Skala-Podilskyi Castle

Skala-Podilskyi Castle is an architectural monument of national importance, located in the urban-type settlement of Skala-Podilska on a high rocky cliff on the right bank of the Zbruch River, which determined its elongated shape and natural protection from three sides. On the only accessible southern side, the castle had a deep moat, a stone wall with a protruding semi-circular powder tower, and an entrance gate with a drawbridge; across the courtyard stood a two-story rectangular palace. The history of the stronghold dates back to an ancient Rus settlement, and the first stone castle was built by the Lithuanian Koriatovych princes in the 1370s. From 1443, Skala became a royal starostvo (crown estate), and from 1515, the castle belonged to Stanislaw Lanckoronski, who fortified it, although in the early 16th century it was repeatedly destroyed as a result of Tatar invasions and an attack by the Vlachs. In the middle of the 16th century, the castle was thoroughly rebuilt according to the New Dutch system (bastion type), but again suffered significant destruction from the Cossacks (1648) and Prince George II Rákóczi (1657), and completely fell into decay after the capture of Podillia by the Turks in 1672. In the first half of the 18th century, starosta Adam Tarło rebuilt a Baroque palace on the ruins of the previous building, which was soon burned down by lightning, and from the end of the 18th century until 1939, the castle belonged to the Gołuchowski family. To this day, the four-tiered powder tower, a part of the defensive walls, the ruins of the tower over the Zbruch River, and the remains of the palace have survived.