Dubno Castle

The Dubno Castle (Ukrainian: Дубенський замок, romanized: Dubens'kyi zamok; Polish: Zamek w Dubnie) was founded in 1492 by Prince Konstantin Ostrogski on a promontory overlooking the Ikva River not far from the ancient Ruthenian fort of Dubno, Volhynia.

Ostrogski castle was rebuilt in stone in the early 16th century under the Lithuanian rule when the city was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It had a church, a two-story palace, and an impressive array of 73 cannons. It was there that the treasury of the Ostrogski family was kept. These fabulous treasures brought the predatory Crimean Tatars to the castle on several occasions (at least two in 1577 alone).

Prince Janusz Ostrogski, the last of his family, undertook major renovations of the castle in the early 17th century. He made use of the trace itallienne, or "Italian style" of fortification, to transform Dubno into the most advanced fort in the region. Prince Janusz's palace still stands in Dubno.

During the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the vicinity of Dubno Castle was the scene of heavy fighting between the Poles and the Cossacks, some of it described by Nikolai Gogol in the novella Taras Bulba (1835). The castle passed to Polish Prince Władysław Dominik Zasławski as part of the Ostroh inheritance and survived a Russian siege in 1660.

In the 18th century Dubno lost much of its military relevance. Some of the fortifications gave way to a plain rectangular palace of two stories, commissioned in the 1780s by Prince Stanisław Lubomirski from architects Henryk Ittar and Domenico Merlini. The palace's interior layout and design did not survive the First World War.

After the Lubomirskis sold their Dubno residence to Princess Boryatinsky in 1871, the castle was subjected to a new campaign of remodeling. It held a notable military garrison of the Border Defence Corps.

Text adapted from “Dubno Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Dubno Castle ranks #1,583 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #29 of the 183 mapped in Ukraine. Founded 1492, it is older than 46% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 434 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,390 times in the last 60 days, more than 70% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Lutsk, 47 km away. See how Ukraine compares in the castle statistics.

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