Kamenets tower

In the city of Kamenets, Brest region, there is a unique monument of architecture and defensive architecture of the second half of the 13th century - the Kamenets Tower (Kamenets Pillar, Kamenets Vezha).

On a hill near the once full-flowing Lesnaya River, a majestic building rises, similar to a huge chess rook.

According to chronicles, the Kamenets tower was erected between 1276 and 1288. By order of the Galician-Volyn prince Vladimir Vasilkovich, the architect Alex found a place where the city and Vezha with a wooden castle soon appeared.

The Kamenets tower belongs to the Volyn type and has common features with donjon towers, common in the 12th-13th centuries in Western Europe.

A five-tiered, round structure (height about 30 m, wall thickness 2.5 m, outer diameter 13.6 m) stands on a stone foundation about 2.3 m high and 16 m in diameter. The tower is built of dark red and yellowish bricks .

Vezha in Kamenets was defensive and has few elements of architectural and decorative plastics: narrow loopholes, 4 flat niches with semicircular endings. The upper platform is surrounded by 14 rectangular battlements with viewing holes; a decorative strip is laid out in a special way along the perimeter.