70 km along the M-06 Kyiv — Chop highway, one of the best in Ukraine, travelling on a beautiful autumn day is a pure pleasure. October 1 is St Irene's day, and from the morning I was receiving name-day greetings. I called all the Irynas I know — they are all beauties — and wished them the patronage of St Irene. After all, she was very beautiful and famed for her virtue. And on this day there was so much sun and beauty.
The castle sits on a hill 50 metres high and is visible from afar.
Cars park in the lot in front of the former Roman Catholic Church of St Anthony, built in 1730, now used as a depository for the Lviv Picture Gallery.
A centuries-old cobbled road leads up to the castle, and the wheel ruts in it have visibly sunk. Throughout the stronghold's history, who has not been here — kings, princes, voivodes, hetmans and other nobility.
In the 15th — 17th centuries, during the invasion of the Tatar horde, the outpost was besieged. The natural hill was surrounded by a palisade, the moat filled with water, and beyond the rampart stretched an impassable swamp.
Considerable battles unfolded around the castle and over the castle in every era. The oval fortress wall, 130 m long and 10 metres high, held back the enemy. The army of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and his allies, the Crimean Tatars, managed to capture and destroy the stronghold. During one of the enemy's assaults, in 1629, the future king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Jan Sobieski, was born in the castle. He put much effort into restoring his "native home" and laying out the surrounding park. Fragments of the coat of arms have survived above the entrance.
The inner court took on the features of a Renaissance palace. Fireplaces were built for heating. There was even a sewage system.
The rooms acquired a residential look.
The walls were reinforced with buttresses.
A well 42 m deep served not only for the water supply but was also the mouth of a network of numerous secret passages.
Walls up to 2.5 metres thick could not but hide secret stairs and passages within them.
The castle was not spared by earthquake and fires either. In the 1960s, restorers did everything to return it to its former appearance. Filmmakers came to love the restored architectural monument, and the castle often turned into a noisy film set. Unforgettable scenes with the castle's interiors can be seen in the films "With Fire and Sword", "The Deluge", "D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers" and many others.
When Borys Voznytsky was director of the Lviv Art Gallery in the 1970s, the castle was born a second time and became a museum.
Voznytsky revealed to everyone the name of the sculptor Pinzel, and some works by this master can be seen in the museum.
As well as works by unknown authors of the Pinzel school.
The former palace halls display interiors of the 17th — 19th centuries.
Around 500 paintings from the 14th — 19th centuries.
A large collection of icons has been assembled.
This is how the castle looked in 1327.
A 15th-century sculpture by an unknown sculptor, "The Tombstone of Anna Sieniawska".
In the medieval period, things did not go without executions. In a separate hall, instruments of torture are gathered and the methods of their use are described.
You can walk around the castle's perimeter, and from the top a magnificent panorama opens onto the surroundings, over the villages and towns of the Subcarpathian region. And this area was once the arena of military and political battles.
Stairs guarded by lions lead down from the hill into the park.
From below you can see that the castle has an oval shape.
Along the paths, which have survived since the park's founding, stone sculptures have been set up.
There are gazebos and romantic nooks.
It is wonderful that you can make use of a costume-rental service. Many visitors even filmed their own movie, transforming into kings and court ladies.
That day a landing party of foreign tourists descended on the castle — two busloads of foreign men, some 50-60 of them. The administrator said these were special tours, a marriage safari, when gentlemen come to Ukraine in search of brides. Guests are offered a cultural programme along the "Golden Horseshoe of Lviv".
The weather was wonderful, and we had a little picnic on the lawn, admiring the beauty of the park and the castle.
Entry to the grounds is paid — 20 hryvnias. Students and children get discounts. You can enter the museum for a small additional fee. On Fridays, pensioners are admitted free to all the museums and castles of the "Golden Horseshoe".
You can get there by suburban train to Ozhydiv station, 6 km from the castle, or by the Lviv — Brody bus to the "Olesko" stop, from the bus station on Khmelnytskyi Street.
Coordinates: 49 ° 58’6 «N 24 ° 54’2» E
Address: the town of Olesko, Lviv region, 34 Zamkova Street.
Tel. +380 3264 25193280
After Olesko we went on to Pidhirtsi Castle.
This story is also available in Ukrainian: Олеський замок. Олеський замок. Твердиня, магнатська резиденція, музей, знімальний майданчик
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