Location:
Halych town
GPS coordinates: 49.121767 24.730453
Halych castle was built in the middle of the 14th century. However, his predecessor was first mentioned in 1114 as a fortified citadel. Archaeologists believe that at first it was a wooden building structure that later turned into a castle of the Halychyna princes (12th -14th centuries).
It is unknown who and when had destroyed the princely wooden castle. The reconstruction of the castle, as a defensive outpost of the Halych administrative area, began in the middle of 14th century, after Halychyna and Western Volhyn went to Poland. Some historical sources connect the construction of the wooden-land castle to Kazimir Velykyi, while others claim that the Volhyn governor Lubart built it in 1350-1352. In any case, it is known that Halychyna castle was rebuilt for almost a century and from the end of the 14th to the 15th centuries, it was one of the largest in Halychyna.
During the 15th-16th centuries, the Vlachs, Ukrainians, and Tatars repeatedly tried to take over the fortress. At the end of the 16th century, the castle was burned down. Triangle shape castle of stones and bricks was built on its place. From 1590 to 1633, Tatars and Turks had attacked Halychyna 29 times. The most devastating were the attacks in 1594, 1612, 1624. After repeated devastations and destructions it was necessary to restore and repair the castle buildings. In the 17th century, the elder Andrzej Pototski started this process. An Italian engineer, an infantry officer of the Crown Troops, François Corassini had developed the plan for the reconstruction.
During the Polish-Ottoman war in 1676, Ibrahim Pasha Troops, took over the castle. The Turks robbed it and a part of the defensive walls was blown up into the air. Subsequently, the castle was rebuilt. Due to construction of a new fortress in Stanislaviv city, Halychyna fortress lost its defensive value and was abandoned. According to the decree of the governor in 1767, part of the surviving walls was dismantled, and materials were used for building a city near the pier.
From the late castle of 16th century till our days, only ruins of the 5-sided corner (west) tower walls had survived at the level of the second tier as well as the remains of a defensive wall with loopholes. Numerous basements have been preserved on the territory.
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