Zolochiv Castle

Zolochiv was rebuilt in the 1630s by Jakub Sobieski as a square of earth bastions enclosing a residential palace, and his son Jan III added to it. The Grand Palace inside has been restored with furnished rooms, and in the courtyard stands the Chinese Palace, a small pavilion of the eighteenth century built when chinoiserie reached the Commonwealth, one of very few such buildings surviving in Ukraine. Two carved stones with undeciphered inscriptions sit in the grounds.

Background

The castle stands on a hill where two small rivers meet, in the southeastern part of Zolochiv. Jakub Sobieski built the rectangular fort in 1634-36, with solid walls in the Dutch style of the time and a pentagonal tower at each of its four corners. King John III Sobieski gave the Chinese Palace, a small mauve rotunda with single-storey wings, to his wife, Queen Marie, who was born in France. In 1834 the heirs of Count Łukasz Komarnicki-Pawlikowicz sold the castle to the Austrian crown. It later served as a hospital and barracks, and from 1872 as a prison. The Lviv Art Gallery has looked after it since 1985.

Source: Wikipedia, "Zolochiv Castle"

What to look for

• The bastion square - earth fortification enclosing the whole complex.
• The Grand Palace - the residence with restored and furnished interiors.
• The Chinese Palace - an eighteenth-century chinoiserie pavilion in the courtyard.
• The inscribed stones - two carved blocks with unread inscriptions in the grounds.

When to go

April to October is the comfortable season. The castle keeps museum hours and closes on Mondays. Weekends bring tour groups on the Golden Horseshoe circuit.

Practical notes

Interiors are restoration rather than surviving fabric. The inscribed stones have attracted a lot of unfounded speculation that guides sometimes repeat. Labelling is in Ukrainian.

Nearby

Pidhirtsi and Olesko are north.

Key facts