Tumashch Hill Fort

Tumashch or Tumashch' is an Old Rus' fortress on the Stuhna river in the Kyiv land. The hill fort is now located near the village of Stari Bezradychi in the Obukhiv district of Kyiv Oblast. It was investigated by P. A. Rappoport, B. A. Rybakov and V. V. Khvoika.

Tumashch was an important stronghold which, together with the neighbouring Trypillia and Vasylkiv, defended Kyiv against the Cumans in the 11th–13th centuries. These Stuhna fortresses formed the Stuhna defensive line.

There is no precise information about who founded it, but it is possible that it was founded as early as the end of the 10th century by Vladimir the Great. It is first mentioned in the Laurentian Chronicle under the year 1150 in connection with the internecine struggle between Iziaslav Mstislavich of Volhynia and Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgoruky for the Kyiv throne. A battle took place near Tumashch between Iziaslav Mstislavich, who had hired the Berendei, and Dolgoruky's ally Volodymyrko of Halych, which Iziaslav lost.

In 1168 Yaropolk Iziaslavich, brother of the Kyiv prince Mstislav Iziaslavich, died in Tumashch while marching against the Cumans.

There is no further information about Tumashch in the chronicles; however, lying on the approaches to Kyiv, the fortress was presumably besieged by the Cumans more than once. In all likelihood it was ravaged during Batu's invasion and ceased to exist.

The triangular citadel of Tumashch, with an area of 1.6 ha, occupied a high promontory on the left bank of the Stuhna, downstream from Vasylkiv. On the landward side it was protected by a ditch and a rampart with internal timber-frame structures. The entrance to the fortress was from the south-west. On this side the citadel was adjoined by an extensive outer town of 8 ha, surrounded by two lines of ramparts and ditches.

Machine-translated from “Тумащ” on the Russian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tumashch Hill Fort ranks #7,472 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #161 of the 183 mapped in Ukraine. See how Ukraine compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in Russian) ↗