Description of the attraction
The Panovetsky castle is located in the village of Panivtsy near the town of Kamenets-Podilsky in the Khmelnytsky region. Today the ruins of some rooms, the northwestern outer tower and defensive walls have survived from the castle.
The castle is located on a high rocky mountain above the Smotrych river. It was at this place that the fortification was erected, most likely, in the second half of the 15th century. In the middle of the 16th century, the Kamenets headman Nikolai Pototsky became the owner of the castle, who strengthened this structure. Later, his son Jan Potocki, who was the governor of Bratslav, began building a new castle using the old walls and finished it in 1590. The castle had thick walls, large dungeons and deep moats. The Panovites at that time had the status of a city.
According to the planned configuration, the castle was square. Between the two quadrangular outer towers along the northern wall was a two-story palace. On the inner south side, there were also two small square towers, a collegium building with two-storey entrance gates was built near them, and a printing house was eventually added to the southwestern tower, which was later reconstructed into a chapel. Also, a school with an academy was built at the castle, which had several classes. This entire complex was surrounded by a moat and earthen ramparts.
During the Polish-Cossack war, the castle was devastated. It was partially restored only in the 18th century. The ruins of the palace, as well as the northwestern quadrangular outer tower and partly the defensive walls of the castle, have survived to this day. The northwestern quadrangular tower, which with an acute angle protrudes significantly beyond the line of the defensive walls, is laid out of sandstone.
This monument of defensive architecture is a regular proto-bastion type of castles with external towers.
