PROBLEMS OF RESEARCH OF URBAN DEFENSE COMPLEXES OF CITIES OF THE EASTERN PODOLIA IN THE 16th-18th CENTURIES

Abstract

In this article the authors touch on the methods of fortifications of the cities of Eastern Podillya - the least studied region of Ukraine. Components of long-term urban fortifications are considered as a single system of so-called urban defense complexes. Mandatory components of this system are a defensive castle and fortifications of the middletowns, which are recorded on the maps of military cartographers of the 17th-18th centuries. With this in mind, the authors clarify in the article the strategic importance of Eastern Podillya for the state and consider the development of urban defense complexes on its territory in retrospect. The analyzed sources allow us to speak about two periods of fortification development in Eastern Podillya. The first concerns the subordination of the territory to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the reign of Vytautas I, who expanded to the Black Sea coast and fortified the Southern Bug basin with a chain of fortifications and customs. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and Crimea, trade ties with the south were lost, and its territory became dangerous for Podillya due to raids by nomads. Lithuania lost Vytautas' southern conquests and became completely dependent on Poland as a result of the introduction of a personal union. Subsequently, an administrative and political system identical to other provinces of Poland was introduced on the territory of Eastern Podillya and the Bratslav Voivodeship was formed. After the Union of Lublin, the territory of Bratslav became a source of huge lands for private ownership of magnates, who built their own systems for fortification of their estates, so the state was directly removed from strategic planning of defense of Eastern Podillya, royal power was concentrated only in the main capitals of Vinnytsia and Bratslav. On the basis of field surveys of partially preserved urban defense complexes, the article identifies the main types depending on the compositional and planning features. The location of fortifications on the terrain was also analyzed with the help of Google Earth software capabilities. Comparison of the data of relief cross-sections with the verified data of the foundation of fortified settlements revealed a stable correlation. Thus, the fortifications of the cities that were founded in the first period (Grand Duchy) were located on the heights of capes, ridges, hills, while the fortifications of the later ones were located in the valley. Given the low level of research of Ukrainian cities for the analysis of their defense systems, the authors recommend in further studies to investigate in detail the groups of cities that formed the estate complexes of specific magnate families in Podolia - Kalinov, Zbarazh, Zamoysk, and others for a unified defense system. and highlighting the characteristics of the spatial planning composition.