Khotyn Fortress

Khotyn stands on the right bank of the Dniester where the river runs in a deep valley, and the castle uses the ground completely: walls up to forty metres high and six thick rise from the riverside terrace, with the later bastion fortress spread on the plateau behind. The stonework carries bands of red brick laid in patterns across the towers. Built from the thirteenth century and rebuilt repeatedly, it is one of the largest surviving fortresses in Ukraine.

Background

Prince Vladimir the Great raised the first stronghold on the site, the Khotyn Fort, in the 10th century. Between 1250 and 1264 it was rebuilt by Prince Danylo of Halych together with his son Lev, who gave it a half-meter stone wall and a moat 6 metres wide, and the Genoese rebuilt it during the second half of the 13th century. After 1375 it belonged to Moldavia, and new walls went up, three towers joined the circuit and the courtyard level rose by 10 metres. Major improvements followed in the 1380s and the 1460s under Alexander the Good and Stephen the Great. Moldavian princes lived in it from the 14th to the 16th centuries.

Source: Wikipedia, "Khotyn Fortress"

Highlights

• The riverside walls - stone curtains rising forty metres from the Dniester bank.
• The brick patterns - decorative red brick bands set into the tower faces.
• The bastion fortress - the eighteenth-century earthworks on the plateau behind.
• The Dniester - the river running in its valley below the walls.

When to go

April to October is the comfortable season. The fortress is open year round with shorter winter hours. Summer weekends bring reenactment events and crowds.

Before you go

Restoration has been heavy and some of what stands is rebuilt. Interpretation is thin and mostly in Ukrainian. The climb up and down the terraces is steep.

Nearby

Chernivtsi is southwest, and the Dniester canyon runs northwest.

Key facts