Vishnevetsky Palace, Vishnevets. Fortress cities of the left bank and suburban Ukraine Vishnevetsky Palace

In the village of Vishnevets, Ternopil region, a luxurious palace built in the style of classicism with baroque elements has been preserved.

The palace, its owners and inhabitants have a long and most interesting story, which began at the end of the 15th century, when Prince Mikhail Vishnevetsky built a defensive castle on the high bank of the Goryn River. Here, in the family nest, the chronicle of the mighty family of the Vishnevetsky princes begins. In 1640, Yarema Vishnevetsky significantly strengthened the stronghold by building bastions and a monastery, which was part of the defense system. But these measures did not save the fortification from being captured by the Cossacks during the uprising in 1648 and destroyed by the Turks after the signing of the Treaty of Zborov.

Literally from the ashes, the castle was revived by Mikhail Servatius, the last representative of the Vishnevetsky family, giving it luxury similar to French residences, but without depriving it of its defensive value. A huge park was laid out and a church was built.

After the death of Servacy in 1744, the estate passed to close relatives of the Vishnevetskys - the Mniszek family. Thanks to their generosity and education, Vishnevets becomes a cultural center. Eighty meter hall of mirrors, a theater hall, a hunting hall, an art gallery, sculptures, exquisite interiors, antique furniture, magnificent dishes - this is not all that appeared in the palace during the ownership of the new owners. The lobbies were lined with 40 thousand ceramic tiles, each with a unique pattern. The roof had an unusual Blue colour. The library with 22 thousand volumes is the largest collection of rare items in Europe. Unfortunately, most of the books have been lost. Some literary relics are kept in the National Library in Kyiv and in the All-Ukrainian Historical Museum.

60 years before the First World War, the palace changed 9 owners. After the war, the reconstruction was carried out by the Kiev architect V. Gorodetsky. Before World War II, the remaining valuables were taken to Moscow.

The Gestapo and Gendarmerie were located in the palace during the war.

Since 1963, the estate has become an architectural monument, but this does not prevent various institutions from settling here. The premises are occupied by a garment factory, vocational school, and other organizations. Only with the proclamation of the Independence of Ukraine in 1993 are research papers and the castle becomes a branch of the State Historical and Architectural Reserve in Zbarazh. In 2005 - the National Reserve "Castles of Ternopil Region". Repairs and restoration of exhibits are being carried out, and the area is being improved. The museum is always full of visitors.

Passing through an openwork arch, then through a white pylon, a U-shaped palace of a soft peach color opens to your gaze.

The palace square is dissected by paths and green lawns.

The pediment is decorated with stucco depicting cupids and muses holding the family coat of arms.

Opposite the palace are former utility rooms, a stable and a residential building for servants, where there were 70 rooms.

The modern furnishings of the castle are as close as possible to the atmosphere of those years when the estate was called the Volyn Versailles.

And the French writer Honore de Balzac called it that. It was in this castle that his feelings for Evelina Ganskaya, who became his muse and wife, arose.

The staircase to the second floor has changed as a result of redevelopment. But, for sure, it had an equally magnificent view, and aristocrats descended along it, rustling the folds of their exquisite dresses.

The art gallery features portraits of historical figures.

Dmitry Vishnevetsky was born here in 1517 and became a Cossack leader, creating a fortress on the island of Khortitsa and not allowing the Tatar-Turkish army beyond the Dnieper with his small detachment.

During the Time of Troubles, one of the most adventurous couples in history met here - False Dmitry I and Marina Mnishek. In 1605 they were engaged in the castle church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Icons restored by master Maginsky are kept.

The balcony offers views of Vishnevets, which for centuries was the scene of military operations.

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built in 1530, has survived all the hard times, perhaps because the founders of the estate, the Vishnevetsky princes, are buried in the courtyard.

The museum hosts exhibitions of contemporary professional artists and amateurs.

The 18th century park, laid out in the English style, has the status of an architectural and urban planning monument. Now the alleys are overgrown with self-seeding, and the steps of the stairs have been worn away. And once upon a time, aristocrats strolled here, relaxing in gazebos and secluded benches.

Trees are mute witnesses to palace secrets. One of them was planted by Countess Ursula Mniszech, a lady of state. The beech has absorbed all the positive qualities of its owner - beauty and romance.

This shop is famous for the fact that T. G. Shevchenko was seen here surrounded local residents during his stay in Vishnevets in 1846 as part of the Kyiv Archiographic Commission. Hearing the story about ill-treatment with the peasants of the castle owner during a game of chess, when the pieces were serfs and their fate depended on the skill of the player, the poet sang a song: “Oh, woe to these chaps!” In memory of Kobzar’s stay in the palace, a memorial plaque was installed at the entrance.

IN different time The castle was visited by Peter I, Paul I, Ivan Mazepa, Nikolai Kostomarov, Lesya Ukrainka and many other prominent personalities. And each had its own story and its own secrets.

Vyshnevetsky Castle occupies one of the leading places in the golden reserve of the cultural heritage of Ternopil region and Ukraine. The castle's holiday is October 14, on the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I thank the organizers of the fascinating excursion and the guide Maryana for the interesting story. I really enjoyed my trip to this wonderful place, and I am sharing my impressions.

You can get there from the bus station in Ternopil. Buses run frequently. Distance 47 km. Travel time 1 hour.

Address: village Vishnevets, st. Zamkovaya, 5
+380 3550 3 12 34, +380 67 304 19 49
Open: 08:00-17:00

Website National Park"Castles of Ternopil":
http://nzzt.com.ua/news.php

Tourism Department of Ternopil Regional Administration:
tel. +380 352 43 42 31; +380 67 688 50 13.
Ternopil, st. Grushevsky, 8

Castle in Vishnevets

The removal of Dmitry Koribut Olgerdovich (1358 - 1404) from princely power in Novgorod-Seversky in 1395 brought him in return extensive possessions in the Volyn lands, where under his leadership the active construction of defensive fortresses began. So in the valley of the Goryn River in the village of Vishnevets (now Stary Vishnevets) the first castle appeared.

After the death of Dmitry Koribut, due to the absence of male heirs, the castle in Vishnevets, together with the estate, was passed on for three generations along the side line of the Olgerdovichs - Nesvitskys until Mikhail Vasilyevich Zbarazhsky (- 1517) took over.

The central entrance of the palace in Vishnevets

Another Turkish-Tatar raid in 1494 wiped out the fortress in Stary Vishnevets from the face of the earth, as well as the village under its protection. In this regard, in the same year, Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich, who had already adopted a second surname - Vishnevetsky, founded a new stronghold upstream of the river at the top of a steep hill - Vishnevetsky Castle, which was destined to become a stronghold and protector of a new family from Turkish-Tatar raids on many centuries to come.

The stronghold acquired its final appearance as a defensive facility after a large-scale reconstruction in the 1640s, carried out under the leadership of Jeremiah Vishnevetsky (1612 - 1651). It was then that the fortress acquired the features of a bastion defense system, which, however, did not save it from being captured by the Cossacks during the uprising of 1648 and plundered by the Tatars a year later after the signing of the Peace of Zborov.

Entrance arch of the palace in Vishnevets

And, despite the use of the most modern (at that time) technology of fortification art, Vishnevets falls under the blows of enemies: first in 1655 from the sword of the Tatars, and twenty years later (in 1675 during the Polish-Turkish war) - the Turks, turning into ruins. The result of the turbulent 17th century was that the city and fortress were in ruins; the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Jan III Sobieski (1629 - 1696), exempted Vishnewiec from paying taxes for twelve years.

The Vishnevetsky family nest owes its revival from oblivion to the last representative in the male line of this wealthy Polish magnate family - Mikhail Servatsy (1680 - 1744), who on the “extinct ashes” is no longer building a castle - a magnificent palace, completed by 1720, which has not lost its role as a defense object (the garrison lived here until the 1760s). A little later, integral attributes of palace luxury appeared - a castle church and a vast park.

The central building of the castle in Vishnevets

The death of the last man in the Vishnevetsky family transfers the palace estate in Vishnevets through the female line to the Mniszek family, under whose leadership the palace shone with all facets of its beauty, adding another pearl to the necklace of European palace and park art.

Three generations of owners with the surname Mniszech (Jan Karol (1716 - 1759), Mikhail Jerzy (1748 - 1806) and King Philip (1794 - 1846)) give the Wisniewiecki Palace a truly royal splendor: painting (some portraits from the private collections of the Wisniewiecki, Potocki, Sangushko, Czartoryski, Ostrozhski... about six hundred), sculpture, antique furniture, Dutch tiles, literature (about twenty-one thousand volumes), armor, tableware... The radical restructuring of the main building of the complex only adds the finishing touch to the portrait of one of the best palace residences in Volyn.

Main staircase of the castle park in Vishnevets

The last owner of the Mnishek family, Andrei Jerzy (1823 - 1905), four years after taking over the inheritance, left for France, taking the most valuable relics of the family collection (two thousand books, family portraits and correspondence, works on the heraldry of the family). The palace in Vishnevets for many years turns into a place of auction, where the lots are those same family portraits and books, interior items and sculptures collected earlier with love and trepidation... - everything that the inhabitants are for ( for the most part antique dealers from all over Europe) are ready to pay money.

In just over sixty years (from 1852 to 1913), the castle changed nine owners, who, despite their titles and ranks, used one of the once richest palaces in Europe only as a means of replenishing their rapidly dwindling bank accounts. During this time, the palace lost its former luxury, and the priceless collection was wasted.

Before the First World War (1914 - 1918) an attempt was made to restore palace complex in Vyshnivtsi its next owner was the Volyn leader of the nobility - Pavel Aleksandrovich Demidov (1869 - 1935), for which the architect Vladislav Gorodetsky (1863 - 1930) was even invited from Kyiv. But the war and revolution of 1917 made their own adjustments: first the premises were occupied by the 25th Corps of the Russian Army, then the Ministry of the Provisional Government, which was replaced by Petliura’s adjutants.

Western wing of the palace in Vishnevets

In the mid-20s of the twentieth century main building The Vishnevetsky Palace again hosted a museum collection within its walls, while the other premises were occupied by a craft school.

The Second World War ended the work begun by its predecessors: the remains of the palace valuables were taken to Moscow (1940 - 1941), the use of German troops as a gendarmerie and the Gestapo (1941 - 1944) deprived the complex of the last exhibits, the fire during liberation only completed the destruction that had begun earlier (1944).

The post-war restoration of the 1950s almost completely restored the external appearance of the Vishnevetska Pearl, with the only difference being that the internal redevelopment of the premises was carried out, and the park is no longer given due attention - it was partially overgrown with self-seeding, and partially destroyed local population.

Utility buildings of the palace in Vishnevets

Only in 1963, the Vishnevetsky Palace was recognized by the authorities as an architectural monument, but despite this, in the next decade its premises were actively used for the needs of various economic organizations (House of Culture, library, haberdashery shop, vocational school).

The acquisition of independence by Ukraine has a beneficial effect on the fate of the palace complex: historical and cultural research was carried out (1993), the castle officially became a branch of the State Historical and Architectural Reserve in Zbarazh (1999), and later - the National Reserve “Castles of Ternopil Region” (2005), approved and started the program for the preservation and use of the palaces and park complex will be implemented (2005 - 2011), the buildings of the complex were abandoned by all other economic organizations (2007).

At the moment, the castle in Vishnevets has shone with all facets of its beauty: the external restoration of the building has been completed, the bulk of the internal work has been completed, the eight-hectare park has been partially landscaped, and the fence has been restored.

Architecture

Inner courtyard of the castle in Vishnevets

Castle in 1640 It was a quadrangular fortress fortified at the corners with bastions. From the south, additional protection was provided by the steep high slope of the mountain above the Nest River, and the approaches to the stronghold from other parts of the world were protected by a ditch and earthen fortifications, in the center of which drawbridges were built under the protection of ravelins (from the north and west).

The inner perimeter of the castle walls was built up with residential and commercial buildings. The dominant feature of the complex, as it is now, was the palace near the southern wall.

From the east, the outer perimeter of the defense of the fortress was closed by the podzamche - an area with residential and commercial buildings, protected by its own defense structures.

The central entrance of the castle in Vishnevets

After restoration transformation 1720 the palace acquired its current appearance - a U-shaped building with an area of ​​1470 m2 with two side wings and the main building in the center (previously the parts were scattered and did not communicate with each other).

Decorated with side and axial projections that transform the volume of the building from two to three stories, the facades facing the internal front courtyard are decorated with a pedimentless portico of the Tuscan order and rustication on the first tier. The splendor of the Vishnevetska Pearl is completed by a triangular pediment with stucco molding in the central part.

The interior decoration of the palace amazed the imagination of contemporaries: an eighty-meter hall of mirrors, ceramic tiles on the floor (each with a unique design), the walls are draped with fabrics with gold embroidery self made, panels are trimmed with valuable wood species, roof with dance hall covered with blue ceramic tiles.

There are legendary treasures that are sometimes searched for hundreds of years and cannot be found, although the place of their burial seems to be well known. They are mentioned in ancient chronicles, their existence is confirmed by legends and traditions preserved by local residents. Such a “charmed” treasure turned out to be the treasures of Jeremiah Vishnevetsky, hidden by him in the city of Lubny (present-day Poltava region in Ukraine).

The first information about underground caches in Lubny was collected at the end of the 19th century by historian K. Bochkarev. Here is one typical example of such unexpected finds: “Several years ago, the Lubny justice of the peace had a lawsuit between two Jews V. and K. “On the restoration of violated property.” Many witnesses from one side and the other clarified the essence of the case, but then the judge had a question: how could the parties own a building that stretched to the very middle of the Market Square, when there was an empty, undeveloped place there? And only as a result of a new interrogation it was discovered that the dispute was about underground ownership: the plaintiff opened a passage from his basement to an underground gallery and began to use it for storing goods, occupying it further and further. The defendant, from his yard, used the mine (gallery) at the other end for household needs, and so each owned it calmly and undisputedly until both collided.”

The creation of a second underground, hidden city near Lubny is associated with the fabulously rich Ukrainian magnate, Prince Jeremiah Vishnevetsky. He owned 53 cities, many villages and castles. In 1640, the ruler of Vishnevechina turned Lubny into his capital. Experienced architects and monks of the Benedictine order were invited to build the castle-fortress. In a year, on a high hill above the Sula River, he ascended impregnable castle with high walls and quadrangular towers.

The controversial personality of Vishnevetsky still causes controversy between historians in Poland, Ukraine and Russia. For Catholics, a prince is a European-educated person, a brilliant commander, and a defender of the Catholic faith. And Orthodox residents of Ukraine consider him a traitor and a bloody punisher who disgraced the ancient Vishnevetsky family, which has long adhered to the true, traditional faith.

Jeremiah's grandfather, Dmitry Vishnevetsky, was the legendary leader of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. When he was captured by the Turks, he refused to exchange Orthodox faith to Islam and was brutally tortured. The mother of Jeremiah Vishnevetsky, Raina Mogilyanka, was considered a zealot of Orthodoxy and built churches and monasteries in Ukraine. But unexpectedly for relatives and admirers of the ancient family, the son of R. Mogilyanka, Jeremiah, converted to Catholicism at the age of 19 and became a ruthless persecutor of the Orthodox.

In 1648, the rebel Cossacks, led by Colonel Maxim Krivonos, suddenly approached Lubny and besieged the princely castle, famous for its unprecedented luxury. The prince with a small retinue hastily, abandoning all his treasures, fled to Poland. And the treasures were truly countless - only several cartloads of dishes and silver sculptures were stored in the castle. According to ancient legend, the prince hid them in the underground hiding places of the city of Lubny. The Cossacks took the castle by storm, destroyed it to the ground, but never got to the treasures. In 1651, after the victory over the troops of Bohdan Khmelnitsky near Berestechko, the 39-year-old Prince Vishnevetsky died suddenly and, as usually happens when burying treasures, did not have time to reveal the secrets of his treasure.

The existence of ancestral treasures hidden underground is confirmed not only by legends. During construction work and in the sinkholes that periodically occur in the city, previously unknown passages and dungeons were discovered more than once. The tunnels, which lay at a depth of three to seven meters, often had Gothic vaults; often these were intricate labyrinths with numerous branches, it was unclear where they led. In the 60s years XIX century, in the area where the castle of Prince Vishnevetsky once stood, a deep underground corridor suddenly opened up in the collapsed ground: “The brave souls descended into it and at the end of the passage they saw an iron door locked with a large padlock, but, fearing a collapse, which soon happened, they didn’t dare to break down the doors.”

Construction underground city in Lubny is often associated with the monks of the Benedictine order, whom the militant Catholic Jeremiah Vishnevetsky invited to his place in Lubny to establish the Catholic faith in his capital. The monks not only built a majestic monastery in the city, but also built vast dungeons underneath it, connected by secret passages to the castle. In 1880, the owner of one of the buildings that belonged to a Benedictine monastery in the 17th-16th centuries began treating his friends with extraordinary wine on special days. And only before his death he admitted that in his basement he had woven an underground passage into the monastery wine cellars, from which several underground passages covered with earth went towards the castle.

In 1899, during the construction of the foundation on Bazarnaya Square, a vast dungeon was found where seven human skeletons lay. An underground passage led from the dungeon towards the Lubyanka River, but because of the rubble in it, people were unable to leave their hiding place. And in the area where the church stood in the 17th century, they discovered a gallery 2.5 meters wide and 3.2 meters high. This gallery was divided into two branches: the first led to Cathedral Square, but after 30 meters it was blocked by a rubble. We walked about twenty steps along the second passage and came across a half-rotten oak door. They broke it quickly, but could not go further - it was impossible to breathe because of the stale air. Here they found several silver coins, a fragment of a sword, some half-decayed documents and medieval tiles.

They searched for Vishnevetsky's treasures for a long time, but to no avail. In 1916, the city government allocated substantial funds for the search for the princely “treasury”. For this work, a well-known specialist in the search for underground treasures, archaeologist I. Stelletsky, was invited from Moscow. But both his efforts and his wealth of experience did not bring quick results. Due to the outbreak of the First World War, work soon had to be curtailed. In 1922-1923, the archaeologist returned to Lubny. With the help of local history buffs, he managed to pinpoint the place where the castle stood in the 17th century (the Val tract) and find an underground passage leading from it towards the river, along which the defenders of the castle once escaped from the Cossacks of Colonel Krivonos: “A peculiar passage for escape, it was hastily built by Jeremiah Vshpnevetsky in his capital, the tough Lubny, wrote Stelletsky. - The passage was dug in the ruined layer of the shaft and lined with logs and boards. At a high altitude, the passage led into a ravine that flowed into the Sulu River. The need to build such a passage was caused by the outbreak of a popular uprising under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. As established by excavations, this passage was soon burned by the Krivonos Cossacks when they took the castle by storm. Excavations have revealed traces of the horrific tragedy that took place here. The only escape route from the burning castle was a wooden hiding place to the Sula River. It was set on fire by the Cossacks from the exit side. Those in front were trying to go back, and more and more masses of people were pressing out from the castle. Incredible scenes of the death struggle amid fire and smoke! The burnt vault collapsed and buried its victims. The bones were found piled up in the most unnatural positions.” The discovered secret passage helped solve one of the historical mysteries, but Vishnevetsky’s treasures again eluded the treasure hunters.

I. Stelletsky, by his own admission, was on the right path in his quest, and it was necessary to further excavate the ruins of the castle in search of a cache of treasures. The historian was sure that there was another underground passage, which in the 17th century connected the Vishnevetsky castle with the Benedictine monastery. But the archaeologist was unable to verify his guess in practice. Local authorities categorically opposed the continuation of work, and the search had to be stopped...

Nowadays, several enthusiasts working on the Vishnevetsky treasure have suggested that this treasure will never be found. The curse of his mother lies on the treasures and on the prince himself. In 1610, at the founding of the Mgarsky monastery near Lubny, in a special act, Princess Vishnevetskaya cursed everyone who dared to betray the holy Orthodox faith...

One of the most experienced dowsing operators in Russia, Sergei Bakhrak, agreed with the possibility of hiding treasure using special rituals or curses.

Bachrak is not a theorist, but a unique practitioner who skillfully works with the dowsing frame. For many years, he carried out work at the Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery, preventing accidents on complex chemical expensive equipment. In Moscow, at the request of Mosteploenergo, this specialist, with a reliability of up to 80-90%, not only found places of leaks in heating pipes, but also sections of pipes where, as a result of corrosion damage, such leaks could occur in the near future.

Together with the staff of the Association for Engineering Dowsing, Bachrak tried several times to find the ancient Liberia of Ivan the Terrible. But all attempts ended in complete failure. The operators either faced an insurmountable “mental” barrier, or with each new attempt to locate the library, the frame pointed not to it, but to its “phantom”, located in one place or another.

According to S. Bachrak, he first encountered the “phantom” phenomenon while searching for victims of Stalin’s repressions, who were, according to rumors, buried under the walls of the Moscow Novospassky Monastery. Several experienced operators confidently pointed out the buried remains of victims on the steep slope leading from the monastery to big pond. A wooden cross was erected at the site of the mass grave. When trying to dig up the burial, no traces of him were found. According to the operators, one of those who came to the cross and read the sign about people shot at this place had very strong extrasensory abilities, and he, believing the inscription, involuntarily created a “phantom” of a mass grave at this place, which the operators could not distinguish from real object. Our ancestors knew how to create such “phantoms” of treasures and invisible barriers that lead their seekers away from their goals.

The reliability and duration of existence of such barriers were determined by the experience of the sorcerer or the intensity of the passions of a person who had the makings of extrasensory abilities. It is likely that the treasure seekers in the city of Lubny encountered such a curse-spell cast by Princess Vishnevetskaya.

But modern search methods are much stronger than bio. frames and phantoms!!! Good luck, gentlemen!

In the town of Vishnevets (emphasis on I) in the Ternopil region there is a majestic building named after the surname of a local noble family - the Vishnevetsky Palace. It is not without reason that this building is called the Volyn Versailles. Lush and majestic, the palace attracts many tourists. Mikhail Servatius Vishnevetsky, thanks to whom the palace was built, had no children. Having a huge fortune, having reached significant heights in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he decided: if I cannot have a son-heir, then I will leave behind something more - a palace that will amaze future generations. And so it happened. Now the Vishnevetsky Palace is an architectural monument of the 18th century of national significance, as well as a wonderful place that is worth getting to know more closely. The palace is an integral part of the National Reserve "Castles of Ternopil Region".

Story

The Vishnevetsky Palace - the former residence of the last representative of the Vishnevetsky princely family, Mikhail Servacy - stands on the site of a former defensive castle, built back in 1395 to protect against Turkish-Tatar raids.

old lock

The old defensive castle was rebuilt and strengthened in the mid-17th century at the expense of Yarema Vishnevetsky. The castle fortifications were modernized, and a defensive Carmelite monastery was built, which was part of the unified defensive system of the Vishnevetsky castle. But this did not help: in 1648 it was captured by the Cossacks, and in 1675, during an attack by the Turks, the castle was taken. The enemies destroyed all the gentry, closed inside. The fortification elements were restored again several decades later, but Vishnevets had forever lost its defensive significance.

Castle

Construction of the new palace was completed in 1720. A little later, integral attributes of palace luxury appeared - a castle church and a large park.

After the death of the last man in the Vishnevetsky family, the palace estate in Vishnevets went to relatives on the female side - the Mnisheks. Three generations of the Mniszek family added royal splendor to the palace in Wisniewiec: works of painting (only portraits from the private collections of the Wisniewiecki, Potocki, Sangushko, Czartoryski, Ostrozhskis were in the collection of about six hundred), sculpture, antique furniture, Dutch tiles, more than twenty thousand volumes of books , weapons, tableware...

Architecture and composition

The architecture of the palace combines features of late Baroque and classicism. After reconstruction, the spacious palace acquired the outlines of a classical style. The symmetrical U-shaped composition of the palace includes an elongated two-tier building with flanks and side bay windows. The central part of the facade with the main entrance is decorated with a risalit; at the top there is a triangular shield decorated with lush stucco. The gates of the residence are modeled after ancient triumphal gates.

Palace inside

The internal structure of the palace is symmetrical, mirrored, and includes a vestibule with a staircase and a salon. Several halls in the ground floor are united by arched passages. The 80-meter-long (!) mirror gallery housed an art collection, one of the largest in the private residences of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 18th century.

The Vishnevetsky Palace amazed with its decoration: velvet and satin, gilding and bronze everywhere, paintings and valuable watches, rich furniture with coats of arms. The greatest pride of the owners of the palace was a huge library, numbering thousands of volumes collected from all over the world. The theater hall also attracted the attention of visitors, where various performances were shown, including those with invited foreign actors.

The fate of the collection

The last owner of the Mniszek family, Andrei Jerzy, went to live in France soon after taking over the inheritance rights and took valuable relics of the family collection with him. Among them were family portraits and correspondence, works on family heraldry and two thousand books. Then the palace in Vishnevets “went under the hammer”: portraits and books, interior items and sculpture were sold. After this, the castle changed nine owners and finally lost all its former luxury.

Despite all the hardships and losses, part of the book collection of the palace in Vishnevets is now stored in the departments of early printed and rare books of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine.

First World War

Before the First World War, the then owner of the palace complex, Pavel Demidov, tried to carry out the restoration of the complex, even inviting the famous architect Vladislav Gorodetsky from Kyiv for this purpose. But due to the war and revolution in Russia, this attempt was not successful. Soon one of the units of the Russian army was stationed in the palace premises, then the ministry of the provisional government, and then the troops of the Directory took over.

After the war, a museum was opened in the main building of the palace, and a craft school operated in other premises.

World War II

During World War II, the remains of palace valuables were taken to Moscow. German troops used the buildings of the palace complex for the needs of the gendarmerie and the Gestapo. The destruction was completed by a fire during the liberation of the city in 1944.

In Soviet times, the palace was repaired, but it was not restored interior decoration. After that, a cultural center, a vocational school, a haberdashery shop and a library operated in the palace premises.

Years of independence

Only in the 2000s the complex was turned into a museum, which is now part of the National Reserve "Castles of Ternopil Region". The castle building in Vishnevets has now been completely restored externally, and the bulk of the internal work has also been completed.

A park

The park was an integral part of the palace complex. Created it on the spot former garden. Previously, here openwork gazebos coexisted with hanging bridges, and cozy benches coexisted with luxurious flower beds. On the slope, from the side of the Goryn River, the park turned into a two-slope parterre garden. Artificial floodplains formed a cascade of lakes in front of the palace. There was a greenhouse, waterfalls, antique sculptures, stone semicircular benches. Only a few old chestnut trees, about a hundred centuries-old linden trees, as well as a stone bench standing on the site of one of the defensive bastions have survived to this day.

Unfortunately, the park was not given due attention for a long time - it was overgrown with self-seeding and was partially destroyed by the local population. Now the eight-hectare area is being improved, the fencing has been restored.

Church

At the foot of the mountain on which the palace stands there is a castle area. The first written mention of it dates back to 1530. The church became a burial place for many representatives of the Vishnevetsky family. Even the formidable Yarema Vishnevetsky, having accepted the Catholic faith, did not dare to destroy the temple where his Orthodox parents were buried.

Bayda

In 1516, in the town of Vishnevets, the founder of the first fortress on the island of Malaya Khortytsia, which became the ancestor of the Zaporozhye Sich, was born - Dmitry Vishnevetsky (Baida). In 1995, a monument was erected in front of the palace in his honor.

At different times, people visited the walls of the majestic palace in Vishnevets famous people. These are, in particular, the last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Stanislav August Poniatovsky, the successor to the Moscow throne Tsarevich Paul I, the historian Nikolai Kostomarov and many others. Let us recall some historical figures in more detail.

Bohdan Khmelnytsky

In 1651, in the Vishnevetsky castle, the Tatars held Bogdan Khmelnytsky captive, who was betrayed by the Crimean Khan.

False Mithry

The castle hosted the first meeting of the future Moscow Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich (aka False Dmitry the First) with the Polish beauty Maria Mniszech. There is a legend that it was in the castle church in Vishnevets that their engagement took place in 1605 (however, the groom was not personally present due to being busy, and his place was temporarily taken by clerk Vlasyev).

Honore de Balzac

The world-famous writer Honore de Balzac first met his muse here, Evelina Ganskaya.

Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko visited Vyshnevets in the fall of 1846, working as part of the archaeographic commission.

Simon Petliura

In May 1920, the headquarters of Chief Ataman Simon Petlyura was located in the Vishevetsky Palace.

How to get there

It is convenient to get to the Vishnevetsky Palace by car. The M19 (E85) highway passes through Vishnevets, which connects this town with Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Dubno, and Lutsk. When coming from Chernivtsi or Ternopil, at the entrance to Vishnevets, across the river, turn left (if from Lutsk or Dubno - on the right, before reaching the bridge). The main road will lead to the palace.

You can get to Vishnevets by direct bus from Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Dubno, Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, as well as many neighboring regional centers.

There is no railway transport in the city.

Working hours: 8:00–17:00.

The small Volyn town of Vishnevets is comfortably located in the upper reaches of the Goryn River, which divides it into two parts: the right - Old, the left - New Vishnevets. The first written mention of the settlement dates back to 1395, when the son of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd Dmitry Korybut built a fortress on the right bank of the Goryn. The fortification did not last long - in 1494 it was swept away by the Tatar horde. Prince Mikhail, voivode of Bratslav, built new fortress already on the left bank. It was he who first began to call himself Prince Vishnevetsky, and Vishnevets himself became the family nest of a powerful family for many years.
A native of this city, Dmitry (Baida) Vishnevetsky (1517 - 1564), brought unfading glory to the Vishnevetsky family.

Dmitry Vishnevetsky
Vishnevetsky, having united the Cossacks, in 1552-1553, with his own money, built a castle on the island of Malaya Khortytsia, which is considered the prototype of the Zaporozhye Sich. In 1556 he organized campaigns of the Zaporozhye Cossacks against the cities of Ochakov and Islam-Kermen. As a result of the retaliatory actions of Turkish and Crimean troops in 1557, the castle on Malaya Khortytsia was captured and destroyed by them after a long siege. In 1558, Vishnevetsky and the Cossacks went into the service of Ivan the Terrible. The city of Belyov was granted to him as a patrimony and lands near Moscow were presented. In 1558, Vishnevetsky took part in the campaign of the Russian army in the Crimea, and also carried out the tsar’s orders in the Don and the North Caucasus. Vishnevetsky, in alliance with the Don Cossacks under the command of Ataman Mikhail Cherkashenin, approached Azov. Having destroyed the Azov and Crimean people, Vishnevetsky went to Kuban, where he renewed ancient Christianity and thereby raised the prestige of Moscow. Vishnevetsky founded the city of Cherkassy on the Don, the capital of the Don Cossacks. However, Vishnevetsky, dissatisfied with the tsar’s indecisiveness in opposing the Tatars, broke off relations with Moscow and returned under the sovereignty of the Polish king. In 1563, he intervened in the struggle for the throne of the ruler in Moldavia. He was captured and handed over to the Turkish Sultan Suleiman I, on whose orders he was executed. According to popular rumor, he was thrown onto a hook sticking out of the wall, on which he hung for three days, until the Turks shot him with bows, unable to tolerate curses and ridicule of the Muslim faith. The heroic death of Vishnevetsky shocked the Cossacks. Rumor added to his name the nickname of Baida, the hero of the folk song legend.
Main source of information: "Zaporozhye Sich - the first Ukrainian power": http://history-sich.ucoz.ua/index/0-8
The fate of another extremely controversial figure is connected with the Vyshnevetsky Castle - Prince Jeremiah (Yarema) Vyshnevetsky (1617 - 1651), about whom Ukrainian historians cannot decide who he is: an executioner or a brilliant politician, collector of Ukrainian lands?

Jeremiah lost his parents at an early age and experienced exile as a child. His uncle, Konstantin Vishnevetsky, a devout Catholic, tycoon and senator, took custody of him. It is unknown what Jeremiah’s fate would have been like if he had been under the care of another uncle - the famous Metropolitan of Kiev Peter Mohyla! But Vishnevetsky was destined for Catholicism. He received his education at the Jesuit college (Lvov), and studied something in Italy, Spain and Holland. Upon returning home, he inherited a colossal fortune and became the largest landowner, maintaining a powerful mercenary army. His latifundia numbered 30 cities, 230 thousand people and was the largest not only in Poland, but throughout Europe.
Since the prince’s entire well-being was based on serfdom, he was an implacable enemy of the Cossacks and personally of Bogdan Khmelnitsky - primarily for the anti-serfdom and separatist orientation of his uprising. During the civil war, he became known for his unprecedented cruelty towards the enemy and civilians.
Vishnevetsky's greatest military successes were the heroic defense of Zbarazh (see below) and the victory over the Cossacks at Berestechko (1651), in which, according to Polish sources, 30 thousand Cossacks died. However, this victory, after which Jeremiah was considered a real contender for the Polish throne, did not bring Vishnevetsky happiness. Two months later, he unexpectedly died in a military camp from food poisoning, which provoked transient dysentery - he ate cucumbers and washed it down with honey. The autopsy did not confirm the suspicion that the prince was poisoned (although at that time the methods of chemical analysis were extremely imperfect, in particular, they were not yet able to determine the most popular poison, arsenic). It is now impossible to confirm or refute these versions - the remains of the prince are lost. As it turned out, he was not even buried in a Christian manner. And that is not all. There is not a single lifetime portrait of Jeremiah Vishnevetsky left, not a single thing that belonged to him, not a single house where he set foot. They talk about the “curse of Vishnevetsky”, imposed on the apostate son by his mother, the Orthodox Christian Raina (Irina) Mogilyanka. This curse had further consequences. Mikhail Vishnevetsky - the son of Jeremiah - became the Polish king: he ruled the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for four years, but with his death in 1673, the Vishnevetsky family was interrupted... Poland itself began to rapidly weaken. It lost Ukraine, the Baltic states, Prussia, Smolensk, and then for many 150 years it lost its independence altogether.
(Based on articles on the websites "Anniversaries in Ukraine" ( http://ubilei.in.ua/) and "Academician" (http://dic.academic.ru).)

However, let's return to Vishnevets.
During the Polish-Turkish War in 1675, the castle was captured and destroyed by the Turks. Only in 1720, the last of the Vishnevetsky princes, Mikhail Servatius, began restoration work family nest. The former Vishnevetsky castle is being transformed into luxury residence in the style of the French Renaissance. The palace, the most luxurious version of which was built according to the designs of Ukrainian, Polish and French architects in 1720, became truly magnificent. The palace is two-story, and the risalits are three-story.

It consists of several volumes, united during reconstruction at the end of the 18th century. into a symmetrical U-like composition with axial and corner projections.
Forms an open courtyard with a ground floor.

The facades facing the court d'honneur are highlighted in the composition by pedimentless porticoes of the Tuscan order, and the central part with the main entrance is crowned with a triangular pediment with lush moldings in the tympanum. The walls along the first tier are rusticated. The central part of the palace is highlighted by a triangular pediment with lush sculpting in timpani.
The interior of the palace was completely lost. The decoration of the restored halls, of course, does not allow one to judge their former splendor.

The roof of the palace was lined with specially cut stone, which shimmered in the sun with all the colors of the rainbow (in Soviet times it was stolen onto the roofs of rural sheds).
There were amazing views of the river from the balconies and windows,
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to which 3 cascades of gardens descended from the palace walls, and the river was blocked so that it formed cascades of lakes... But even now the view of the palace from the river is incomparable.

And, as always, local history information for travelers public transport. The easiest way to get to Vishnevets is by bus from regional center- Ternopil. Direct trains go there from Moscow, for example, Moscow - Budapest.