Attractions of Pidhirtsi

The most beautiful castle of the "Golden Horseshoe of Lviv region", a vivid example of the transition from defensive to palace architecture of noble residences. Built by Italian architect. A. del Aqua and military engineer G. de Boplan (author of the famous "Description of Ukraine" and compiler of the "General Map of Ukraine") for Crown Hetman S. Koniecpolski on the northern outskirts of the ancient Russian Plisne settlement. It was one of the most beautiful palaces in Eastern Europe, embodying the then fashionable type of aristocratic residence, combining luxurious housing with bastion fortifications (so-called palazzo in fortezza). After the Liberation War, Sobieski, who had owned the castle since 1648, restored the palace and decorated the interiors. Grand balls with the participation of European monarchs took place here. Russian Tsar Peter I, who visited here in 1711, took to St. Petersburg several sculptures by Italian masters and soon launched the construction of the Petropalaz. The new owner of Pidhirtsi, V. Rzhevsky, in 1728-79 carried out a large-scale reconstruction of the castle, began to collect a collection of sculptures and paintings, and organized a private theater. In those days Pidhirtsi became famous for "Galician Versailles". The last owners - the princes of Sangushka - turned their residence into a museum, but at the beginning of the First World War they were forced to save the collection. In 1939, R. Sangushko exported a rich collection of works of art to Brazil and created the Sangushko Foundation, which is managed by his descendants. In Soviet times, the palace was looted, the interiors were destroyed by fire, and a tuberculosis sanatorium was placed in the premises. In the Soviet TV series "D" Artanyan and the Three Musketeers "Pidhirtsi Castle played the role of town hall, where a ball was held at the city elders, where the brave Gascon delivered diamond pendants to the queen (many believe it was the Louvre or Versailles). A courtyard with a well, a terrace on bastions, an exhibition of old photographs in casemates, as well as the castle dungeons with the White Lady exposition dedicated to the legend of the ghost of Pidhirtsi Castle are available.