Subterrenes

Now we came up to the main problems: who have built the caves? When? And why? We’ll tell you our point of view. The majority of the underground passages were built during XVI – the first half of XVII centuries. That was done because of the position of the territory near the borders and because of the attacks of the aggressive neighbors form the south (see chapters “Uncrowned kings” and “Podolian Castles”). So, the first mission of the underground passages was the protective one. With the beginning of building of castles the role and mission of the catacombs greatly increased. Those caves became the mane attribute of the defence system. There exist plans of the castles of the Middle Ages but one will not find the plans of the underground passages. That information was as secret one. Very few people knew the directions and entrances of the underground passages. So, the next mission of the caves was the strategic one. After Lublin Union (1569) and especially after Brest Union (1596) a great number of Catholic orders - Jesuits, Carmelites, Dominicans etc. appeared on the territory of Podillia. They built fortified monasteries and underground passages. Some of them they used as shelters, in the others they made crypts – underground graves of monks. Probably, there were others missions of the catacombs of monasteries. We cut down chronological limits of the intensive building of the underground passages with XVI – the first half of XVII centuries. There was no reason to make caves with the beginning of the Liberation War and later. There were not so many people left on Bratslavshchina. Maybe the Turks who occupied Podolian lands in 1672-1699 did something of the kind but they couldn’t do much. Did we clear up the problem of historic caves? We think that there are more questions than the answers to them. Just try to explain the reason of making underground passages which connect the localities situated in the distance of tens kilometers. Here is the example of the passages in Tivriv district: Tivriv-Onitkivtsi (10km), Tivriv-Klishchiv (6km), Tivriv-Cheremoshne (nearly 12km). There is an evidence that there existed an underground tunnel from Tivriv to Vinnitsa. We’ve heard about the underground highway Nemiriv-Vinnitsa and also Gaisin-Illintsi-Nemiriv. Some years ago a group of enthusiasts went under the ground a route Medzhibish-Letichiv (40km). Here we have some questions. What to do with such an amount of the ground? How to get the necessary amount of thermal energy for brick glazing? What are this routes for? The majority of questions are without answers. We just know that the general amount of forests on the territory of Podillia in the second half of XVIth century decreased greatly. The wood was of great value, it was exported and used for brick glazing. The technology of building the underground passages is more of less clear. The workers tried to avoid rocky places and the main work was in alluvial grounds. The route was usually the most optimal. Certainly, our thoughts are based on the analysis of that not numerous fragments of the Podillia’s caves of the Middle Ages that are known nowadays. We are sure they are parts of the complex system of the underground passages of our territory. The investigations should be continued.