Olesky Castle

The first settlement near the future of the Olesk castle existed in 700? 600 years BC. In the 10th-12th centuries the Old Russian settlement was located under the castle itself.

Olesk Castle — one of the oldest buildings in Galicia. It is built on the crossroads of old trade roads from Wallachia and Hungary to Volyn, and served as a key to this land. Investigations of the basement of the castle showed that it was built immediately out of stone, and a wooden fortress did not exist in its place. The walls were about 10 meters high and 2.5 meters thick.

The beginning of the construction of the castle is unknown. Perhaps, the Olesky castle began to be built soon after the Mongol-Tatars in 1241 destroyed the ancient city of Plesnysk [2]. According to researchers of the XIX century, an unconfirmed current state of study of sources, for the first time the castle was mentioned in 1327; from this they concluded that it was built by one of the sons of the Galician-Volyn Prince Yuri Lvovich — Andrew or Leo.

The first reliable mention of the castle itself dates back to 1390, when the Pope Boniface IX presented his castle with the billy Halytsky to the Catholic Archbishop Oleskiy Castle and the fortress of Tustan.

The next reliable written certificate of the Olesk Castle dates back to 1431. This year, the Russian feudal lords of the Oles land took the side of the Lithuanian prince Svidrigaila and raised a rebellion against the Polish-Lithuanian king Jagiyl. The defense of the Olesk castle was directed by Ivashko Presluzhic from Rogatin. In 1432, the troops of Jagiello seized the castle.

In 1441, the Polish king Vladislav III Varnenchik passed the castle and all the Olesk land to Janu from Senna — for the defense of the Russian lands from the Tatars. Large Tatar hordes passed through the lands of the Olesk district and approached the castle in 1442, 1453, 1507, 1512, 1519, 1575, 1629. In 1519, the owner of the castle Fryderyk Gerburt perished in the battle with the Tatars near Sokal, while another owner of the Olesk castle, Stanislav Danilovich, died in the Tatar captivity in 1636.

In 1481 Peter Oleski (son of Jan of Senna) built a church near the castle. In 1546, demarcation of the borders between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish Kingdom was carried out. From the documents accompanying the demarcation it is known that the Oles land included the modern Brody district, as well as part of the Bussk district of the Lviv region and the Lopatinsky district of the Ternopil region.

At the beginning of the 17th century, at the court of the Russian tycoon Ivan Danilovich, who owned the castle, Mikhail Khmel, Bogdan Khmelnitsky's father, served.

On August 17, 1629, during a raid on the outskirts of the castle of the Crimean Tatars and a severe thunder-storm, the daughter of Ivan Danilovich in one of the castle rooms gave birth to the future king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth — Jan III Sobieski.

In 1646 Olesko was captured by the troops of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, and his Crimean Tatars allies destroyed the city and the castle.

In 1682 Jan Sobesski bought the castle and from 1684 it was restored and renovated, the surrounding park was arranged.

In 1711, during the war between the candidates for the Polish throne, the Russian troops were quartered in the castle.

In 1739 Volyn province governor Severin Zhevusky began the construction of the Capuchin monastery of St. Anthony near the castle of Olesk.

In 1806 and 1836 the castle survived the big fires, in 1838 - a large earthquake, and came to a complete decline. Back in 1820 the Polish writer Julian Nemtsevich (who later described the castle in his works) wrote: "The castle is launched & hellip; the room where Sobieski was born, completely destroyed, full of rubbish & raquo; [4]. In 1891, restoration work was again started, and in 1898 a women's agricultural school opened in the restored part of the building.

In 1939, the agricultural school and the Capuchin monastery were closed, the building of which is located at the foot of the castle hill. In the castle itself from October 1939 to mid-1940 there was a camp for Polish prisoners of war. During the years of occupation during the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis built warehouses in the castle building.

In 1951, the last big fire took place in the castle. Since 1965, the ruins of the castle began to equip the staff of the Lviv Art Gallery. December 21, 1975 in the castle was opened branch gallery.