HYPOTHETICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PLANNING STRUCTURE AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE HIGH DEFENSIVE WALL OF THE MIDTOWN OF LVIV FOR THE 13th-14th CENTURY

Abstract

Lviv is one of the cities in Ukraine that had a highly developed system of medieval fortifications. This system of fortifications was built in the XIII-XIV centuries, modernized many times and served until the 18th century. However, today in Lviv, only small remains of the medieval fortifications of the city center have been preserved in the form of architectural objects - several fragments of the defensive wall and only one defensive tower, which was rebuilt into a tower in the 16th century. These preserved objects belong to the so-called High defensive wall. These are: a fragment of the lower part of the defensive wall on 16 Svobody Avenue, a fragment of the wall and the Povoroznyk tower (connected to the building of the City Arsenal), a fragment of the wall on the Pidvalna Street (to the Royal Arsenal is attached), a fragment of the wall and the remains of the corner Rymarska tower, the remains of the foundations of the corner Shevska tower, a preserved and superimposed fragment of the wall near the Vienna coffee house (12 Svobody avenue), the remains of the wall in the basements of the building on 9 Mickiewicz Square. The rest of the remains of the High Wall are underground in the state of archaeological objects. These unique objects of military construction are not registered as architectural monuments. Also, they are not listed as monuments of archeology. Every fragment of city defense fortifications preserved today is, as a rule, a valuable document of its era and requires careful protection and preservation. Therefore, the study of the architecture of the medieval defense complex of the Lviv city center, which was created before the appearance of firearms, is important both for the history of the city and for the history and theory of domestic military architecture. This paper presents an analysis of the first stage of the construction of the High Defense Wall around the Lviv midtown and presents a hypothesis regarding its architectural solution. Special attention is paid to the issue of the planning structure of the fortified belt. The hypothesis that initially the defensive contour of the High Wall had a rounded shape has been substantiated. The argumentation about the towerless nature of the defensive belt at the first stage of the development of its fortifications is presented. There were two gates at the first stage of the construction of fortifications, which were called Tatarska and Halytska. The architectural solution of the gates was specific. The gate was formed by two towers (semicircular in plan). The gate-entrance with drawbridge was located between two high towers. At the second stage of development, the defensive High Wall was modernized, raised and a number of defensive towers were built. At the third stage, the planning scheme of the fortified belt changes. The line of the High Wall in the eastern span acquires a rectangular character with outward-projecting towers and corner towers.