1903, during restoration and excavation. According to the project of architect V.V.Suslov , a three-meter layer of earth was removed around the tower, as a result of which its first tier, which was previously mistakenly considered a basement, was again found on the surface. However, during excavation, the ancient rampart and moat disappeared without a trace. At the same time, the arches between the first and second tiers were dismantled and replaced with wooden beams. Bricks for restoration of battlements and walls (about 10 thousand pieces) were ordered from the peasant Motykalsky volost S. Dranyuk. An experienced craftsman A. Artishevsky was invited from Grodno to carry out excavation and brickwork. Around the tower, an earthen rampart was poured and lined with stone. In this form, the monument has survived to the present day. In the early 1950s, the tower was first whitewashed, and the floor was paved with stone. Restoration work was carried out in the tower also in 1968-1973 and 1996-2003.
Architecture
The tower is round in plan, with a diameter of 13.6 m and a wall thickness of 2.5 m, its height is 29.4 m. There is a tower on a strong foundation about 2.3 m high, 16 m in diameter. It is composed of block bricks of dark red and yellowish flowers with characteristic oblong grooves in the lower part. “Baltic” masonry - two “spoons” are successively alternated with one “poke”. Outside, a large number of rectangular grooves from the “fingers” of the forests remained on the walls. Inside, recesses from wooden beams - ceilings of five tiers. The overlappings of the second and third tiers were double. The tower has five tiers (floors) connected by stairs, on which it was possible to place a significant number of soldiers. Having an exclusively defensive purpose, the Kamenetsk tower is deprived of any architectural decorations.
Towers of a similar nature and purpose were built in the 13th century. in Polotsk , Turov , Novogrudok , on the territory of the Old Castle in Grodno , on the castle of ancient Berestye .
References in the literature
E. Kotik wrote:
The town of Kamenetz, where I was born, is famous for its ancient historical tower. No one knows where it came from. It is believed that this is the remainder of the former fortress. This tower is brick, with thick walls, high, with loopholes for shooting from guns and rifles. Back in the days of my grandfather, they found kernels weighing ten pounds - a sign that once they actually shot through the loopholes. The bricks of this tower were so strong that it was impossible to break a single piece from them. In Kamenetz they say that the bricks of the tower were made on egg squirrel, so it is so strong ... When Tsar Alexander II, along with European princes, hunted in Belovezhskaya Pushcha seven miles from Kamenets, all the ministers and generals came to the town to look at this historic tower.
Gallery
- Kamenetsk tower on the images of the XIX century
1st half of the 19th century
Unknown artist, mid-19th century
Napoleon Horde , 1876
Lithograph of Napoleon Horde, 1876
See also
- Castles of Belarus
Notes
- ↑ Kamenetsk tower. Archived August 24, 2014 on Wayback Machine
- ↑ Previously, a tower was often defined as a dungeon , but modern authors reject this definition, since the tower did not fulfill the function of permanent housing.
See Makara M. Yes. The torture of the right to the term "donjon" in the Belarusian gistarichnay literature // Gistarychny almanac. - T. 5. - 2001. - S. 54-67. (belor.)
Dzyarnovich A. Zamak // Vyalikae of the Principality of Lithuania. Enceclapedia at 3 t . - Mn. : BelEn , 2005. - T. 1: Abalenskі - Kadentsya. - S. 643-646. - 684 p. - ISBN 985-11-0314-4 . - ↑ A. Kushnyaevich proposes to classify the Volyn-type towers as bergfried . See Kushnyarevich A.M. Gistoryka-architec tural directory of the durastychna durastychna abalonchika dvoylstva ON ON // Belarusian gistarychny chasopis. - No. 12. - 2005. - S. 36. (Belor.)
Literature
- Enceclapedia gistory Belarus. At 6 tons .. - Mn. : BelEn, 1997. - T. 4. - 432 p.: Il p. - ISBN 985-11-0041-2 .
Links
- Kamenetsk Tower - Site of the Kamenets Tower Museum
- “From the History of the Kamenetz Tower” - Architectural Monuments of Belarus
- "Kamenetskaya Vezha" - Website of the city of Kamenets
- Kamenetsk tower on the official website of the Republic of Belarus
- “From the History of the Kamenetz Tower” - Architectural Monuments of Belarus