Navahrudak Castle

Navahrudak, Belarus, Belarus

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Navahrudak Castle, also called Navahrudak Stronghold, is a medieval fortress on Mindaugas Hill above the town of Navahrudak in the Grodno region of Belarus, historically one of the most important strongholds of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Archaeologists place the first wooden fortification in the 11th–early 12th century, and in the second half of the 13th century the castle was strengthened with a double oak front wall and the first stone tower, a Volhynian-type tower similar to the Tower of Kamyenyets, which helped make the castle extremely difficult to capture for centuries. During the 14th and 16th centuries, especially under Grand Duke Vytautas, the fortress was expanded with four more stone towers and other defensive works, so that by the 17th century the main castle had seven towers and a church within its walls, and it was said at one time that Navahrudak even served as a capital of the Grand Duchy before Vilnius.