Photogenic fortress in Khotyn is Ukraine's most famous movie star (05/07/06)

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Photogenic fortress in Khotyn is Ukraine's most famous movie star

by Irene Pustinnikova

KHOTYN, Ukraine - Among the more than 100 castles and fortresses in Ukraine, Khotyn, an old fortress in a small town in the Chernivtsi Oblast, is well-known to most Ukrainians - even those who have never visited it. For one thing, filmmakers just love it. There have been quite a few period pieces made there, based on historical novels by Alexander Dumas, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Ukrainian classics have been filmed there - and even fairytales.

The Khotyn fortress, it seems, is very photogenic.

Like a top-of-the-line film star, the fortress is kept well away from casual stares: visitors can easily drive through the entire single-storied town and not even guess what a treasure is hidden on the banks of the Dnister River.

The fortress's first line of defense is a monument to Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi, hero of the Battle of Khotyn in 1621. The second line of defense is the high embankment of the New Castle, built in 1718 according to a design by French architects. Only when you have gone beyond this point can you see the five mighty towers and the massive curtain of wall so famous from various films.

The romantically inclined may find it hard not to gasp in admiration. The fortress does, indeed, look like the perfect picture for a historical novel or a fairytale.

Khotyn arose in the times of Kyivan Rus', as though a protector of those crossing the river. In the 14th century the Bessarabian barons who then ruled that part of Ukraine fortified this enormous castle at the edge of their lands.

The landscape around the fortress only emphasizes the visual splendor of the place: the sleepy, deep Dnister reflecting fat, lazy clouds in the sky above, its banks lush green with a carpet of grass. And there, on a rocky hill, stands the magnificent 700-year-old fortress, surrounded by massive, protective earthworks. The nearby castle that used to be a stronghold is now a picturesque element playing counterpoint to the formidable fortress.

Stretching along the 40-meter high walls is an ornamental pattern that brings to mind the designs embroidered on traditional Ukrainian garb. In places the walls are pierced by holes that seem to have been put there by cannonballs: this fortress saw many a siege in times of old.

In one of these grey scars is the silhouette of a pitcher. Locals say this pitcher is the reminder of an old legend which says that once, many years ago, when the fortress did not have a well within its walls, the sudden arrival of an enemy host caught the defenders off-guard. They beat the first attack off, but, as the siege continued, the shortage of water made the situation inside the fortress desperate. A young girl who had noticed the little brook at the foot of the outside wall was lowered down from the top on a rope at night to fill a pitcher with water. When she was already being drawn back up, an enemy sentry spotted her and his arrow struck home. The girl delivered the water, but died.

One of the first tasks the garrison began after the enemy's departure was to dig a well. It is still there today, in the center of the courtyard. It took quite a while to get down to the water level and the well was sunk to a depth of 65 meters. But now the fortress had a source of water inside its walls and became truly impregnable.

Near the well are the remnants of a palace. When the Turks established their dominion over the area, the castle became the residence of the local pasha, and this palace became the golden cage for his harem of 37 wives and concubines. The beauties had nine bathrooms, a swimming pool and even their own cosmetician. His wonder-working recipes were actually found some years ago by archaeologists.

The castle chapel is beautified by a massive portal and gothic windows of white stone. Today its vaults contain a diorama of the Battle of Khotyn, when a Turkish army 400,000-strong, including 100,000 Tatars, laid siege to Khotyn. The defenders were 57,000 Polish troops and 40,000 Kozaks commanded by Hetman Sahaidachnyi. The siege and battles continued for five weeks, with heavy losses on both sides. Decimated in the end, the Turkish army was unable to penetrate further as its commanders had planned, and thus a major invasion of Europe was thwarted by the heroic combined effort of Poles and Ukrainians.

Needless to say, in those days, captive enemies were not treated especially well. The castle dungeon is clearly far too small for the many hundreds of prisoners that were taken, so one of the Khotyn towers, called the Tower of Smertnyky, or those sentenced to die, is believed to have been a place of execution. Here prisoners were pushed to their deaths from the top of the tower into the river.

But that was very long ago. Khotyn castle no longer sees soldiers. Instead, thousands of tourists come every year, looking for the wonder and falling in love with the fortress that is a film star.

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