Zbarazh Castle

Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine

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Zbarazh Castle in Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine, is a 17th-century Renaissance fortress built between 1626 and 1631 by the Zbaraski family on the site of earlier wooden defenses, featuring a square layout with 88-meter sides, earthen ramparts up to 12 meters high, bastions, a moat, and casemates for troops.

Famously besieged for 43 days in 1649 during the Khmelnytsky Uprising by Cossacks under Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Crimean Tatars against Polish forces led by Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, it withstood attacks until a truce, later captured by Turks in 1675, rebuilt as a palace, and owned by the Wiśniowiecki and Potocki families.

Now the centerpiece of the national "Castles of Ternopil Oblast" reserve with a museum displaying 50,000 artifacts including arms, sculptures, and Cossack portraits, it preserves Ukraine's turbulent history of sieges and noble lineages.