Pidhirtsi Castle: description, legends, history

Mysterious Podgoretsky castle is located in the village of Podgortsy, which is located in the Lviv region. This place is located 88 kilometers from Lviv and 460 from Kiev.

Podgoretsky castle : history

In 1440 the Polish King Jagiello granted land to the boyar Ivan Podgoretskoy. The new owner named this area Pidhirtsi. He built the first fortification here.

In 1633, the building acquired from Podgoretsky, and, perhaps, got from the crown (the opinions of historians are divergent in this matter), Hetman Stanislav Konetspolsky. He asked the French architect Guillaume de Boplan to create a project for new fortifications and a two-story palace.

Construction work was carried out for five years (1635-1640). According to the architect's idea, the office premises created a square courtyard with a terrace, which was adapted for the defense of the territory. The palace was surrounded by a deep ditch on three sides. In the northern part, which faced the plain, was built a terrace with sculptures and balustrades. The entrance was decorated with a large arch, reminiscent of a portal with two columns.

Since the XVII century, the Podgoretsky castle has been severely damaged during the wars several times. But he was immediately restored.

In the beginning of the XX century the castle was given to the historical museum of the city of Lviv. However, a little later it organized a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients.

In 1997, the charitable foundation "Revival Podgoretsky Castle, which was led by Boris Voznitsky, took the initiative to restore the masterpiece of ancient architecture. He was again recognized as a museum and decided to reconstruct.

The territory of the castle

The architectural ensemble of Podgoretsky Castle consists of a church, a park, an inn and a castle. Baroque one-story inn was built for the servants, with him there was a hotel and a tavern.

Description of the castle

Podgoretsky Castle (Ukraine) is a beautifully preserved Renaissance palace, which is surrounded by defensive structures. Together with Zolochevsky and Olesky castles, they form the "Golden Horseshoe of Ukraine". There were shooting some episodes of the famous Soviet film "Three Musketeers". The castle is built in the shape of a square. From the south, west and east it is surrounded by defensive fortifications, earthen ramparts and a deep moat.

Interior decoration

The interiors of the palace impressed with its wealth and beauty. Halls and offices were called Golden, Knightly, Green, Mirror, Mosaic. Things that belonged to King Jan III Sobieski were kept separately.

The rooms were decorated with portraits of the owners of the castle, they were well-known copies of Rubens, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio. There were paintings by the famous Polish painter Chekhovich, the work of Jacob de Baan.

In the dining room hung a portrait of Hetman Konetspolsky and 72 portraits of spiritual and political figures. In the center stood a marble black table. He was baptized by King Ian III. Today the castle is closed for reconstruction. The time of discovery is still unknown.

Collection

Despite the significant losses during the First World War, as well as the revolution, in 1939 there were 39 armored hussars and 65 hussar rises in the castle's collection. All these exhibits belonged to the XVIII century. They belonged to the hussars from the company of Hetman Rzhevusky.

The church

The Church of the Exaltation and St. Joseph was built by the order of Vzcerv Rzhevussky (1752-1766). He had to become a burial vault. The architect of this building is Ts. Romanus.

This Catholic church is a magnificent rotunda made in the Baroque style. Its diameter is 12 m. The facade of the rotunda is decorated with a portico consisting of fourteen columns of the Corinthian order. At the attic were installed 8 sculptures of saints, which were performed by Fessinger and Leblas. One of the sculptures was destroyed during the Second World War.

From the church a 300-meter long lime walk leads to the castle. Before the temple stands on the columns of the sculpture of Our Lady and St. Joseph.

The interior was painted by the artist L. Smuglevich with his son. Four masters from Zhovkva followed them: Wojciech, Demyan, Constantine and Nikolai - and two artists from Lviv - Vitanetsky and Gurgilevich. Since 1861 the church has become a paraphilious church. After the Great Patriotic War (1945), it was closed. The last restoration began in 1976 and lasted three years. The works were supervised by the architect I. Starosolsky. Now the church is given to the Greek Catholics.

Italian garden

Once Podgoretsky Castle, a description of which was preserved in the Central Library of Lviv in historical documents, surrounded one of the best "Italian" gardens in Europe. In the park there were many stones that created a sense of remoteness from the outside world and harmony. There were many evergreen plants - pines, boxwood, laurel. Much attention was paid to flowers. Here grew irises, lilies, carnations, violets. Tui, fir, various varieties of spiraea, derehn, barberry are everywhere green.

From the former glory there is not much left - a fairly large garden of apple trees, which in spring pleases with magnificent flowering, and tui. On the outskirts of the garden there is also an ancient linden tree. Her age, according to scientists, more than 700 years.

Podgoretsky castle: legends

This castle since its creation is surrounded by a mystical halo. There are incredible rumors about him-one is more terrible than another. Local people like to tell visiting visitors stories with bloody details and chilling details. The most common story is about the clever and beautiful, the wife of Count Jablonsky. As natives assure , her soul wanders through the corridors and dungeons of the castle on moonlit nights. If you are a fan of mysterious stories and legends - you definitely have to visit the Podgoretsky Castle - ghosts will surely present you with a surprise.

The Legend of the White Pani

In 1787 Podgoretsky Castle, together with the villages located in the district, bought after his father's death his son, Severin Zhevusky. It is this name that is associated with the most mysterious and fascinating legend of the castle - the White Pani.

One day a magnificent carriage pulled by a six horses drove up to the front entrance of the palace. It belonged to a new master, Severin Zhevusky.

Near the gate gathered all the servants, as well as peasants from neighboring villages, who wanted to see the new owner. The young count came out of the carriage, and as if an icy wind had beaten all present from the glance of the nobleman. A young wife, Maria, followed him out of the carriage. From her kind look and affectionate smile the sun shone brighter, people smiled at her in response.

People were not mistaken: their lady was merciful and kind, she helped the poor and poor, treated the sick, kindly warmed souls. Maria loved white dresses, for which they began to call the White Pani.

And the new master was gloomy and unsociable. For a long time Count Severin descended into the dank and gloomy dungeon, and then gathered the guests, and the luxurious feasts grew into wild hunting.

Soon, rumors spread that the earl - a black sorcerer, and in the dungeon, witch magic potions. In addition, young girls began to disappear without leaving a trace. Residents decided - this is the guilty pan. Of course, they were guided by fear, because it was known that when he was studying in Vienna, he was carried away by the alchemy, and so that all his thoughts were occupied with how to convert metals into gold. And he also planned to invent an elixir of youth and longevity. To do this, he arranged a laboratory in the castle cellar.

Years passed, the Count's affairs went quite badly - he could not get any gold, and large funds were required to maintain a huge castle. With the elixir of youth, too, did not work out. The count turned completely black, his face was furrowed with deep wrinkles, his hands dried and turned yellow, as if his forces had sucked up experiments in a damp and cold dungeon.

And his wife, Maria, seemed to be growing younger every year. It is still beautiful. Jealousy was tormented by the Count, when he watched with admiration the great noblemen looked at her, respectfully bowed over her gentle hand, trying to get a glimpse of her clear eyes. But not a great love was the reason for his jealousy - to love the count was incapable. The fact is that he married Maria because of the huge dowry that her parents gave her. A terrible envy tormented his heart. And the crazy count decided that his wife knew the secret of eternal youth, but she did not want to share with him.

One night, late at night, he ordered his employees to take Maria and secretly lead him into a terrible dungeon. He began to demand that he give him the secret of youth, threatening with terrible tortures.

The Countess was surprised - she did not know any secret, she just knew how to love people, give them kindness and help others - that's the whole secret. The count did not believe her that there was no sorcerous potion. He ordered his servants to take Maria to the far corner of the dungeon and wall him in the wall. Hearing this, the countess shuddered and cursed the whole family of her tormentor, saying at last: "How many steps separates me from the place of my execution, after so many generations your generation will fade away." There were four steps ... Four generations later the Zhevuski family was gone.

Ghostbusters

Local residents are so confident that this happened in fact, that they gave their confidence to modern magicians and sorcerers who dream of revealing an ancient secret.

Here, American "ghost hunters" and domestic sorcerers and witches from the "Battle of Psychics" visited. In 2010, the participants in this Russian broadcast unanimously asserted that the Podgoretsky Castle (Ukraine) was just full of ghosts, though each of them was talking about his ghost. Some of the sorcerers agreed that they had managed to see a woman in white who wandered along the corridors of the castle and descended into the dungeon.

How to get there?

Surely you are interested in this mysterious Podgoretsky castle (Lviv region). It really is a picturesque and interesting place. Especially he will be interested in mysticism lovers. If you are going to visit the Pidhirtsi Castle, how to get there, we'll give you a hint.

You can get to the castle from Brody by taxi. If you go by car, then you should go to the route Kiev - Lviv, and it will take you to this historic place.