Hello dear stemiants!

Today I saw the relay from @homeartpictures #LostPlacesFriday on Steemit, and this is my contribution to this. In your time, something is always popular or just necessary. For example, defensive fortresses.

For example, like this castle. This is the Starosilsky Castle - one of the largest fortification buildings in Ukraine. In the people we call the castle in the Old Village (Pustomyty district, Lviv region). Despite the abandoned state, the fortress still impresses with its scale and grandeur. Unfortunately, he stands beside the tourist routes and only passengers of trains passing by, enthusiastically admiring his beauty and occasionally it is visited by single tourists.

 

This monument of the defensive architecture of the 16th-17th centuries was built to protect the Tatars from the south-easterly ways to Lviv. The first fortification on the territory of the Old Village in the form of a wooden castle was built in 1448. Jan Zawish, who received these lands in inheritance from his father Zavisha Chornyi from Garbovy, and the one who in turn bought them in 1401 at King Volodislav Yagaila.

 

The built castle was not at all like the current giant: its area was considerably inferior to the present, and the walls were wooden, which became the reason for its fall during the next Tatar invasion in 1498. Then the castle was burned, and the town was destroyed.

Several times the  fortress was destroyed and restored, completed.

There was erected a beautiful south parade gate of the castle. The height of the walls of the fortress reached 8 meters and ended with an attic. The fronts of the six towers were decorated with Baroque carvings in a stone that has survived to our time in the eastern tower.

The castle was rebuilt in 1654, and so powerful that it was able to withstand the siege of the Cossacks and the great Turkish army in 1672.

Stone walls were not the only obstacle on the way to the castle. Hardwood was in the plain, but surrounded by swamps. Additional protection was provided by the earth's fortifications - the bastions with moats, which were filled with water, and its surroundings were plentiful.

On the perimeter of the walls there was a defensive gallery for the castle garrison. In the castle yard there was a chapel, palace and business premises. From the documents of the XVII century it is known that at that time the castle had 8 guns, 13 mozdir, many guns, self-propelled and cold weapons.

Subsequently, the extensive reconstruction of the Starosil Castle was never carried out. And it is thrown back and destroyed by the winds and rain and time. Maybe its function is no longer needed.