Foundation and early history Traditionally, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle was thought to have been founded during the second half of the 14th century, as the first accurate historical accounts of the castle date back to the mid-14th century, when most of the territories of western
Rus' were under control of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A written document by
Prince Yuriy Koriatovych in 1374, for example, mentions that the
Magdeburg rights would be presented to Kamianets inside the castle. The castle was outdated but remained vital to the defense of Kamianets and nearby trade routes; as a result, the
voivode of
Kraków,
Spytek of Melsztyn, began modernizing the complex at the turn of the 15th century. During the reconstruction, the old towers were renovated and ten new towers were added. A century and a half later, the castle was updated again, this time by military engineer and architect
Hiob Bretfus, who built the New Western and Eastern Towers, the castle's eastern wall and an underground gallery, as well as the Full Gates and housing for the town's
starosta community.
Continuous attacks by invaders depicting the castle walls with a settlement underneath, which still exists today During the mid-14th to mid-15th centuries, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle was located on one of the main frontiers of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. From 1434 until its annexation by the
Russian Empire in 1793, the castle played a major role in the defense against the oncoming
Cossack,
Ottoman, and Tatar invasions; from the 15th through 17th centuries, the castle was attacked by Tatar
hordes a total of 51 times. The Tatar invasions of 1448, 1451, 1509, and 1528, as well as the Ottoman siege of 1533, caused damage to both the castle and the city but all of these invasions were successfully repelled. when both Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle and the city were transferred to the sovereignty of the
Russian Empire. On the same day, the castle's commandant gave up the key to the castle and swore allegiance to the empire in the city's cathedral.
Museum and conservation After a series of political changes following the
1905 revolution, political parties and organizations were allowed by the law throughout the
Russian Empire. In 1906, a total of 67 political organizations were based in the castle. Among them was the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party's newspaper "Iskra" (
Spark). A decree issued by the
Sovnarkom of the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1928 declared Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle complex a historical-cultural preserve. During the late 1930s, plans were made to turn the castle into a museum, and reconstruction work on the buildings was started in 1937. On September 13, 1989, the
Ukrainian SSR Government placed Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle and Old Town on the
tentative list of UNESCO
World Heritage Sites. On August 21, 2007, the complex was declared one of the
Seven Wonders of Ukraine when it came in 3rd place in a nationwide competition. ==Architecture==