Description of the attraction
One of the attractions of the city of Lutsk is the Czartoryski Tower, which is located at 29a Dragomanova Street.
The Czartoryski defensive tower is a remnant of the fortifications of the Roundabout Castle, built in the 14th-15th centuries. The roundabout castle served to strengthen the defenses of the western and southern sides of the Upper Castle. From the south, east and west, the castle was fenced by a stone wall with four towers. Its territory could only be reached with the help of a bridge laid over a moat filled with water. In the XVIII-XIX Art. the fortifications were gradually dismantled, and the ditches were filled up. Until today, only one tower has survived, named after the Czartoryski princes who owned Lutsk in the 15th-16th centuries.
The surviving tower of the Czartoryski family, built of bricks and mortar, is three-tiered, rectangular in plan (originally square) and covered with a four-sided tent. The first two tiers of the tower are covered with cylindrical vaults. At the beginning of the XVI century. the tower was reconstructed, and in the 17th century. changed its original square plan. The architecture had loopholes and embrasures covered with bow-shaped lintels, which were later turned into windows. The wall adjoining the tower, built of limestone on lime mortar and bricks, was originally completed with merlin teeth and had a wooden battle gallery, from which only the nests of the beams have survived. Inside the tower, there are wall niches that acted as small chambers, currently covered with bricks. Part of the wall adjacent to the tower is decorated with a diamond-shaped Gothic mesh pattern made of colored brickwork.
In the early 80s of the twentieth century, work was carried out to preserve the wall and tower. Now the tower of the Czartoryski family adjoins the building of the Jesuit monastery with a wall, therefore, this architectural monument can only be viewed from the side of Dragomanova Street.
