Location: Khotyn, Khotynskyi Reion Map
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Khotyn Fortress is a medieval fortified building in
Khotyn (Chernivtsi region, Ukraine), built by the Russo-Vlachs during
the reign of the Mushats in the Moldavian principality at the turn of
the XIII–XVIII centuries on the site of a Russian settlement (X–XIII).
This stronghold on the right bank of the Dniester was one of the
most powerful in Eastern Europe at the time, an important defensive and
trading point of Moldavia during the reign of Alexander the Good.
In the list of Russian cities far and near (XIV) it is mentioned as
Khotѣn on the Dniester.
After the decline of Kyivan Rus and the
Principality of Galicia-Volhynia, the Khotyn Fortress was under the
jurisdiction of many state entities - the Moldavian Principality, the
Kingdom of Poland, the Ottoman Empire, and the Russian Empire. During
this period, it also became known under foreign names: pol. Twierdza
Chocim, Romanian. Cetatea Hotin, tour. Hotin Kalesi, Russian Khotyn
fortress.
In the 19th century the fortress lost its strategic
importance, and in 1856 it was abolished as a military object.
In
the 1960s, the complex of fortress buildings received the status of an
architectural monument (oc. No. 803).
On October 12, 2000, the
Khotyn Fortress State Historical and Architectural Reserve was
established.
According to the results of the all-Ukrainian
campaign, the Khotyn Fortress was recognized as one of the "seven
wonders of Ukraine".
The name of the fortress is inextricably linked with
the city that developed around it.
Some researchers believe that
the toponym comes from the verb "to want", since this place was always
desired by the ancient settlers, they always wanted to live in this
beautiful and rich land.
Others associate the name with the name
of the legendary hero - Khotyn Bludovych.
Written sources do not contain information about the time of
construction of both the first stone castle and the citadel that exists
today.
Initially, it was a small wooden fortress built by the
Slavs, its minor remains were discovered during archaeological
excavations.
Their results indicate the existence (VIII-IX
centuries) of a child's castle with simple wooden fortifications on the
high rocky Dniester cape.
After the campaign of Prince Volodymyr
Svyatoslavych and the annexation of the lands of the White Croats and
Tiberians to Kyivan Rus, new fortresses began to be built in this area
(on the border of the 10th and 11th centuries) as centers of princely
power and residences of governors. It was during that period that the
first reliable fortifications appeared in the city of the future citadel
in the form of an earthen rampart with wooden barriers and a ditch dug
across the rocky promontory.
These fortifications guarded a large
crossing on the Dniester, provided protection for the local population
and deterred raids by conquerors.
At that time, the historical
Khotyn was part of the unified defense line of the southwestern borders
of Kyivan Rus.
During the XI-XIII centuries. The Khotyn
settlement and its surroundings were part of the Principalities of
Terebovlya and Galicia, as well as the Principality of Galicia-Volyn.
With the development of the Dniester as a trade route, as well as
other Russian fortifications on its banks, it provided protection for
the water artery.
It is believed that the first stone
fortifications of the Khotyn fortress could have appeared at the turn of
the 1240s-1250s, when King Danylo Halytskyi fortified the old and built
new fortresses to protect against the Mongol invasion. Another opinion
is that it happened after 1259, when, at the request of the Mongol
Danylo Halytskyi and Vasylko Romanovychi, they were forced to destroy
all the defense structures of the principality, including the wooden and
earthen ones of Khotyn, in their place later stone ones were erected.
The analysis of the mortar from the oldest part of the fortress wall
showed its similarity to the Kyiv tsemyankov (lime with a significant
admixture of broken brick) mortars of the 11th-12th centuries. This
shows that the first stone walls could have appeared even earlier, in
the 12th-1st half of the 13th century, when military conflicts between
the Russian and Hungarian kingdoms did not stop.
The territory of
the ancient stone castle-citadel was located in the northern part of the
modern fortress yard (now approximately from the North Tower to the
walls of the Commandant's Palace). The first fortress was small, with an
area of no more than 2 hectares, surrounded by a wall and a
subtriangular six-meter-wide moat. Only the remains of the wall, hidden
in the thickness of the eastern curtain wall, survived from it.
Probably, the main defensive structure was the tower at the place of the
current quadrangular North Tower. It could be a tower, immediately
inscribed in the system of walls, or a separate donjon tower, to which
later walls about thirty meters long were added, forming a sub-square
courtyard.
After the victory of the Lithuanian-Russian army of
Prince Olgerd over the Tatars in the Battle of the Blue Waters, the
fortress passed to their allies, the Ukrainian governors and owners from
Moldavia, who systematically built and strengthened the Khotyn fortress,
which was one of the 6 largest fortresses of the Moldavian principality.
During the archaeological research in the Khotyn fortress, the
remains of a stone wall of the 13th century were traced. Also, a large
treasure of coins dating from the first half of the 13th century was
found.
From the end of the 12th century, a land with a semi-autonomous
status began to form in the south of the Galicia-Volyn principality.
After the Mongol invasion, ties with the Galicia-Volyn lands
weakened, which led to their actual separation at the beginning of
the 14th century, and recognition of the supremacy of the Golden
Horde.
In the middle of the 14th century, the decline of the
Golden Horde, which depended on the region, begins. In 1349, the
Kingdom of Poland seized the Principality of Galicia-Volyn. At the
same time, a new state of Ukrainians and Vlachs was being formed on
the lands in the basin of the Moldavia River - the Principality of
Moldavia.
On the southern border of the Galician
Principality, the Shipinsk land appears - an almost independent
administrative-territorial unit with its own self-government, for
which the Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Hungary and the
Principality of Moldavia waged a fierce struggle.
Jan Dlugos
first documented the Shipinsk land in 1359 in connection with the
campaign of King Casimir III to Moldavia. The approximate boundaries
were described in the charter of 1412. The master of Moldavia
(1375–91) from the Drago-Sas family, Peter I Mushat, in the autumn
of 1377 finally annexed the Shipinsk land (with the fortresses of
Khmeliv, Khotyn and Chechyun (or Tetsyn; now the city of
Chernivtsi)) to the Moldavian principality. "In the old days, the
whole of Moldova was divided into three parts: lower, upper and
Bessarabia" Dimitry Kantemir. That is, the independent principality
of Moldavia historically consisted of three countries: Upper ("Tsara
de sus" (see Kantemir 1973: 21-24)) in the north (Sucava), Lower in
the center (Stariy Orhei) and Bessarabia ((Kelmenets, Novoselitsky
(partly ), Sokyryanskyi and Khotynskyi districts of Chernivtsi
region) from Novoselytsia to the city of Reni and from there to the
mouth of the Danube (southern part of Odesa region)).
The
general management of the land was carried out by the voivode. The
Khotyn fortress was the center of the Khotyn volost ("state"), which
was ruled by a starost ("statesman").
In the 1340s, Khotyn became part of the Moldavian region of the
Hungarian Kingdom, and since 1375 it was part of the independent
Moldavian principality, so from that time the fortress was built by
Moldavian owners. The governor and master, the national hero of
Moldavia, Stephen III the Great (Moldov. Stefan cel Mare)
significantly expanded the boundaries of the fortress. He personally
supervised its reconstruction. A wall decorated with geometric
ornaments 5-6 wide and 40 meters high, five towers were erected, the
level of the fortress courtyard was raised by 10 meters and divided
into the Prince's Court and the Warrior's Court. Deep cellars were
dug for storing provisions. It was after this reconstruction that
the Khotyn Fortress almost completely acquired its present
appearance, except for the southern span of the walls and the
Southern (Entrance) gate with wooden bridges, erected at the
beginning of the 18th century by the Turks. During the 14th–16th
centuries, it was the residence of Moldavian masters. It is thanks
to the presence of such strong stone fortresses that Ukrainian
statehood lasted the longest in Moldova.
In 1476, the
fortress repelled an attack by the Ottoman forces of Sultan Mehmed
II Fatih. However, at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the
Principality of Moldova became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire and
stationed a janissary garrison in the Khotyn walls. The Turks
strengthened the defense capabilities of the fortress.
In
1538, under the leadership of Jan-Amor Tarnowski, the city of Khotyn
was taken by the troops of the Kingdom of Poland. They undermined
the fortress, destroyed 3 towers, part of the western wall and
planted explosives, but the fortress was saved from destruction -
the Moldavian master Peter IV Rares hurried to conclude a peace
treaty and swear allegiance to the Polish king Sigismund I the Old.
After its acquisition, the Poles restored the Khotyn citadel in
1540–1544, but later lost it. In 1561, the fortress was captured by
troops led by the Polish nobleman-adventurer Albrecht Lasky, the
then new master of Moldavia Yakov Vasilaki Heraklid (Lasky's ally)
gave him the fortress and the surrounding settlements for use (Ivan
Piasetskyi, a relative of Dmytro Vyshnevetskyi, was appointed
commandant of the fortress). Due to the conflict between Albrecht
Lasky and Yakov Heraklid, the latter took the fortress from the
Pole, which the former did not forgive, deciding to organize a
campaign against him, involving Dmytro Vyshnevetsky in the campaign.
In 1563, Dmytro Vyshnevetskyi with five hundred Zaporozhian Cossacks
captured the fortress again and held it for a long time.
In
May 1600, after the troops of the ruler of Wallachia and
Transylvania, Mihai the Brave, captured Suceava, the master of
Moldavia, Yeremia Mohyla, and his entourage, among whom were his
brother Simeon Mohyla (father of the future Metropolitan of Kyiv,
Peter Mohyla) and the former ruler of Transylvania, Sigismund Batory
(nephew of the king Stefan Batory of Poland), found refuge in the
Khotyn Fortress, which was owned by Poland at the time.
In 1615, Polish troops under the leadership of Samiil Koretskyi and
Mykhailo Vyshnevetskyi occupied Khotyn again in order to place the
pro-Polish pretender Oleksandr Mohyla on the Moldavian throne instead of
the pro-Turkish Stefan Tomsha.
However, in 1617, according to the
Bushiv Peace Treaty, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth refused to
interfere in the affairs of Moldavia, and the Polish pledge was
withdrawn from Khotyn.
In 1620, at the invitation of the Moldavian ruler Gaspar Graziani,
Polish troops led by the great Crown Hetman Stanislav Zholkevskiy
captured Khotyn again. In the same year, Polish forces suffered a
crushing defeat at the hands of Turkish troops near Tetsora, in which
the great hetman himself died, but Khotyn remained in their hands.
In October 1621, the Cossack-Lithuanian-Polish troops under the
leadership of Peter Sahaidachny (40,000) and Jan Karol Khodkevich
(60,000) won the battle near Khotyn against the Turkish-Tatar (220,000)
troops. On October 8, 1621, Sultan Osman II signed the Khotyn Peace
Treaty, which was generally inconvenient for the Ottoman Empire.
According to the treaty, however, the Turkish-Polish border was again to
pass through the Dniester, and Poland returned Khotyn to the Turks.
In the spring of 1650, Bohdan Khmelnytsky temporarily occupied
Khotyn. In 1653, on the left bank of the Dniester, the Khotyn garrison
of the Turks took part in the Battle of Zhvanetsk.
In November 1673, the Polish-Moldovan-Ukrainian troops led by the
great crown hetman Jan Sobieski won the great battle near Khotyn against
the Turks and occupied the fortress. As a result of this victory, Jan
Sobieski earned the nickname "The Lion of Khotyn", and the following
year he was elected the new king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
However, already at the beginning of August 1674, Turkish forces
regained Khotyn; the Polish army will occupy it again only in 1684.
In 1699, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth returns the Khotyn
Fortress to the Principality of Moldova under the protectorate of the
Ottoman Empire in accordance with the Karlovy Vary Peace Treaty. Since
the 1710s, Khotyn has been under direct Ottoman rule as the center of
the Khotyn nahiye, or Khotyn raya.
At the beginning of the 18th
century, faced with the ever-increasing threat of Muscovy's expansion to
the south, the Ottoman Empire decided to turn Khotyn into the main
outpost on the Dniester. During the years 1711–1718, the Turks, with the
help of invited French engineers, turned the Khotyn Fortress into one of
the most impregnable bastions of the then Central-Eastern Europe. The
New Fortress was built around the old castle, which was designed to
accommodate 20,000 troops inside. The basis of the fortifications were
powerful earthen ramparts, bastions and wide moats, paved with hewn
stone. Gates with towers were installed in the ramparts. A mosque with a
minaret was also built in the New Fortress.
In 1739 and 1769, the
fortress was captured by the Russians. in 1788 by the Austrians and
again given to the Turks.
In 1788, the city was besieged by Austrian troops under the command
of Prince Friedrich and Russian troops of General Ivan Petrovich
Saltykov. The city was besieged for 4 months and 8 days. On September
19, 1788, the city with commandant Osman Pasha surrendered. Osman Pasha
and others were allowed to remove all their men and all their goods from
the castle, fortress and city (2,700 wagons were used). Ivan Saltykov
invited Osman Pasha to his place for dinner. Osman Pasha was the husband
of Helena, the sister of Sofia Kliavone. Sofia Klyavone had a
relationship with Saltykov. Through Saltykov, Kliavone delivered the
letters to her sister in Khotyn Castle. Not without Sofia's help, the
Turks were allowed to take all property and people out of Khotyn. After
the city capitulated, 16,857 residents remained in it, who were given
provisions for 8 days after the capitulation.
On October 1, 1788,
Austrian and Russian troops entered the city. The city was empty and
much ruined.
This is how the Saxon prince Frederick of Saalfeld described the city
at the time:
The Khotyn fortress is quadrangle, 1800 by 730, has four
gates. The gates were called: Vodyani, Istanbul, Bender and Korokhov. In
the middle of the castle there is a palace, a mosque, a Turkish bath,
many shops and 40 different houses that could accommodate 800 people.
The city is located above the fortress and is surrounded by a hornbeam
palisade up to the fortress itself. One suburb was called
Constantinople, and the other, near the gate leading to the road to
Okopy, was called Rumlya. Between the two suburbs was Osman's garden,
which extended beyond the palisade. A small stream flowing into the
Dniester divided the city and the fortress into two parts. The city was
built up with wooden houses. There were 7,000 troops in the fortress,
the commandant at that time was Osman and the janissary chief Druru-oglu
lived there. His brother was killed in one of the skirmishes near
Khotyn.
In 1806, another Russo-Turkish war began, at the beginning of which the tsarist army captured the Khotyn fortress and held it until the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812. According to its terms, the entire territory between the Dniester and the Prut became part of the Russian Empire, receiving the name Bessarabia. In the first half of the 19th century, the Khotyn fortress remained under the supervision of the military department: repair work was carried out here, defensive structures were rebuilt. But the Khotyn fortress lost its former defensive significance and was handed over to the city administration.
On August 24, 1963, the complex of buildings of the fortress (XIII–XVIII) was classified as an architectural monument of the Ukrainian SSR (protection No. 803), which can be used, but exclusively for scientific and museum-exhibition institutions.
On October 12, 2000, at the suggestion of the Chernivtsi regional
state administration, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine by its
resolution (No. 1539) declared the complex of buildings of the Khotyn
Fortress to be the State Historical and Architectural Reserve "Khotyn
Fortress".
On October 20, 2011, the Government, by order,
transferred the reserve to the sphere of administration of the Ministry
of Culture of Ukraine.
The total area of the reserve is 16.2828
hectares (including leased 0.1287 hectares).
Khotyn Fortress has a distinct feature in its outer curtain wall. It is a dark spot that was made when defenders of the castle patched the hole in the wall after new siege. Although local legends claim that it was made by tears of a young girl named Oksana. She was captured by the Turkish forces who tortured her in order to get a secret to get inside Khotyn Fortress and capture the citadel. Oksana refused to give up the secret and betray her people. Ottoman Turks walled her in walls of the castle. It is said that before she died young maiden cried for her unfortunate fate. Her tears made their way through rock of the wall and now a wet spot is clearly visible on the castle exterior.