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Olyka Castle

Olyka Castle

Jan Frankenstein

Photo: Promek · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Olyka, Ukraine
Client / Owner
Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Black
Year
Completed 1554
Access
Tickets required

Olyka Castle in Ukraine was built from 1554 to 1564 for Prince Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Black, with Jan Frankenstein helping on the fortifications. It is a fortified palace with a Renaissance fortress core and later Baroque additions, and one of the first square bastion-type castles in the region. It measures about 328 by 394 feet (100 by 120 meters), has over 200 rooms, and its courtyard is larger than Venice's Piazza San Marco.

The Radziwiłłs held it for nearly 400 years. It was besieged several times between 1591 and 1648 but never captured. From 1737 to 1760 Prince Michał Radziwiłł converted it into a Baroque residence.

In the Second World War German forces requisitioned it, and the article records that Jews from Olyka were murdered there in 1941 and 1942. Fires destroyed its interior and roofs in 1945. In 2021 it passed to the Volyn Museum.

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