In the small town of Medzhibizh located in western Ukraine 25 kilometers from the Khmelnytskyi there is a wonderful castle which luminous and crenellated profile lends a peculiar and enchanting appearance. It was built between the Bug and the Buzhok rivers in 14th c. on the place of older wooden fortress which was destroyed in 1255.
It was rebuilt in the 16th century when the region came under the control of the Sieniawski and Potocki Polish noble families. Work began in 1540 on the stone fortifications which can still be seen today. A dam was built upon the Southern Bug river to create a defensive lake, as well as a rhomboid castle with four towers. These state of the art fortifications made Medzhybizh Castle one of the strongest military installations in the region and aided its prosperity over the next three centuries.
During the Polish-Turkish wars Medzhibozhsky castle occupied Cossacks, Poles, Turks. And in one hand, he was no more than one year: in 1648 - in the hands of rebel Cossack regiments Maxim Krivonos and Daniel by accident, in 1649 - the Poles, in 1650, the castle captures Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and then takes him out in 1653. Since the fortress passed from hand to hand for 30 years.
From 1672 to 1699, Medzhybizh and the whole of Podillia was occupied by the Turks.
In 1730, after the death of the last of the male line Senyavskaya, Medzhibozh with castle came into the possession of Prince Czartoryski, Sofia Senyavskaya husband, sister of the deceased prince. Czartoryski undertook the restoration of the complex. The church was rebuilt in Baroque forms.
In 1831, for having participated in the August Czartoryski Polish uprising Medzhibozh, like other estates, he was seized. The castle became the center of the quartering of Russian military units. At that time, the church was reconsecrated in the Orthodox Church.
The castle experienced its most glamorous times at the turn of the 19th-20th century when part of it was turned into the quarters of the Russian Hussars, a cavalry unit, and the main hall hosted balls for the local nobility. Even Russian Emperor Alexander II visited the White Swan.
But when World War I started, the Hussars left the fortress and never came back.
In the Soviet times it was home to a warehouse, a machine-tractor station, a creamery and even a prison as result it was not properly maintained or repaired and castle itself have turned almost into ruins.
At present, the premises of the castle are two museum of local lore and Holodomor 1932-33 .
Medzhibizh Castle on Google map
 |
