Description of the attraction
The original purpose of the tower of Stefan Batory was to protect the northern part of the peninsula, which was formed by the "loop" of the Smotrych River - the location of the Old Town of Kamenets-Podolsk. They used the tower as a gateway and at the same time they could shell the entire northern part of the city territory with the adjacent canyon of the Smotrych River from it.
A tower appeared on the site of the old city gate of the 13th century. It was built in 64-65 years of the 16th century, and the head of the fortification of the city, Matvey Galichanin, supervised the construction. Initially, the tower had five tiers and had an elliptical base. In 85 of the same century, a rectangular room was added to the tower from the side of the city, after which it became horseshoe-shaped at the base, and the roof of the building received its original shape, crowned with two conical ends. At the same time, from the west, a gate building was completed to the tower, rectangular in plan, with a lancet vault, which had a passage.
The implementation of these works was entrusted to the head of the fortification of the city, Nikolai Brzezsky, assisted by the court architect of King of Poland Stefan Batory Camerino Rudolfino. The tower was named in honor of the Polish monarch. In addition, the tower was also called Royal, Furrier, Seven-story.
In 1928, the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR issued a resolution, according to which the tower was included in the register of monuments protected by the state. In 1956, the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR added the tower to the list of monuments of republican status. Now it belongs to the Ukrainian monuments of urban planning and architecture of national importance. This is the largest tower of all available in Kamenets-Podolsk. Experts have recognized the tower of Stefan Bathory as one of the outstanding creations of defense architecture of the 16th century.
