ARCHITECTS OF THE MEDZHYBIZH CASTLE IN THE LAST HALF OF THE 16th CENTURY JAN BĄK AND KRZYSZTOF BODZAN. ARCHIVES vs MYTHES

This article informs for the first time that in the second half of the 16th century, a citizen of the city of Ternopil, Jan Bąk (“Jan Bonk” in English transcription), was employed by Mikołaj Sieniawski as the architect of Medzhybizh Castle (now in Khmelnytskyi region, Ukraine). The notice of this fact was found by the author in the first volume of the manuscript “Płac prawnych prac” (“A place for legal searches” – from Polish). This manuscript was written by Shymon Jerzy Cerenowicz in 1753-1755 as a result of his research in the archives of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, at the request of Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski. The “Płac prawnych prac” manuscript contains a lot of important information about events in the Podole Voivodeship in the 15th-18th centuries. One of the new facts is the following text (author's translation from Polish): “The Legislator of Medzhybizh, Mikołaj Sieniawski the Great, when he was alive, signed a contract with Jan Bąk, a Ternopil citizen and architect. This contract obliged to finish the construction of walls, build a bastion, etc. in Medzhybizh Castle. While the construction of the castle continued, Mikołaj Sieniawski died in Lublin during the Sejm. Therefore, this architect urgently registered the contract in the Сity court of Terebovlya, in 1569 on the eighth day after the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body of the Lord”. From this text, we learn for the first time about the previously unknown name of the architect Jan Bąk and about some of his works in Medzhybizh Castle. The author of the article notes that Christophus Bozzano “incola Russiae” also known as Krzysztof Bodzan was probably the next architect in Medzhybizh castle (according to V. Aleksandrovich). However, the widespread statements about Hiob (Job) Bretfus, Ambrogio Guagnini, Peter from Rome as the architects of the Medzhybizh Castle are not proven and are false.