By Iryna Pustynnikova
www.castles.com.ua
They say that each year, on January 1st in the morning, when Kamyanets is still sleeping, a wonderful bird flies over Virmenskyi Rynok Square. It is so huge that it hides clouds with its wings. After flying over the square, the bird drops one feather. If the feather is black, do not expect anything good, if it is grey, life will be routine, yellow means a fruitful year, and white means happiness. Let us hope that year 2009 will run under a sign of the white feather
Kamyanets-Podilsky (Khmelnytsky region) is listed among the “Seven Wonders of Ukraine” for good reasons. Its gems are the mighty fortress, the incredible Old City, and the fairytale Smotrych River canyon. They say that this canyon inspired Mikhail Bulgakov, who was a doctor in the local hospital, for his description of Jerusalem in the novel “Master and Margarita”. In such natural scenery, exciting events should happen! And they did happen. Here is one such story…
The most famous knights of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth struggled for the heart of beautiful Rosanda, the younger daughter of Moldavian Hospodar Vasile Lupu (also known as Lupul). The most likely candidate was Chernihiv Voivode Martin Kalinovskiy. But all plans were destroyed by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky: he was dreaming to legalise his ruling dynasty by marrying his sons to European princesses. Having heard about this, Kalinovskiy gathered almost all Polish gentlemen under his banner for the “Romantic Campaign” of 1652, which was fought under the war cry “protect our beautiful princess from marriage with a wild Cossack”. In the battle near Batih on the Buh River (now in the Vinnytsia region) Polish Chernihiv Voivode died, devastating the Poles. Soon Rosanda became the wife of the Hetman’s son, Tymish Khmelnytsky. Tymish and Rosanda did not love each other and did not even meet before the wedding.
The couple got married in Yassy (now in Romania), but legends place this event in the wooden Church of the Exaltation of the Cross on Karvasary in Kamyanets. It does not matter that the sanctuary was built one and a half century later, in 1799-1801. The place is perfectly fit for weddings: it is between high rocks of the canyon, under the protection of the mighty Old Fortress commanding a view of the Old city and surrounded with the ribbon of the Smotrych River.
Legends connect one more building with Rosanda. They say that when Moldavian boyars dethroned Vasile Lupu, he and his then widowed daughter and grandchildren hid in the house of a Kamyanets Elder, near the Dominican monastery. The Elder appreciated Rosanda and especially her father’s treasures, and asked her in marriage. However, the young woman answered proudly that she would not marry again. They say that the treasures of Lupu remained in the house of the Elder. In fact, after the Second World War, boys found ancient coins there… Near the house of the Elder, there is Ukraine’s oldest City Hall, built in the 14th-19th centuries. In the City Hall, there is a museum of Magdeburg Right, a museum of money and an exhibition titled “Court in Medieval Kamyanets”.
Evidence that Kamyanets was one of the strongest fortresses of Europe for several centuries is found in the watchtowers standing all round the city-island. One of them is the huge Batory tower (1585). When, in 1711, Tsar Peter the First came to visit the famous city-fortress, his three-corned hat was blown off by the wind at the gates. The angry monarch shouted: “What a windy gate!” Since then it has been called thus. Ukrainian genius Taras Shevchenko also entered this gate in 1846.
Near the tower, there is a Turkish bastion, a reminder of ottoman rule in 1672-1699. Lower, there is the Polska (Polish) Gate, a unique system of sluices that raised the level of the Smotrych River in case of attack.
From Polska Gate, you can go up to St. Peter and Paul Cathedral from the 15th - 19th centuries. Here a 36-metre-high minaret with a gilded statue of Madonna on its top stands by the chapel. During Turkish rule (1672-1699), the cathedral was turned into a mosque, and when Kamyanets was returned to Poland, the new rulers decided not to demolish the minaret but installed a gilded statue on its top. In the Cathedral, there is the most valuable art treasure of Kamyanets, a marble headstone of 21-year-old Laura Przezdziecka made by sculptor V. Brodsky in 1874-76. This sculpture group was once sought after by the Hermitage museum in St.-Petersburg, but the city managed to keep Laura.
From the Cathedral, we come through the Triumphal Arc built in 1781 in honour of the visit of King Stanislaw Poniatovskyi. Guides advise visitors to make a wish here. The ritual was founded by former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. He was in the city in 1994, a few days before the presidential elections, and the wish he made came true. Are you dreaming about of the glory of politicians and kings? Go to Kamyanets for the New Year and catch the white feather!
USEFUL INFORMATION
Kamyanets-Podilsky official website: http://city.kp.km.ua/
State Historical and Cultural Reserve “Kamyanets”: 2 Predtechenska Str. Tel.: +38 03849 237 84, http://museum.k-p.km.ua/
Old Fortress: 1 Zamkova Str.
Entrance ticket: UAH8, children - UAH4.
Open daily from 9:00 to 18:00
Kamyanets-Podilsky Art Gallery: 11 Piatnytska Str. Tel.: +38 03849 225 21. Entrance: UAH4, children - UAH3.
Archaeological Museum: 2 Predtechenska Str.
Entrance: UAH3, children - UAH2.
Open daily except Mondays, from 10:00 to 18:00.
GETTING TO KAMYANETS
UIA offers direct daily flights to Kyiv from most of Western Europe’s largest cities. With your Panorama Club Card, you can earn miles on all UIA flights and flights of our partner airlines: Air France (excluding the Kyiv-Paris route), Austrian Airlines, KLM, Swiss International Air Lines, and TAP Portugal.
Buy tickets online at Ukraine International website.
For more information, call us in Kyiv at +38 044 581 5050.
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