Architecture of Defensive Gates of Western Ukraine Castles in the 16th – 17th Centuries

Abstract

On the territory of Ukraine there have been preserved a number of castles which as relics of cultural heritage are attractive tourist landmarks. In modern information sphere, alongside great number of historical-descriptive sources on the castles of Ukraine, there is a market lack for the results of comparative and typological analysis of their defensive structures. In particular, investigation of the architecture of the castle entrance junctions as predominant structures of the castle complexes reflecting its representative and defensive functions is topical. The objectives of the investigation are: to determine the state of preservation of entrance gates in the castles of the 16th − 17th centuries in Western Ukraine; to define forming preconditions and factors in the period of their military functioning and after it; to identify and describe types of volumetric-spatial characteristics of the castle gates on the basis of the patterns of the systems of defensive structures organization formed in the history of military art; to characterize elements of entrance junctions (structures in front of the gates, external fortifications, lifting bridges) and external decoration of gate structures. As a result of the investigation, the degree of entrance gates preservation has been found. We have discovered that out of the whole range of castles functioning as defensive structures in the mid – 16th − 17th centuries in the western region of Ukraine only in the 9 of them there are gates with the integral volumetric-spatial structure operating as part of museum complexes and other public buildings; 8 gates are in ruins, still they have preserved volumetric-spatial structure; other 7 castle gates have preserved only separate fragments as part of the later structures or as ruins. Five variants of volumetric-spatial structure of the gates have been defined and analyzed. Relying on the structural analysis of the preserved gates and historical sources, we have found out that within the period of the 16th − 17th centuries when application of the firearms on the investigated territory was widespread, in the castles along with the prevailing number of structures characteristic of the bastion DS (defence system) there continued to function separate earlier structures peculiar to the tower and bastei DS. This is explained by the fact that some castles were laid down before the investigated period, which offers possibility of further investigation with the aim of going into the constructional history of the examined castles.