Ruiny zamku Vyshnevets’kykh u s. Taikury (Ruins of the Vyshnevetsky (Wiśniowiecki) Castle in Taikury)

Architectural monument (ruins).

Rivne Oblast, Kornyn Territorial Community (Hromada), Taikury Village, vul. Nezalezhnosti.

50.52898, 26.36806

18,4 km

The first mention about Taikury village dates back to 1570 with the note about its owner, Kirdej Tajkurski, in one of the records. Shortly after the village belonged to I. Szpanowski, however after the wedding of his daughter Teodora Szpanowska (Czaplicówna) with Prince Jerzy Wiśniowiecki it passed into the ownership of the influential princely Wiśniowiecki family. A wooden fortress was built in the village. However, a stone castle, which Jerzy Wiśniowiecki built at his own expense, quickly replaced the wooden one. Its construction dates back to the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries. The castle was located on the western part of a small meadow that was convenient for defence. On one side it was protected by semi-circular earthen ramparts and a three-meter-deep moat, through which the Soroka River flowed, and on the other side there was a 15-meter moat. The shape of the wall was heptagonal, closer to a square, with four fortress towers and one gate, which simultaneously served as a drawbridge, and it could be quickly raised under a surprise attack by enemies. The castle became the main defensive structure of Taikury and the surrounding area.

 On April 3, 1614, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund III Vasa granted a Magdeburg law charter to Taikury, allowing it to further strengthen the castle, hold two fairs and one bazaar annually. The small town began to grow rapidly, craft activity revived, it even created its own magistrate. The  privileges also included the town’s coat of arms, which depicted Saint George (also George of Lydda) and indicated the defensive function of the town, as well as its the duty to protect Volhynia from Tatar invasions.

 Poles actively inhabited the town and it became the centre of Catholicism propagation in western Ukraine. Orthodox Ukrainians were oppressed at that time. This led to the destruction of city institutions, the castle and Polish persecutors by Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s army during the National Liberation War. After the Treaty of Zboriv was signed, the Taikuri remained under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and in 1650 it passed into the ownership of the Sapieha family. However, later it passed into the ownership of the Czołganski family, and at the beginning of the 18th century the Pepłowski family became its owners.

 At the foot of the northern slope of the castle hill, there are ruins of the Gothic St. Lawrence Church. It was built by one of the heirs (so-called didych) Laurencjusz Stanisław Pepłowski in 1710. Afterwards it was closed and destroyed by the Soviet authorities. Also in 1731, at the expense of the landowner Jan Paweł Pepłowski , the Church of the Intercession of the Theotokos was built here. In 1822, the noble Polish Iliński family became the owners of the castle.

In 1825 a large fire broke out in the castle, and as a result of it the castle stood empty thereafter. Its owner, Count Aleksander Iliński, had never returned to it, and in 1876 he handed over the dilapidated building to local Jews for dismantling as they needed stones. The castle was even more destroyed during the World War I.

Today, only the walls and the southern watchtower remain from the once mighty fortress. The south tower, which has been best preserved to this day, was 30 meters high and served as a watchtower.