Through the haze of centuries we see the pointed helmets of city towers, impregnable castles dressed in strong chain mail of fortifications, we see brave warriors with weapons in their hands.
There are many such witnesses of antiquity on the land of Belarus. Touch their stunned old walls with your hand - the warmth of the life of distant ancestors will quietly flow into your heart and fill it with love, pride and respect for the unknown and well-known folk builders, whose skillful hands turned and hewn overwhelming boulders, fell down trees that were inaccessible to enemies of the citadel. These laboring hands defended the cities.
The people called their fortifications castles. The word lock is akin to the word lock. And the ancient fortifications were truly real locks, to unlock, to pick up the keys to which the enemy most often was not within his power.
The architectural and artistic appearance of the Belarusian medieval castles always specific and individual. Each of the monuments has its own rich history, its own construction biography. But they are related and united by one thing: labor heroism and military courage of the people, original talent and colossal work of builders - "dobroderevtsy", "murals", "doylids", diggers - "diggers", "dolokopov", "murmeisters" and "walmeysters"
Zaslavsky castle
Zaslavl Castle is one of the earliest bastion castles in Belarus, built in the middle of the 16th century by the Glebovich princes near the city of Zaslavl (modern Minsk region of Minsk region of Belarus).
In the XIV-XVII centuries. firearms acquired great importance, which began to play a major role during the siege of cities and castles. The use of artillery in battle caused an increase in the thickness of the walls and the diameter of the towers, as well as a further significant improvement in the fortification system. At the end of the 15th century. fortifiers invented the bastions, which revolutionized the defense system. This system first appeared in Italy at the end of the 15th century.
Ruins of the castle gates.
In the XVI-XVII centuries. the bastion system of fortifications quickly spread throughout Europe, including Belarus and Lithuania. Here, based on local building traditions, it has been reinterpreted.
One of the first bastion structures in Belarus should be considered castle of princes Glebovich in Zaslavl. It was located north of the city and on a high hillock occupied an area of 200X100 m. It is rectangular in plan, the castle was once separated from the "place" by a rather wide and deep moat with water. The system of ponds on the Knyaginka River significantly raised the water level and actually turned the castle into an island fortification.
Researchers of the XIX century. K. Tyshkevich and R. Ignatiev, who in their time studied these fortifications in detail, testify that the bastions and curtains of the Zaslavsky castle were lined with stone and brick, the curtains had intermediate bastions. This, by the way, is clearly visible on the plan of the castle, taken in 1840 by K. Tyshkevich. In the 70s of the XIX century. R. Ignatiev noted that additional bastions made of stone, brick and earth, locals dismantled for construction needs. At that time, in different parts of the rampart, there were still remains of stone walls (most likely a stone parapet), which adjoined the bastions.
A stone cross on the site of the ancient "Zamechka" - a castle of the 10-11th centuries, where Rogneda was exiled with his son Izyaslav.
Near the southeastern bastion there was a two-story entrance castle gate, traditional for the lands of Belarus. The thickness of its walls reached 2 m. It was closed by double gates at the entrance and exit, well flanked from the corner bastion.
Tile with the coat of arms of the Sapieha from the Zaslavsky settlement.
There was a prison in the form of a long stone tunnel... The castle was connected with the place by a wooden bridge, the last span of which, obviously, was raised by a special gate. Thus, the Zaslavsky castle is an example of an old Italian fortification system of fortifications and can be dated to the middle of the 16th century.
The Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior, located inside the castle, had a number of loopholes in the upper part of the walls, which were later laid during the rebuilding. In addition, the thirty-meter tower of the temple, which additionally served as an observation post of the castle, had six tiers of loopholes.
Most likely, it was built during the reign of Ivan Glebovich, who owned Zaslavl and built a reformist church here. Its 35-meter tower, added later, had loopholes, which further strengthened the castle's defenses. Today it houses a museum of folk crafts.
Golshany castle
Castle ruins
In the north-west of Belarus, a few kilometers from Lithuania, there is the village of Golshany, which historians also call a museum under open air... The architectural appearance of Golshan has practically not changed since ancient times.
The name of the village comes from the first owners - the princes of Golshansk, who came from a famous and influential family of the Lithuanian principality. Men of the Golshansk family held senior government positions, and women visited the throne of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. So, Ulyana Golshanskaya married the Grand Duke Vitovt Keistutovich, and Sofya Golshanskaya married his cousin, the Polish king Vladislav Jagiello, becoming the ancestor of a whole dynasty of kings - the Jagiellons.
However, the relations with the royal and grand-ducal throne among the princes of Golshansk were rather difficult. In 1481, the Orthodox princes Ivan Golshansky,
Fyodor Belsky and Mikhail Olelkovich, dissatisfied with the oppression, organized a conspiracy against the Polish king Casimir Jagiellonchik, the youngest son of Jagiello and Sophia Golshanskaya. The conspiratorial princes planned to kill the monarch at Belsky's wedding, after which they seized power in the country, handing over the throne to Prince Mikhail Olelkovich. In case of failure, the conspirators planned to separate their possessions from the Lithuanian principality and annex them to the Moscow principality, swearing allegiance to the Moscow prince Ivan III. 
However, on the eve of the assassination attempt, the conspiracy was discovered, Golshansky and Olelkovich were executed, and Belsky managed to escape to Moscow. Since then, the Golshansk family has died out, and the estate has become the property of another powerful family - the Sapegas.
Until now, on the outskirts of Golshany, the ruins of the residence of the magnate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Pavel Stefan Sapieha rise. Once the "Black Castle Olshansky", sung in the novel by Vladimir Korotkevich, was the most beautiful in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Tall six-sided towers with spiers, ceramic-tiled floors, tapestry walls - this is what this architectural masterpiece was.
The personality of Pavel Stefan Sapieha himself also attracts researchers. A knight without fear or reproach, the closest friend of King Stephen Batory, he participated in many military campaigns of the late 16th - early 17th centuries. Under King Sigismund III Vasa, Pavel Stefan made a dizzying political career, taking the post of Sub-Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which allowed him to play a prominent role in the public life of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In what Pavel Stefan Sapega was unlucky, it was personal life- there is even an opinion that he was a local "blue beard". However, this version does not correspond to reality: it's just that Pavel Stefan's three wives - Khaletskaya, Alzhbeta Veselina, Ekaterina Oslavskaya - died early, and the tycoon had no choice but to marry again.
Knight's tournament near the ruins of the castle
Only the last, fourth wife, Sofya Danilovich, was able to outlive her husband, burying him in a previously prepared tomb in the Franciscan cathedral. By the way, the details of the tombstone are on display in the Golshany Museum, and the stone figures of Pavel Stefan and his three wives were transported to Minsk - they can still be seen in the Museum of Ancient Belarusian Culture.
Reconstruction of the castle
Fate did not give Pavel Stefan an heir: from his marriage to Alzhbeta Veselina, he had three daughters. Two of them, Eudoxia and Theophilia, became nuns. The youngest, Christina, married Jan Chodkiewicz. Fate did not spare the family nest itself - the masterpiece of architecture of the Belarusian Renaissance eventually turned into ruins. However, even now the grassy ruins bear the stamp of their former grandeur, making an indelible impression on tourists.
The Golshany stone castle was erected in the first half of the 17th century. Its composition vaguely resembles the Mir Castle and is a rectangular building (88.6 x 95.6 m). Residential buildings with towers at the corners form, as in Mir, a closed square courtyard. In Golshany, there is no longer a gate tower, and the angular hexagonal steel is smaller.
They mainly housed residential and utility rooms. The basis of the castle's defense was powerful earthen ramparts and moats filled with water. The passage to the castle was in the center of one of the buildings, the facade of which was distinguished by monumental simplicity. The arched portal was framed with archivolt. Opposite the entrance, on the opposite side of the courtyard, there was a small chapel built into a residential building.
The composition of the external facade of the Golshany castle resembles some Dutch castles near Antwerp. This similarity is explained by the fact that Belarus, being a part of the Commonwealth, felt a rather powerful influence of Dutch-Flemish architecture. This is the result of lively cultural and commercial ties with the countries of Western Europe. Since the end of the XVI century. until the beginning of the 18th century. on the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the residences of the magnates were built with a suite of rooms, arcade galleries and corner towers. According to this principle, in particular, they were built at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century. Polish castles Baranov, Krasicin, Suha.
Much of what was in Golypany was destroyed and lost forever. It can only be argued that to the right of the entrance there was a large square hall with four columns on which the cross vaults rested. Once upon a time, these walls were decorated with portraits of representatives of the Sapieha family, paintings and weapons. In the windows overlooking the castle courtyard, there were stained-glass windows of thick glass. Stone floor slabs were in harmony with luxurious carpets, armchairs, marble tables, bronze candlesticks. Small rooms in the towers were decorated with rich moldings.
The walls of other halls and living quarters of the castle, columns and window openings were decorated with murals. There were huge vaulted cellars under the castle. Contemporaries considered the Golshany castle the most beautiful in Belarus and Lithuania.
During the Northern War, the castle was destroyed by the Swedes. In 1880, its last owner, Gorbanev, blew up the towers and walls, and used bricks to build a tavern. Partially survived two towers and the eastern wing of the palace
If you visit Belarus, be sure to visit Golshany! Go under the arches of the Sapieha castle, walk along the echoing monastic corridors, see the museum exhibits, immerse yourself in the mysterious atmosphere of the past centuries. And, leaving, leave a bunch of fresh flowers in front of the monastery wall
Kossovo castle (also known as the Puslovskys' palace) - the ruins of the castle, located in Kossovo (Ivatsevichi district, Brest region, Belarus). 
The palace and the surrounding park were founded in 1838 according to the project of the architect F. Yaschold. V. Marconi took part in the construction of the palace. 132 rooms were arranged in the palace. The famous industrial tycoon of the 19th century, Count Puslovsky, also showed his energy in the construction of a palace residence (1838), which looked more like a majestic castle in one of his multiple possessions - Kossovo (Ivanetsky district, Brest region).
However, the fate of the palace is rather sad: after the 1963 uprising, the castle passed into the possession of the Moscow princes Trubetskoy and Oldenburgsky; during the First World War it was torn apart, then used as an administrative building, and after the Great Patriotic War to this day, one might say, in ruins ...
There are several projects for the restoration and reconstruction of the palace, but this event costs a lot of labor and money ... Is it worth it? It may be enough to put in order what has been preserved ... To renovate the facade, to lay out the park - the same one that was conceived during the construction of the palace, to build a hotel, a parking lot, a "tavern". 
The palace was built at his own expense by the voivode Kazimir Puslovsky, but his grandson lost the palace at cards.
He suffered greatly during the Great Patriotic War - he was burned by the partisans.
Krevo castle
In the valley between high hillocks, in a low meadow, at the confluence of the Krevyanka and Shlyakhtyanka rivers, it arose in the 30s of the XIV century. stone castle of the Krevsky principality. Then the son of Gediminas, Olgerd, ruled here (he lived in the castle from 1338 to 1345).
With its layout, this interesting monument military architecture of the XIV century, located in the Smorgon district of the Grodno region, resembles the Lida castle. Its shape is an irregular trapezoid, with a large base facing the floor side. From the east, south and partly from the west and north, the castle was protected by the waters of the Krevyanka and Shlyakhtyanka, blocked by a dam.
As in Lida, there were only two towers placed diagonally. However, the Krevo Castle has a 30-centimeter base. It lies on a pillow made of oak and spruce poles and branches. The bottom of the stone foundation of the northern wall is built on clay. The castle walls are made of stone up to a height of 4 m. Above (and only from the outside) - 65 cm thick brickwork, and the base of the wall is the same boulder. Inside the western wall, as well as in the walls of the Prince's Tower, holes from the beams of the internal wooden connection have been preserved. They ran parallel to the route of the walls and were intended to strengthen them, to prevent uneven settlement and other dynamic influences. 
Previously, the height of the walls of the Krevsky castle reached 12-13 m. Now only some of their fragments (on the north side) have a height of about 10 m. The principle of organizing the fire is the same as in the Lida castle. At a height of 10 m along the entire perimeter on wooden beams there was a battle gallery - a platform. The defenders of the castle fired through the loopholes placed by the black every 2.4 m.
At the junction of the eastern and southern walls, from the inside, there was another tower with a size of 11X10.6 m (it was erected later), which had at least four floors. 
In the southern wall of the Krevsky castle, as in Lida, there is an emergency exit opening. Its width reached 2.8 m, and its height - 4.2 m.
Another emergency passage was in the western wall. At the very bottom, it is cut through by a lancet-shaped opening 2.2 m wide and 2.5 m high. Some researchers consider it to be an “inlet” for water that filled the pond (“planter”) on the territory of the castle courtyard. But if we take into account the functional feasibility and size of the opening, then it becomes clear that it could be an emergency course. 
During excavations in the castle courtyard, a lot of ceramics of the XIV-XVII centuries, terracotta and glazed tiles, fragments of glass products, tiles, weapons, and remnants of outbuildings were found.
The Krevo Castle has witnessed and is the site of many historical events. Soon after its construction, it was attacked. The remains of a burnt battle gallery and stone cores found during excavations under the western wall leave no doubt about it. In 1382, in the dungeon of the central tower, on the orders of Jagaila, his "uncle" - Prince Keistut, the main contender for the Grand Duke's throne, was strangled.
In 1385, the conditions for the unification of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland under the rule of Jagaila (Krevsk Union) were worked out in the Krevsky castle. In 1433, the rebellious prince Svidrigailo took possession of Krev, claiming the grand ducal table. “And I came to Kreva,” the chronicle says, “and stood there for 2 days, taking Kreva and burned it, but he cut a lot of people and drove them full of people.” In 1503-1506 the castle was besieged more than once and was significantly damaged by the Perekop Tatars. Almost at this time, the traveler and diplomat Sigismund Herberstein, who was passing through here, noted in his travel notes: "Krevo is a place with an abandoned fortress."
Probably, the castle was soon restored, because in 1519, during a deep raid into the depths of Belarus, the troops of the Moscow governors "fought and captive ... Krev".
In the second half of the XVI century. here lived the fugitive Russian prince Andrei Kurbsky. The castle gradually lost its defensive significance, but in the 18th century. was still in a bearable condition. Later, its destruction began, completed during the First World War, when the front line passed through Krevo. Positional battles were fought here for more than three years. The castle ended up on the German side of the defense.
Concrete shelters (in the Malaya Tower and at the southern wall) and observation posts were built there. During their shelling, the ancient castle was badly damaged, especially the Prince's Tower. The brick cladding has peeled off in many places and even collapsed. The northern wall of the fortification sloped 10 °. In 1929, Polish restorers reinforced it with a 2-meter-wide buttress and mothballed it. Cladding main tower tied with iron puffs, and the cracks were filled with lime mortar. At the same time, the remnants of the northeastern wall, fortified with escarpment, were walled up.
Reconstruction
Thorough research has been carried out in the castle these days. The monument is included in the tourist route.
The erection of castles of the "castel" type was an important step towards the development of local military architecture. Here, the principle of flanking fire from towers outside the perimeter of the walls began and developed. The planned composition of the quadrangular defensive structure in the future will become a characteristic feature of the Belarusian architecture of the 15th and 16th centuries. These castles played an important role in protecting Ponemania from the crusading invasion and made a significant contribution to the final defeat of the Teutonic Order.
... The castle also has its own ghosts. Oddly enough, they have nothing to do with the above. No one in Krevo remembers either Keystut or Jagiello. But they will talk about the failed churches, underground passages leading as far as Vilna, and also about the sworn beauty maiden, whom some call "princess", others - "queen".
They say that after sunset, when the night comes into its own, the castle comes to life. The hammer blows on the anvil are heard, the clang of the drawbridge chains is heard at the entrance to the castle. If you put your ear to the wall, you can hear the neighing and thumping of horses' hooves and a muffled cough.
And in the castle courtyard, where night reigns with might and main, you can see shadows scurrying along the walls. It seems that some peasants are rolling a barrel into the gate, and in the lowland, near a dry backwater, a woman is washing clothes and singing, her attire glowing alternately green and blue.
They say that two princes once lived in the castle. Both fell in love with one local girl... In a duel, one prince killed another. The winner confessed his feelings to the girl and offered her a hand and a heart. The girl refused, and the prince, angry, cursed her and ordered the servants to brick her up in the castle wall. In the heat of the moment, her dog was immured together with the girl. For several days, groans and dog squeals came from the wall. Then everything was quiet.
But from that time on they began to notice that at night in the castle courtyard someone was walking the dog. Both slowly walked around the castle courtyard, and then disappeared. There were daredevils who went to look at the beautiful maiden. The virgin did not remain indifferent to the daredevil and, fixing her eyes on him, beckoned to her. She spread her arms out for hugs and called in a passionate voice. Others gave in to her calls - and ended badly, in the morning they were found with crushed bones ...
The legend has a continuation. Only an act contrary to human morality, some kind of supreme sacrilege, could free the unfortunate girl from the curse. After all, it was required to appease the evil spirits ...
Once a virgin asked one of her admirers to bring all the gold of the church to the castle. It is all gold, to the last detail! In return, the daredevil received a chest of gold coins, and the maiden - eternal freedom.
Such a daredevil was found. One night he entered the church and collected all the gold there. He didn’t take only a small cue for extinguishing the candles, because of its strong smokiness. But you can't joke with evil spirits. Opening the door, the thief wanted to leave, but a terrible storm broke out in the street. The thief was forced to stay. During the night he made more than one attempt to get out, but to no avail. He had to appear under the castle walls empty-handed. He failed to commit a sin, and the girl received a spell for her advice for another hundred years.
According to the locals, the maiden still lives in the castle. But time did not spare even the ghost. Now, not a beautiful maiden with a dog is walking around the courtyard of the castle, but a flabby old woman in rags, accompanied by a skeleton of a dog
A unique monument of defensive architecture of the second half of the XIII century. is a stone tower, which has survived to our time in the town of Kamenets, Brest region. The Kamenets tower (Kamenets pillar) stands on a high sandy hillock on the left bank of the Lesnaya river.
The history of the tower is closely connected with the city of Kamenets, which arose as a border stronghold of Prince Vladimir Vasilkovich against the Lithuanian prince Troyden, with whom he had to fight more than once. In 1276, after another reconciliation with Troyden, Vladimir Vasilkovich decided to lay a "city" on the Lesnoy river. For this important matter, the well-known "hailstone" Alex was sent here, who cut down a lot of "grads" during the reign of Vladimir Vasilkovich's father. After a while, with the participation of local residents, they erected "a pillar of stones 17 fathoms high. It is like a surprise to all those who see it."
The exact date of the construction of the monument ancient architecture unknown. Based on the information of the Ipatiev Chronicle, he was "poured" somewhere between 1276 and 1288. 
The thickness of the walls of this 30-meter "pillar" reaches 2.5 m, the outer diameter is 13.5 m. The tower stands on a strong foundation of cobblestone, sprinkled with clean fine sand. The foundation is about 2.3 m high and its outer diameter is about 16 m.
The tower is built of cobbled bricks of dark red and yellowish colors, with an extremely good band of seams. Kamenetskaya Tower. Drawing by N. Horde, mid-19th century. The majestic, monumental tower at the top is somewhat narrower and has neither vertical nor horizontal divisions. Its trunk is folded with a slight inclination to the vertical axis.
The walls of the tower are cut with loopholes. In the first tier there are two of them, in the second and third - three each, and in the fourth - two loopholes and one large lancet opening. (He once led out onto a balcony arranged on cantilever beams.)
The loopholes of the four lower tiers are narrow, slit-like, widening inward, ending in semicircular arches. The fifth tier has four loopholes. Their shape is lancet, but the arches are rounded and have an insignificant boom. The loopholes of the fifth tier, unlike all the others, expand not only inward, but also outward.
Between these loopholes there are 4 flat niches with a semicircular end. Photographs by Kaner, besieged the neighboring Velsk castle, and then, after looting through the rugged Belovezhskaya Pushcha invaded the Kamenets region, which was also ravaged. The same Theodor von Elner led the third campaign to the Brest region at the beginning of August 1379.
A large army laid siege to the Melnik castle, and then devastated the Kamenets land. It should be emphasized that the sources of that time never mentioned the successful siege of the Kamenets castle. Probably, the equestrian knights, with difficulty making their way through the impenetrable surrounding forests, could not take fortifications like Kamenets without siege weapons.
In 1382 the city was captured by a surprise attack by the troops of the Polish prince Janusz Mazowiecki. Only one year the prince was able to keep Kamenets in his hands, and then, after a 7-day siege, the Lithuanian prince Jagailo took possession of it.
During the period of protracted civil strife with Vitovt, Yagay-lu in 1390 again had to besiege the city, which he took "with great difficulty" after an energetic siege.
Standing at the crossroads of trade routes, Kamenets was an important strategic point, its fortifications were in constant readiness for a long time. The reason for this was the campaigns of the crusaders, and the proximity to the "Polish borderland, and later, in the 16th century, and the threat of attacks by the Crimean Tatars.
It is known that in 1500 the 15-thousandth cavalry of the sons of Khan Mengli-Girey "fought in Kamenets-Litovsk". However, apparently, unsuccessfully, since the Tatars did not know how to besiege stone fortifications. The famous diplomat and historian S. Herberstein, who passed through the city in 1517, noted in his travel notes: "Kamyanets - a city with a stone tower in a wooden castle"
During the Russian-Polish war of the middle of the 17th century. the city and its fortifications were destroyed. However, in 1771 the city again consisted of a "place" and a castle. Back at the beginning of the 19th century. around the Kamenets tower there were remnants of medieval fortifications of the castle with an earthen rampart surrounded on three sides by the Obomenets tower late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, in which these niches with traces of ancient whitewashed plaster are visible, testify that the niches were first plastered and then whitewashed. This gave the austere and stately structure features of modest, discreet beauty. Above the fifth tier of the tower, the remains of a brick domed vault, which existed in the middle of the 19th century, have been preserved.
A brick staircase begins from the third tier, illuminated by two narrow windows. She goes into the thickness of the wall, going to the very top of the tower, to the battle area, covered with 14 battlements. Each prong has a through hole, in shape and size equal to the "butt" or "spoon" of the brick. The holes most likely served as observation slots for the defenders of the tower during intense enemy shelling.
The Kamenets tower, like most other military structures of that time, has upward-elongated forms, laconic and simple, slightly decorated with light strokes of early Gothic architectural forms: lancet openings and windows with a three-bladed end, archival arch of the doorway in the fourth tier, ribbed vaults on "weights" ". They are subtly drawn on the mighty body of the structure, together with the semicircular arches of flat niches and loopholes, characteristic of Romanesque architecture.
The end of the tower is a toothed ribbon of the Old Slavic curb of four rows of bricks placed at a corner, echoes the ornamental :! motives of folk art and, as it were, emphasizes the originality of local building traditions and the origins of their originality, from which the gradual transition from the Romanesque style to the Gothic began.
In the 70s of the XIV century. Brest Bug, including Kamenets, becomes the target of attacks by the knights-crusaders. They first appeared here in 1373, devastating the entire Kamenets land. In June 1375, the knights, led by the commander from Balga, Theodor von Elres, with a moat, and with the fourth - by a protected river.
In 1903, the later vaults built between 1827 and 1889 were dismantled over the first and second tiers of the tower. At the same time, a 3-meter layer of the cultural layer was thrown away from the tower and an annular shaft lined with stone was poured around it. Three covert channels were made in the drainage shaft.
Now the Kamenets Tower has been adapted as a branch of the Brest Regional Museum of Local Lore and has become a place for numerous excursions for tourists from Belarus, the Baltic states and remote cities of the country.
As for the name "Belaya Vezha", which is firmly entrenched in the Kamenets Tower, it should be emphasized that this is an erroneous name. It arose in the 19th century. It was introduced by local historians, who believed that the tower was whitewashed in ancient times. In fact, it was first whitewashed (and completely in vain) in the early 50s of our century. Recently, restoration work has been carried out in the tower.
The initial history of Minsk is connected with the Minsk castle - the place where the castle once stood. The antiquity of this area of the city is indicated by all graphic and written sources in which it appears under different names: "Castle", "Castle", "Old Place", " Old city"(By the way, the Old City, in addition to the Castle with the Lower Market, included the Rakovskoye, Troitskoye and Tatar suburbs.) The plans of the city of the 18th-19th centuries have been preserved, on which sections of the defensive rampart are recorded.
Also preserved are ancient documents containing mention of the Minsk Castle. These are the notes of the Moscow merchant Trifon Korobeinikov from 1593, the correspondence of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with the Moscow governors appointed to the Belarusian cities during the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667. 
The place where the ancient castle was located, surrounded by a fortress wall and the Svisloch and Nemiga rivers. 1903 g.
Back in the 50s of the twentieth century, before the development of the Parka Highway (now - Pobediteley Avenue), the old, historically formed layout with a system of streets that captures memories of ancient Minsk, its main core, from where the development of the city began, was preserved here.
After the death of Yaroslav the Wise, there was no one to restrain the separatist tendencies of the appanage principalities. Under these conditions, the Polotsk principality needed, first of all, to strengthen its southern borders. Most likely, the foundation of the military fortress of Minsk in the middle of the 11th century should be associated with the name of Vseslav Bryachislavich (Sorcerer). To pursue an active military policy, he needed to ensure his southern borders and the protection of the routes leading to Polotsk from the south and west. The transformation of Minsk into the center of an independent principality later makes it one of the largest administrative, trade and craft cities of the Polotsk land. 
A study of the defensive structures of Minsk showed that the city emerged immediately as a powerful fortified point. The Minsk castle was the core of the city, part of its fortified area. An analysis of the rampart sections, as well as a thorough clearing of the land under the rampart, specially carried out over a large area, did not find traces of a settlement that preceded the fortress that had emerged here. The remains of the fortifications of ancient Minsk were found at various points, and everywhere they coincided with the rampart recorded on the historical plans of the city. It turned out to be ancient, its construction dates back to the second half of the 11th century. Based on this observation, it became possible to accurately establish the territory of the early feudal Minsk Detinets, its fortress.
Before the beginning of archaeological research, the castle was a low hill stretched along the Svisloch on the right bank of the river near the square named after March 8, measuring 75x45 meters. However, as further studies showed, it represented only a small part of the ancient fortified region of Minsk. The most high point The castle, which was at the top of the ancient rampart in the northeastern part of the settlement, rose 8 meters above the road and 11 meters above the river level. 
Zaslavsky castle is one of the first Belarusian fortifications of the bastion type. When wars began to be fought with artillery, the need for towers, which were easy to hit from a cannon, disappeared. And they were replaced by bastions - earthen embankments of a small height, on which artillery could be installed.
Information about the Zaslavsky castle:
Location: Zaslavl (Minsk region)
Year of construction: XVI centuries.
Year of destruction: late 18th century
Construction material: earth and stone
Structure: bastion castle-island with earthen fortifications
Current status: not preserved
History of creation
The fortified castle in the place where the castle was located later appeared in the 11th century. Perhaps, it was in this place that Rogneda and Iseslav were located in the first years of their exile.
Initially, the castle was protected only by earthen ramparts, so it could not be called a full-fledged castle. The castle with bastions was built in the second half of the 16th - early 17th centuries by the princes Glebovich. They also built a Calvinist cathedral and a stone palace on the territory of the castle.
Structure
In some sources, you can read that the Zaslavsky castle was built in the traditions of the Old Italian fortification school and is considered one of the oldest in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In fact, given that the new bastion system was simply superimposed on the existing older fortifications, it is difficult to talk about some kind of architectural school. In addition, there were enough castles in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania much older than Zaslavsky.
The Zaslavsky castle had a quadrangular shape with sides of 215x100x120x80 meters. On three sides it was surrounded by a moat, and from the north - by the Knyaginka River, the waters of which the moat fed on.
Earthen castle bastions were lined with stones and bricks on the outside. And to prevent the shafts from crumbling, inside was built stone wall 2.5 meters high and 33 centimeters thick. The height of the ramparts in some places reached 9.5 meters.
The entrance to the castle was located on the south side through a two-storey frame tower of a quadrangular shape, with sides of 24.7x22.8 meters. Its walls were two meters thick. The passage was 7 meters wide. On the first floor of the gate, there were 3 rooms on both sides of the passage. An underground tunnel 80 centimeters wide and 80 centimeters high was discovered by archaeologists along the western wall. Most likely, it was used as a drainage system or sewerage system. Because in the northern part it ended with a blank wall, and in the southern part, where it went into the ditch, the exit from it was blocked by iron bars.
A wooden bridge led to the gate across the moat. All approaches were shot from the bastions. According to various sources, the bridge was collapsible. But in some of them it is indicated that it was built on canoes, in others that its last section was lifting.
The Calvinist temple also had an important defensive significance. Its 35-meter tower was an independent fortification, had loopholes and, in fact, was the last point of defense for the defenders.
A well was located on the territory of the castle, which supplied the defenders fresh water during the siege.
But about stone palace, which was on the territory of the castle, almost nothing is known. Even the dates of its destruction.
Military significance
It is known that even before the appearance of the castle, the castle, fortified by ramparts, was destroyed twice - in 1127 and 1434.
In the future, nothing is known about his military merits. But there is a possibility that the castle took part in the wars of the "bloody flood" in the middle of the 17th century. Around this period, the gate of the castle burned down, and in its place another, smaller one was built.
In the 18th century, the castle finally lost its military significance.
Political significance
In 1676, the western part of the Zaslavsky castle was transferred to the Dominican order.
Causes of destruction
Probably, the castle was badly damaged during the "bloody flood". In addition, it quickly lost its defensive properties and already in the 18th century did not pose a threat to the attackers. And in the 1870s, bricks and stones that were still preserved in the castle were dismantled by local residents.
Castle today
The Savior Transfiguration Church (the former Calvinist cathedral), the ruins of the castle gate, as well as the ramparts and partly the moat have survived to this day.
Excavations at the site of the castle were carried out in 1921, 1927, 1965, 1967-1968, 1970-1971, 1972, 1980-1983.
The construction of the “Zaslavsky Castle” began in the last century, but it has not been built in 25 years. Therefore, it will most likely go down in history thanks to its mention in the presidential one as unfinished. The "Castle" is a complex of red brick buildings on 13 hectares, which no one has been building for ten years. It is now fully auctioned. The price dropped several times: from 3.5 to one million dollars. If there are no people willing to buy it, it can be demolished. The site's journalists found out what a million was worth, in what state the "castle" is today, and whether it made sense to finish building it.
According to the plan, the complex, which the journalists dubbed "Zaslavsky Castle", was supposed to try on the signboard "Motel" Ragneda ".
The history of the castle motel began in 1991. The cooperative "Ragneda" on the bank of the Zaslavskoe reservoir, between the village of Honoles and the town of Zaslavl, next to the busy highway to Molodechno, was allocated a land plot of 13 hectares. Construction began in 1992, a little later, the concept was transformed: cooperators set out to build a multifunctional hotel and entertainment complex with a restaurant and a casino.
During construction, the names of the companies that owned the complex were constantly changing. After "Ragneda" the construction was continued by the cooperative " old lock", Then the firm" Old Zaslavsky Castle ". The site with the unfinished complex (according to Decree 425) was withdrawn last year at the Zaslavsky Castle JV.
The owners of the unfinished building, unfortunately, refused to communicate with the journalists, so we can only guess what ideas they were trying to implement.
Judging by the difference in brickwork, the main building was originally conceived as a three-story building with a "castle" architecture. These floors are lined with red bricks.
It is known that in 2004 a new investor appeared, after which changes were made to the reconstruction project (prepared by the Monorakurs company): another floor of gas silicate plus an attic was added. After the reconstruction, the area of the hotel has increased to 8.5 thousand square meters. Now those parts of the block gables that are not covered by the tiled roof are gradually collapsing.
Visualization of the project. Photo: monorakurs.by 
Photo: monorakurs.by 
Photo: monorakurs.by 
Photo: monorakurs.by 
Nearby, in a similar style, an administrative building of three floors was supposed to be completed, but the second part of the building from gas silicate blocks "grew" only up to the level of the first floor. The very first part of the building from the outside gives the impression of being inhabited: on the street there are decorative lanterns, facade decoration, on the windows there are blinds, cobbled paths at the entrance. This is probably the only building in this complex that can be considered fully completed.
But what we could not at first find an explanation for was two concrete wells with a large diameter and a depth of about 4 meters at a distance from the office building. In one of them there was a wooden staircase, so it was not difficult for a journalist to get into it. I found myself at the bottom - I found out: the wells are connected to each other by a short passage.
There is another entrance from the second well: into a dark reinforced concrete tunnel. Once it was boarded up with boards, but local "stalkers" cleared the passage. You can only move along it with a flashlight - after five meters, visibility is zero. To the left and right of the tunnel there are openings to the same dark rooms: there are very large halls, and there are mini-rooms. Some used to have electrical control rooms - judging by the smashed metal boxes, collectors of non-ferrous metal worked here. The purpose of the rest can only be guessed at. The car tires, which someone brought here and scattered, also remained a mystery. Surprisingly, the dungeon is dry.
The journalist walked along one of the side corridors to an open PVC door with a double-glazed window. It turned out that this was the entrance to the basement of an administrative building. A staircase leads up from the door to ... an office! Laminate floors, wallpaper and decor on the walls, radiators under the windows, tables and chairs in offices. There is no one here, but there is a feeling that until recently they were working in the building: on the tables - papers, orders and official letters, in cabinets and on shelves, documents in folders, telephones ... The same picture is on the second, attic floor. The impression is that at one moment everyone got up and left, only for some reason they broke the washbasins in the bathrooms. In fact, the building inside after cosmetic repairs can be used for work.
We return to the tunnel in the same way. It would have been possible to return, but the part of the tunnel has not yet been explored, which presumably led under the castle building.
And so it turned out. On it we get to the stairs leading to the main hotel complex.
What did the designers think when they laid such a long tunnel under the entire complex of buildings? One thing is clear, a lot of money was buried in the dungeons.
Contrary to expectations, access to the building is not restricted in any way. You can get into it not through a tunnel, but through the front entrance - a large opening in the "tower", which was once planned, probably, as the main entrance to the lobby. The owners of the castle, before "everything was gone", managed to invest in the decoration.
For example, the walls inside on the first floor, at the entrance, were once lined with shell rock slabs. True, the decoration was preserved fragmentarily - the looters clearly appreciated the decor, so now most of the walls are naked. Stairways up to the 4th floor are faced with marble. Perhaps there were no connoisseurs for it, or maybe it is impossible to tear it off the walls without a perforator, but nevertheless, the marble cladding is intact and even without graffiti. We also found whole plaster elements with the Ragneda inscription, which may someday decorate the walls of the hotel.
Brick walls on several floors were plastered, but the water flowing from the roof did its job and the plaster layer peeled off in some places.
Before the construction completely stopped 10 years ago, plastic windows were installed in the building, and the electrics were installed. Some of them have already been "worked" - the cable has been cut, there are many broken windows. The back of the hotel building is unfinished, without a roof, so here the brickwork has been destroyed much more.
And again the riddle: car tires are scattered across all floors, balconies and staircases. Who brought them here and why?
On the land allocated a quarter of a century ago, there are still unfinished objects - behind the failed motel "Ragneda" there are 9 boxes of red brick cottages under a tiled roof in the grass and hmyznyak. According to the inventory, the smallest of them is 270 "squares". There are no windows or doors in them. Visually, some of them are easier to demolish: the walls have partially collapsed, the brickwork has crumbled heavily. Although there are quite strong buildings. Probably, there should have been a real street leading to the reservoir: just behind cottage complex — coastline Zaslavsky reservoir and rowing canal. In the meantime, this is a great place for airsoft fights.
One can only guess about the reasons that prevented the completion of all this: maybe there is a crisis, or maybe the investors and owners of power have not calculated. But the complex, which could become a successful business project, is now overgrown with forest, some buildings are already easier to demolish than to complete. Although the overall picture is not so sad - the underground part of the complex is in quite normal condition, the administrative building needs cosmetic repairs. The main building, despite the fact that it has not been mothballed, can still be restored.
Considering the location - the coastline of the Zaslavsky reservoir, 25 kilometers from Minsk, next to the busy highway to Molodechno - the offer can be considered profitable. Land plot of 13 hectares is leased to the new owner for 30 years.
According to our information, there is interest in the upcoming Zaslavsky Castle auction on October 31, but will the deal take place? A million dollars is a decent amount, and it is too tough for a small business. And taking into account how much more will need to be invested in the project and construction, "Zaslavsky Castle" will be able to pull out only a large investor.
If the object is not sold, the local authorities have the right to demolish it. And this option is quite likely, since there is a rowing canal and the Center for Olympic training in rowing sports nearby. And international competitions will be held here in 2019. Therefore, no one will endure a nearby abandoned unfinished building.
By the way, there was once a real historical castle in Zaslavl. Local residents dismantled it for building materials in the 19th century.
In the XIV-XVII centuries. firearms acquired great importance, which began to play a major role during the siege of cities and castles. The use of artillery in battle caused an increase in the thickness of the walls and the diameter of the towers, as well as a further significant improvement in the fortification system. At the end of the 15th century. fortifiers invented the bastions, which revolutionized the defense system. This system first appeared in Italy at the end of the 15th century.
In the XVI-XVII centuries. the bastion system of fortifications quickly spread throughout Europe, including Belarus. Here, based on local building traditions, it has been reinterpreted.
One of the first bastion structures in Belarus should be considered the castle of the Glebovich princes in Zaslavl. It was located north of the city and on a high hillock occupied an area of 200X100 m. It is rectangular in plan, the castle was once separated from the "place" by a rather wide and deep moat with water. The system of ponds on the Knyaginka River significantly raised the water level and actually turned the castle into an island fortification.
Researchers of the XIX century. K. Tyshkevich and R. Ignatiev, who in their time studied these fortifications in detail, testify that the bastions and curtains of the Zaslavsky castle were lined with stone and brick, the curtains had intermediate bastions. This, by the way, is clearly visible on the plan of the castle, taken in 1840 by K. Tyshkevich. In the 70s of the XIX century. R. Ignatiev noted that the local residents dismantled additional bastions made of stone, brick and earth for construction needs. At that time, in different parts of the rampart, there were still remains of stone walls (most likely a stone parapet), which adjoined the bastions.
Near the southeastern bastion there was a two-storey entrance castle gate, traditional for the lands of Belarus. The thickness of its walls reached 2 m. It was closed by double gates at the entrance and exit, well flanked from the corner bastion. Under the bramah there was a prison in the form of a long stone tunnel. The castle was connected to the "place" by a wooden bridge, the last span of which, obviously, was raised by a special gate. Thus, the Zaslavsky castle is an example of an old Italian fortification system of fortifications and can be dated to the middle of the 16th century. Most likely, it was built during the reign of Ivan Glebovich, who owned Zaslavl and built a reformist church here. Its 35-meter tower, added later, had loopholes, which further strengthened the castle's defenses.
Nowadays, the ramparts and moats of the castle, as well as the reformist temple, are well preserved. Only small ruins have survived from the castle gate.
Lida Castle
Lida Castle is one of the oldest stone castles in Belarus. According to legend, the castle was founded in 1323 by the Grand Duke Gediminas and was a key link in the chain of defensive castles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The terrible era left its mark - Lida Castle was built in the Romanesque style. In the XIII-XIV centuries, a constant threat to the Belarusian lands came from the German knights-crusaders, who settled on the shores of the Baltic Sea.
It took about five years to build a new military outpost of the Neman lands. The walls of the castle were built of large stones, which made them especially strong. The height of the walls reaches 12 m. Two corner towers were built a little later, at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. A wide and deep moat around the castle, filled with water from the Lideika and Kamenka rivers, turned the Lida castle into an impregnable citadel. It would be surprising if the Lida Castle did not have many legends. According to one of them, Prince Dmitry Karibut, brother of the Grand Duke Jagiello, during the siege of the castle by the crusaders, left several soldiers in it, ordering not to surrender to the enemy, and he himself fled from the besieged fortress through a secret passage. All the warriors died, and since then their souls cannot rest, wandering around the castle.
Lithuanian, that since 1396 there was a yurt of a direct descendant of the legendary Genghis Khan-Tokhtamysh, who, having lost the war to the famous Timur, fled to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Khan Tokhtamysh hoped to re-occupy the Golden Horde throne with the help of Prince Vitovt, but his hopes were not destined to come true - in 1399, Vitovt and Tokhtamysh were defeated in the battle near the Vorskla River. The castle lost its defensive significance only after the wars of the 16th-17th centuries that swept across Belarus. But today Lida Castle is being revived: knightly tournaments are held here, and its territory is filled with spectators and knights in armor, and again the spirit of the Middle Ages hovers within the walls of the ancient castle.
There is a mystical legend about the pines at the Lida Castle. As if at one time 9 Franciscan monks came here to preach Christianity. But the locals, rejecting the new religion, killed the missionaries and threw the bodies into a pit near the castle. Slender pines have grown in this place. By that time, the Lidans had already become Catholics. Nobody chopped the pines. But one day a peasant cut off a branch, and blood came out of it. Since then, not a single person dared to raise his hand to the trees. Recently, a large of the towers was restored, which today houses the exposition of the local history museum. Visitors to the castle have seen a ghost more than once, and photographer Igor Peshekhonov even managed to take a photo of this unusual phenomenon. The members of the knightly clubs claim that these are the ghosts of the very warriors of Dmitry Karibut, abandoned by their prince.
