Tustan

Tustan was a fortress built into and between a group of sandstone crags in the Beskid foothills, guarding a salt route from the ninth century to the sixteenth. The remarkable thing is what survives: the timber structure is entirely gone, but the sockets, ledges and channels cut into the rock to carry its beams remain in their thousands, and from them archaeologists reconstructed a five-storey wooden fortress rising between the crags. Steps and platforms let you climb through it.

What you actually see

• The beam sockets - thousands of cuttings in the rock recording the vanished timber fortress.
• The crags - sandstone towers the fortress was built between and onto.
• The reconstruction - drawings and models showing the five-storey building.
• The climb - stairs and platforms up through the rock formations.

When to go

May to October is the season; the museum and platforms close in winter. The rock is slippery after rain. Weekends bring crowds and a summer festival fills the site.

Honest expectations

Nothing of the fortress itself stands; the site is rock with cuttings, and without the interpretation it reads as bare crags. Steps are steep and exposed. The last road stretch is rough.

Nearby

Skhidnytsia is west, and Skole Beskids park is southeast.