Castles and palaces

On Podillia territory long time ago reinforced towns were built. In the first centuries of our era the population of Pobuzhia and Pidnistrovia founded shelters from aggressors in small, but not badly equipped houses - Nios, Amadoc etc. Later, when on this territory there lived an east-slavic stem of ulich, chroniclers accounted more than 300 cities there. The majority of them have disappeared as a result of devastative forays of the nomads (mainly of Polovcy in XI century). The following stage of construction of cities and fortresses on these territories begins in the middle of XIV century, with the occurrence here of Lithuanian princes. The nephews of the governor of Lithuania Olgerd princes Koriatoviches have constructed bastions of the Smotrych, Bakota, Kamenec, and then 'all Podillian cities wrer built and all the land was occupied'. So the cities and castles Venitsa (Vinnitsa), Briaslavl (Braclav), Scala, Sokilets, Cherleniy gorodok and others have appeared. Since the middle of the XV century steppe outskirts of Podillia and Bratslavshina underwent constant attacks of tatar cavalry. Through that territory the basic ways of crimeans passed - Chorniy, Kuchmanskiy, and Voloskiy. That's why lonely castles were the exclusive hope for the rescue for the population of the around territory. The peak of an opposition of the nomad and settling civilizations was on XVI - first half of the XVII centuries. However the majority of Podillian castles and fortresses were destroyed during the Liberation War and The Devastation. In XVIII they finally have lost their strategic importance. Up to now the main ruins of those witnesses of rapid historical time are conserved. Not much luckier were castle complexes of Podillian territory - the original architectural masterpieces of the XVII-XIX centuries. They also have suffered from the barbarous attitude. However today these castles surprise us with the nobleness and grace of lines. We shall tell about architectural ensembles in former manors of Pototski’s, Groholski’s, Chatski’s, Vitoslavski’s and Orlovski’s, located on the territory of modern Vinnitsa region.