THE CASTLE OF CZARTORYSKI PRINCES IN KLEVAN: STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT, PLANNING AND BUILDINGS

Abstract

Based on a comprehensive analysis of written, archaeological and architectural sources the article considers the main stages of Klevan castle development, and considers its planning and buildings. According to archeological sources, the site of the settlement of the Kyiv Rus period was used to build the castle. According to the written sources, there were three stages of the erection of the castle. In the first stage (the first quarter of the 16th century), Prince Fedir Mykhailovych Czartoryski began the construction of a castle on the old settlement site, where, perhaps, there had already been a farmstead. In the second stage (the second quarter of the 16th century), due to the conflict with Radziwills, the construction was stopped but the castle functioned and the settlement was developed. In the third stage (the 60s of the 16th century), Prince Ivan Fedorovych Czartoryski completed the construction of the castle. The Klevan castle consisted of two parts — a citadel and the adjacent settlement. The information on the castle planning is contained in the inventories of 1700 and 1709. The earliest description of 1609 describes the defense, housing, religious and economic facilities in the territory of the citadel. It was surrounded by a wall, had two brick towers and a wooden one. Most of the buildings were located on the perimeter of the fortifications; the central part housed the princes’ palace and a church. According to the inventories of 1700 and 1709, the settlement was located to the north and east of the citadel and occupied the territory on the hill where now the Church of the Nativity of Christ is located and, probably, the area occupied by estates on Horodyshche street. The citadel was surrounded by a rampart and oak fence; there was a chapel and a garden around it, outbuildings, the Greek-Catholic Church of the Nativity, and the entrance gate. The analysis of the planning, fortifications and buildings of the Klevan castle allows to conclude that in the last third of the 16th — early 17th century, it was one of the most powerful private castles in Volhynia.