History of the Odessa region. Akkerman fortress. Akkerman fortress, Belgorod-Dniester

During my second trip to Odessa, I had a little extra time, and the hotel in which I mistakenly checked into -. This is the next day I'll be moving in good hotel and go to the conference, thanks to which I came for free to this Pearl by the sea. And at that moment I decided not to waste time in vain and go to see something interesting.

While planning my trip, my eyes fell on Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, famous for its Akkerman fortress. As a traveler and historian, I could not pass by, and therefore, leaving my things at the hotel, I immediately went to the railway station, from where I took a bus to the city of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky in a few hours.

The most important part of the fortress is the citadel

There is not much to say about the city itself. Therefore, I immediately went to the outskirts, where the fortress itself is located.

In general, the fortress is called Akkermanskaya, because until 1944 the city of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky (which some manage to confuse with Belgorod, Belgrade, and even Bolgrad J) was called Akkerman, and even earlier - Chetatya-Albe. It was founded by ancient Greek colonists in the 6th century BC. It was called Ophius and Tyra.

In the 13th century, on the site of the ruins of a Greek settlement, the Golden Horde Khan Berke laid a fortress, which was called Ak-Libo. In the middle of the 14th century, it passed into the control of the Moldavian princes.

The fortress was repeatedly attacked. In the 15th century, it repulsed attacks and sieges three times Ottoman Empire. And only in 1484 it was captured by the Turks, and even then, as a result of the betrayal of the elders of the city.

For three centuries, the Turks dominated here, and the Cossacks, led by Sirko, Paliya, etc. made raids and raids on it.

She did not stay away from the three Russian- Turkish wars. For example, Kutuzov was the commandant of the fortress for several months.

In 1812, these lands, together with Izmeilov, Kiliya, Tigino, Khotin, went to Russian Empire, and then included in the Ukrainian SSR. Now it is the territory of Ukraine.

As a military facility, the Belgorod-Dniester Fortress ceased its activities in 1832, and in 1963 it was declared an architectural monument. This is a unique historical and architectural monument Middle Ages, the largest fortress in Eastern Europe.

By the way, the incredible adventure film “Captain Nemo” was filmed here in 1975, which was then and now a huge success! I recommend that those who are not familiar with him watch this mini-series after reading the article.

Like everything related to the magnificent and exciting stories of Jules Verne, this movie based on the novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" riveted to the screen for the entire time of viewing!

Today, the fortress is easy to get to for inspection. The remains of the fortifications are in a civilized form and must be visited! total area fortress - 9 hectares! The length of the walls reaches 2.5 km. It is located on the rocky shore of the estuary.

Previously, it consisted of 4 courtyards, each of which not only had its own purpose, but could also conduct independent defense.

From the walls of the fortress, from some loopholes, a magnificent view of the Dniester estuary opens ... And if you look from the outside, I personally like to see this interweaving of eras ... When, against the backdrop of Soviet residential boxes - medieval fortress…

Knightly tournaments and themed festivals are often held on the territory of the fortress. And in "peaceful" time, you can look at samples of medieval weapons, although this is a bit different from looking at the real ones that survived in the Vienna Military History Museum.

Information for visiting:

You can visit the castle any day, all year round, without weekends and lunch breaks.

Working hours in summer: from 8:00 to 20:00 (excursions from 9:00 to 18:00).

IN winter period from 8:00 to 17:00

Official site http://www.akkerman-fort.org/

How to get there

The easiest way to get to the Akkerman fortress is from Odessa. From there, there are many options:

By bus. Buses and minibuses No. 560 depart directly from the entrance to the Railway Station. They go about every 15-30 minutes, and the road takes 1.5 - 2 hours. The final - Belgorod-Dnestrovsky railway station, from where to the fortress - about 15 minutes on foot.

On the train. From the Odessa railway station to railway station Belgorod-Dnestrovsky goes by train, which departs every 3-4 hours and travels about 2.5 hours.

By car. GPS coordinates 46.20111,30.35056

By taxi. If you have little time, you are a big company or just have extra money, then a great option is to call a regular taxi.

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AKKERMANSKAYA (Belgorod-Dniester) FORTRESS does not look like the austere buildings of European citadels. This is an amazing fortress, created on a special land and as if absorbing all the flavor of this land: yellow stones under a dazzling, clear, blue sky. The fortress has always belonged to the land, where every footprint on the road, every stone on the way is already history. They say that voices are still heard in one of the fortress towers at night - the secret whisper of brave warriors guarding their fortress.

Alba Julia... Chagan-Balgasun... Chetatya-Albe... Akkerman... All these names of the 25-year-old city - Roman, Mongolian, Moldavian, Turkish - include the concept of "white". Probably because in these places they have always been built from soft, easy-to-handle whitish shell rock.

Only the Greeks, immigrants from Miletus, who founded the first, known from the chronicles, city near the Dniester estuary, called it differently. Since the Dniester then bore the name Tiras, the city at its mouth was called Tyra. Dnestrovsk in our opinion ...

Although, in fact, the estuary was not here just two and a half thousand years ago. The Dniester flowed into the Black Sea in two branches, between which there was an island. It can be seen even on medieval maps. On this small piece of land one can distinguish fortress buildings.

The remains of ancient masonry are found not only on earth, but also under water by archaeologists ... Near Tyra there were two more Hellenic colonies, Nikonius and Ophiussa (Snake). But Tyra became the richest and most famous.

Various goods were brought here - fabrics, wine, expensive dishes, jewelry, items made of gold and silver. All this was exchanged among the Scythian tribes living in the Black Sea steppe for meat, leather, wax, and grain. Thanks to trade, the city grew rapidly, crafts, economy, and culture developed. The city was an important trade center through which the main trade routes from East to Western Europe, to the northern lands.

Here earlier than in many others ancient Russian cities, the potter's wheel spun; here skillful craftsmen made books on parchment, wrote them in an intricate type; and, of course, the city was famous for the processing of its famous white shell stone.
Twenty years earlier than capital Kyiv, the city adopted Christianity. Until now, they show the guests a white chapel on the grave of the local holy martyr, John Sochavsky, who, however, was martyred in later, Horde times ...

By the end of the 14th century, the city of Belgorod became part of the Moldavian Principality, despite the fact that many Ukrainians lived on these lands. The Moldavian principality was under the protectorate of Hungary, and the construction of a fortress began on the banks of the estuary (however, the construction of fortifications was started by the Genoese merchants who owned the city before).

The city of Belgorod began to be called Chetatya-Albe, and for the first time the Turkish fleet could not take the fortress. Inspired by an easy victory, the Moldavian ruler continued work on its construction and strengthening.
When the construction was completed, the fortress occupied nine hectares of land, surrounded by a fifteen-meter moat filled with water, a drawbridge and towers with loopholes. The length of the walls was more than two kilometers. There were twenty-eight high towers on the walls.

A legend about the origin of the fortress is connected with one of the towers of the fortress - Maiden's. The legend says that the Moldavian ruler Alexander the Good had a daughter, Princess Tamara, a maiden unprecedented beauty. Self-willed and cruel, she surrounded herself with riotous servants and, taking advantage of the absence of her father, who often left at the head of the army to battle with enemies, robbed the local population and robbed. Once, when Alexander the Good was going on a new campaign, Tamara asked him for money, supposedly for the construction of a monastery. The father fulfilled the request of his daughter. People were rounded up from all over the principality. But Tamara did not plan to build a house for God's services. She built a powerful fortress over the estuary, in which she moved with her minions, declaring herself an independent queen. Now robber raids were made from the fortress. Looting and fires devastated the surrounding towns and villages, and the rumor of a cruel impostor queen spread far beyond the Danube and the Dniester, even beyond the Black Sea.
But Alexander Dobry returned from their campaign. Instead of a monastery, he saw a fortress. Having learned about the atrocities of his daughter, the ruler takes the fortress with a fight, destroys the robbers and curses his own daughter. As soon as the words of her father's curses touched Tamara's ears, she immediately fell asleep. The sleeping girl was taken to the tower and, at the behest of the ruler, they walled her up alive in its walls. Since then, this tower has been called Maiden's.

Another legend connects this tower with the name of the Roman poet Ovid, the author of the famous Metamorphoses and the Science of Love. It was the "Science of Love" that aroused terrible anger among the divine emperor Augustus, he saw this work as an attack on the morality of Roman society.

At the beginning of our era, already in his declining years, the court poet of Emperor Augustus, Ovid Nason, was exiled to eastern province Rome, to Moesia Inferior to the city of Tomy (now the city of Constanta in Romania).

However, for a long time the legend was alive that in 8 AD. the disgraced poet was supposedly sheltered by ancient Tyra.

A legend has survived to this day: in those days, an extraordinary man arrived here from Rome, he was innocent, like a child, kind, like a father, and when he spoke, his mouth exuded honey ...

In memory of Ovid, the estuary was called Lake Ovid; on east coast the estuary, opposite the fortress, lies the village of Ovidiopol ("opol" in Greek - the city), the city of Ovid, and the "tower of Ovid" appeared in the fortress.

When the huge and powerful Ottoman Empire conquered half of Europe, the lands of Belgorod were doomed. The Ottomans simply could not pass by such a tidbit. In August 1484, the 300,000-strong army of the Turkish Sultan Bayazet II and the 50,000-strong army of the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey laid siege to the fortress from the side of land and the estuary. After a 16-day siege, the defenders of the fortress were forced to surrender it to the enemy. Turkish domination was established for a long 328 years, the city received a new name Akkerman ( White stone) and became part of the Turkish lands.
In 1770, the fortress was captured by the Russians, but already in 1774 Russia returned Akkerman to Turkey under a peace treaty. In 1789, the fortress surrendered to Prince Potemkin and returned to Russia again. For three months M. I. Kutuzov was the commandant of Akkerman.
During the time of Denikin, Akkerman and Bessarabia went to Romania. After the Great Patriotic War, Ackerman, liberated by the Soviet troops, finally became part of the Ukrainian SSR. The modern city is called Belgorod-Dnestrovsky and belongs to Ukraine, its population is about 50 thousand people. Today ancient fortress- one of the most famous monuments of the past - keeps its legends under the hot blinding sun of the former Akkerman.
It is an irregular polygon with an area of ​​just over 9 hectares. The length of the defensive walls is about 2.5 km, the height of the walls and towers is from 5 to 15 m, and the thickness is from 1.5 to 5 m.

The fortress is surrounded on three sides by a moat, which was filled with water, its width is up to 14 m, the initial depth is 22 m. From the north, it is washed by the waters of the Dniester Estuary.

The walls of the fortress were reinforced with 28 towers, many of which have not been preserved. Each of the towers had its own purpose. The towers are round, rectangular, octagonal in plan, three-tiered with basements, hipped roofs covered with tiles. Some of the towers have their own names (Ovid, Pushkin, Prison, Komendantskaya), which are associated with ancient legends and traditions.
About the tower of Ovid (Maiden) has already been mentioned above. The Pushkin Tower rightfully bears this name, since Pushkin really was in the fortress. On December 15, 1821, the commandant of the fortress, Lieutenant Colonel Curto, a former fencing teacher of the young lyceum student Pushkin, invited the poet to his fortress for lunch. Pushkin returned from the fortress after midnight. He was very excited. After all, these places reminded him of the great Ovid. It was here in the fortress that the poet came up with the idea of ​​creating the famous epistles "To Ovid" and the lines of the epistles were born:
"Here, having revived the dreams of the imagination with you, I repeated your chants, Ovid."
"To Ovid" Pushkin considered the best of all early works. Turning to brother Levinka, he exclaimed: “What are the verses “To Ovid”, my soul, and “Ruslan” and “Prisoner” and all rubbish, in comparison with them.

The exiled poet Adam Mickiewicz and the writers Gorky, Paustovsky, Kataev also wandered around the fortress.

The fortress is divided into 4 courtyards by internal defensive walls.
Civil Court - was intended to protect the local population during the siege. The remains of a Turkish mosque - a minaret - have been preserved on the territory of the courtyard, and the foundation of a Christian church of the 12th - 13th centuries has been discovered.

Garrison Yard - barracks, stables and ammunition depots were located here.

The utility yard is almost completely destroyed.

The citadel (a fortress within a fortress) is the oldest part of the fortress, built in the late 13th century. Rectangular in plan with angular cylindrical towers, the citadel had equal opportunities for defense from all sides.

Curtain - a section of the fortress wall between two towers.
Dozens of loopholes were arranged along the upper edge of the curtains, intended for all-round defense.
The corner towers are also equipped with loopholes, each of which, in addition to the defensive purpose, also performed other functions.
To the left of the entrance to the Citadel is a dungeon tower. A three-tiered stone bag with a vaulted ceiling in the form of a hemisphere, damp and gloomy, illuminated only by a narrow gap left in a four-meter-thick wall, for centuries served as a place of imprisonment for prisoners of war, recalcitrant subjects. Metal rings were built into the walls of the casemates, and a heavy iron chain was stretched along the stone floor. Prisoners were tied to it. Straw was their bed.
There is also a legend about this tower connected with the fate of the Ukrainian beauty Paraskoveya. According to legend, the evil and arrogant ruler Uzun Pasha tried for a long time and unsuccessfully to convert the captive girl to the Mohammedan faith. Paraskoveya was adamant, she could not change the customs of her people. Then the beautiful and smart, universally loved and respected girl Uzun Pasha imprisoned in a damp cold dungeon. She sat there for many days and nights, steadfastly endured all the sorrows and torments, but did not become an apostate.

Once, when the pasha (for the umpteenth time!) came to Paraskoveya with the same proposal, the shackles suddenly fell from the girl’s hands and feet, the dungeon suddenly opened, and Paraskoveya walked out of the fortress gates with a flying gait. Uzun Pasha was dumbfounded. Coming to his senses, he sent guards in pursuit. Janissaries found Paraskoveya on the bank of the estuary. They had already raised their scimitars to deal with the fugitive, but then a miracle happened again. The girl melted into the air, and in the place where she stood, a spring clogged, around which the pursuers froze, turning into stone idols. Over time, they were dried up by the sun, washed away by rains, dispelled by the wind. Only the key is alive clear water and today continues to beat from the ground. Having drunk from it, a person seems to acquire heroic strength, becomes invincible.

It is possible that the legendary Paraskovea had a real prototype. It is known how many wonderful legends about the heroic struggle against the Janissaries were created by the Ukrainian people, how they glorified and immortalized their steadfast sons and daughters in them.

To the right of the entrance to the Citadel is the Administrative, or Commandant's Tower. It housed the headquarters of the fortress garrison.
Two of the three floors are equipped with cannon embrasures, along the perimeter of the upper one - with gun embrasures, which made it possible to use it as one of the powerful bastions at the right time.
looking around interior Commandant's tower, pay attention to the stones reddened from the perekal with traces of soot. This is the memory of the fires that blazed more than once in the fortress.

view from the Commandant's fortress :)

At the entrance to the second courtyard of the fortress there is one of the highest towers - the "storage tower"

This tower, in particular, is interesting because during its restoration here, in the dungeon, large stocks of millet, gunpowder and a Russian forged cannon of the seventeenth century were discovered. Having lain in storage for two hundred and fifty, or even three hundred years, they decided to sow the grain. And what turned out - half of the sown millet sprouted.

Within the walls of the fortress there are galleries leading to the estuary, as well as a water supply network of clay pipes. Under the fortress, two underground passages were found, through which one could get outside the city. The first one starts under the octagonal " Maiden's Tower"and exits near the village of Peremozhnoye, and the second stretches from the second courtyard to the Greek cemetery on the southern outskirts of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky.

The fortress is of great interest to cinematographers. About 30 pictures were filmed here. These are "Othello", "Ships storm the bastions", "At a high price", "Notches for memory", "Eagle Island", "Devil's Dozen", "Salty Dog", "Rustam and Sukhrab", "Poem of Two Hearts", " The Legend of Siyavush", "At the Beginning of Glorious Deeds", "Fiery Roads", "Captain Nemo", "Waves of the Black Sea", "Shakespearean", "Desert", " Knight's castle"," Musketeers 30 years later "and others.
The fortress has seen a lot in its long history. Armed invaders have repeatedly appeared at these walls. Cannons roared. Cannonballs fell on the head of the enemy, stones flew, boiling resin poured. Everything that could be fought went into action ...

stuck in the wall core

And now there are annually held jousting tournaments and championships in historical fencing with the participation of teams from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. We were lucky to see it for a while.
To make it easier to watch, spectators climb the walls to the very top in advance and take “seating places” there between the battlements, their backs being roasted are visible even when approaching the Garrison Yard:

And so, almost without any climbing equipment, people make their way to their "sits"

This is the tournament

The captain of the Russian team was a girl. And in battles she was in no way inferior to men. She almost reached the final, but the Ukrainian team put up against her a hero weighing exactly twice her size, not to mention the difference in height, eh ...
In the neighboring courtyard, children and adults, for a purely nominal fee, could feel like knights:

A parting glance of a day-weary traveler…

Akkerman fortress

Akkerman fortress (Belgorod-Dniester fortress) - a historical and architectural monument of the XIII-XV centuries. The fortress is located in the city of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, Odessa region.

Once, on the site of the fortress, there was Greek city Tyra. First, the fortress was built by the Genoese, then by the local peoples, and even later by the Moldavian principality, which completed the construction.

The Akkerman fortress consisted of 4 courtyards with an area of ​​9 hectares. From three sides the fortress was surrounded by a deep and wide moat. Once there were 34 towers here, but only 24 have survived to this day. Throughout the history of its existence, the fortress has been repeatedly under siege and suffered from attacks by Tatar, Turkish, Cossack and Russian troops.

At the beginning of the XIX century. the fortress becomes the property of Russia, and already in the middle of the XIX century. it loses its strategic importance.

Architecture

The fortification, which was formed during the XIV-XV centuries, belongs to the tower-wall type. It consists of four parts: the citadel or the Genoese castle, the northern (garrison), southern and port courtyards. The most ancient is the citadel, built in the second half of the 13th - the first half of the 14th century, probably by the Genoese. It is a quadrilateral in plan with four corners. round towers. An entrance gate was built in the southern defensive wall of the citadel, and on castle courtyard walled residential buildings and a chapel were located. Powerful defensive walls with a thickness of 3-5 m and a height of about 15 m ended with merlon battlements. With open battle galleries, they were combined with five-tiered corner towers topped with merlon battlements and cone-shaped roofs. Slit-like loopholes have been preserved in the towers. Each tower had basements where ammunition was stored, and the upper tiers were used for certain functional purposes. So, in the southwest there was a prison, in the northwest - the treasury, and the southeast was the commandant's. It was in it that in 1789 the commandant of the Turkish garrison handed over the keys to the fortress to M. Kutuzov.

legends

Among the 24 towers that have survived, there are two towers with which legends are associated: the Pushkin Tower and the Maiden's Tower.

According to legend, the tsarist government sent Pushkin into exile in Chisinau, because he wrote poetry that gave rise to revolutionary protest. The poet lived in Chisinau for three years. Once, Lieutenant Colonel I. Liprandi, who was going to the fortress on business, took the poet with him. After three days in the fortress, the poet wrote a letter “To Ovid”, because it was this area that reminded him of the exile Ovid, who, according to another legend, was exiled to the city of Tyre.

There is a legend about the Maiden's Tower that the Moldavian owner Alexander the Good had a daughter named Tamara, who was very beautiful. Since Alexander almost constantly went on campaigns, Tamara, taking advantage of this, led a robbery lifestyle. Once she asked her father to allocate money for the construction of a monastery. Alexander gave money to his daughter and summoned local residents to build a shrine, while he himself went on a campaign. Instead of building a monastery, Tamara built a powerful fortress and declared herself an independent queen. Having settled in the fortress, the robbers attacked cities and villages. When Alexander the Good returned from the campaign and saw a fortress instead of a monastery and learned about the actions of his daughter, he cursed her. As a result of the curse, Tamara fell asleep. Alexander ordered her to be immured alive in the walls, and since then the tower has been called the Maiden Tower.

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky (Akkerman) fortress - a medieval fortress in the city of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, a historical and architectural monument of the XIII-XV centuries. Built on site ancient city Tyra. The length of the outer fortress wall is almost two kilometers, the height is up to seven meters, and the thickness is up to five. The height of the towers is up to eleven meters. Walls and other fortifications were built from local material - shell rock.

From east, west and south side the fortress is surrounded by a moat, the original depth of which was twenty-one meters and a width of ten meters. Moreover, the ditch was dug in such a way that its bottom lay almost three meters below the water level in the estuary. In the same place, where he came close to the estuary, special dampers were arranged. When the enemy approached the fortress, the dampers were opened and the moat was filled with water. The inhabitants of the fortress went to the city along the drawbridge, which was thrown over the moat and was immediately removed in case of impending danger. Inside the fortress there are three courtyards separated by powerful walls. In the first - the largest - there were residential buildings, in the second - the military garrison was located and in the third - the smallest - the command.

There were twenty-six towers along the fortress wall: twelve fighting and fourteen deaf, which served only to connect the curtains. Some of these towers have been legendary for centuries.

To the left of the main gate rises the Maiden's Tower. The origin of its name is explained by the following legend: the Moldavian ruler Alexander the Good allegedly had a daughter - Princess Tamara. Self-willed and cruel, she surrounded herself with riotous servants and, taking advantage of the absence of her father, who often left at the head of the army to fight enemies, robbed the surrounding population, robbed on the high road.

Once, when Alexander was going on a new campaign, Tamara asked him for money - supposedly for the construction of a monastery. Father gave them. People from all over the principality were herded into Belgorod. But the daughter did not plan to build a house for God's servants. A powerful fortress soon grew over the estuary, into which Tamara moved with her henchmen, declaring herself an independent queen. Now robber raids were made from the fortress. Looting and fires depopulated the surrounding towns and villages. The rumor about the cruel impostor queen spread far beyond the Danube and the Dniester, even beyond the Black Sea.

But Alexander Dobry returned from the campaign. Instead of a monastery, he saw a fortress, and his traitorous daughter turned out to be the mistress of these impregnable walls. The father wept bitterly, and then renounced Tamara, cursed her and ordered her to be imprisoned in a dungeon tower so that she would atone for her sins with suffering and death.

As soon as her father's curses reached the fortress, the daughter immediately fell into a sound sleep. Sleeping and carried her to the tower, called since then "Maiden".

Further, the legend says that Tamara can wake up if a knight appears who, by his exploits, will atone for her guilt and take the princess as his wife. However, centuries passed, and the knight did not come, and Tamara did not wake up. This poetic legend says that desecration of the people, betrayal, perjury has never been and will never be forgiven.
Another legend connects the tower with the name of the Roman poet Ovid Nason, the author of the famous "Metamorphoses" and "Love Elegies", who was exiled to the eastern province of the empire for "the mocking tone of his poems in relation to the gods and heroes of his time. But this is also nothing more than a legend - after all, Ovid was serving his sentence in the town of Toma (the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe current Constanta), where his grave was later discovered.

One of the four towers that form the citadel, the people called the "dungeon tower", creating an exciting story about the fate of a certain Ukrainian beauty Paraskoveya.

According to legend, the evil and arrogant ruler Uzun Pasha tried for a long time and unsuccessfully to convert the captive girl to the Mohammedan faith. Paraskoveya was adamant, she could not change the customs of her people. Then the beautiful and smart, universally loved and respected girl Uzun Pasha imprisoned in a damp cold dungeon. She sat there for many days and nights, steadfastly endured all the sorrows and torments, but she did not become an apostate.

Once, when the pasha (for the umpteenth time!) came to Paraskoveya with the same proposal, the shackles suddenly fell from the girl’s hands and feet, the dungeon suddenly opened, and Paraskoveya walked out of the fortress gates with a flying gait. Uzun Pasha was dumbfounded. Coming to his senses, he sent guards in pursuit. Janissaries found Paraskoveya on the bank of the estuary. They had already raised their scimitars to deal with the fugitive, but then a miracle happened again. The girl melted into the air, and in the place where she stood, a spring clogged, around which the pursuers froze, turning into stone idols. Over time, they were dried up by the sun, washed away by rains, dispelled by the wind. Only the key of living transparent water continues to beat out of the ground even today. Having drunk from it, a person seems to acquire heroic strength, becomes invincible.

It is possible that the legendary Paraskovea had a real prototype. It is known how many wonderful legends about the heroic struggle against the Janissaries were created by the Ukrainian people, how they glorified and immortalized their steadfast sons and daughters in them. Captivated by their high poetry, A. V. Lunacharsky called the authors of these legends Homers.

At the entrance to the second courtyard of the fortress there is one of the highest towers - the “storage tower”. This tower, in particular, is interesting because during its restoration here, in the dungeon, large stocks of millet, gunpowder and a Russian forged cannon of the seventeenth century were recently discovered. Having lain in storage for two hundred and fifty, or even three hundred years, they decided to sow the grain. And what turned out - half of the sown millet sprouted.

Within the walls of the fortress there are galleries leading to the estuary, as well as a water supply network of clay pipes. Under the fortress, two underground passages were found, through which one could get outside the city. The first of them starts under the octagonal "Maiden Tower" and exits near the village of Peremozhnoye, and the second stretches from the second courtyard to the Greek cemetery on the southern outskirts of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. Today you can’t use these passages: they are half-filled.

The fortress has seen a lot in its long history. After all, the Black Sea steppes were a tasty morsel for those who like to profit at someone else's expense. Armed invaders have repeatedly appeared at these walls. Cannons roared. The enemy soldiers climbed the assault ladders higher and higher, but, having met a decisive rebuff, they retreated. Cannonballs fell on the head of the enemy, stones flew, boiling resin poured. Everything that could be fought went into action ...

Today the bastions are silent. The high gates are wide open, and a noisy crowd of tourists spreads over the three courtyards of the fortress. And restorers come here every day: they do everything so that we can see this beautiful historical monument in its original form.

April 13th, 2015

The Ukrainian city of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky (Ackerman) is in the top ten ancient cities world and gained special fame thanks to the ancient fortress, which has become one of the most interesting and outstanding monuments of defensive architecture of the Middle Ages.

The history of the city begins at the end of the 6th century BC, when on the western bank of the Dniester, immigrants from the Asia Minor city of Miletus founded the city of Ophiussa - Tyra. For my thousand years of history Tira has changed a lot of names - the Romans called this city Alba-Yulia, the Cumans and Polovtsy - Ak-Liba, the Antes - Turis, the Venetians and Genoese - Mon-Kastro, the Moldavians - Chetatya-Albe, the Turks - Ak-Kerman, the Hungarians - Farievar. Slavic tribes - Ulich and Tivertsy - called it the White City.

By the end of the 14th century, the construction of a powerful fortress in the White City was being completed, which lasted almost 200 years. Some historians consider the fortress Moldavian, some Turkish, and the citadel - Genoese.

Let's find out more about it...

With its appearance at the end of the VI century BC. Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, then Tyre, is obliged to immigrants from the Ionian policy of Miletus. The city was founded at the intersection of major trade routes, which served as an impetus for its rapid transformation into a rich independent city-state, which, moreover, from the 4th century BC. starts minting its coin.

Even after joining in the 1st century AD. to the Roman province of Moesia, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky retained a significant part of its sovereign rights: minting coins, issuing laws, etc.

Photo 3.

With the weakening of the Roman Empire, after the withdrawal of the defensive garrison, Tira was captured in the middle of the III century by the Goths (a German tribe) and transformed into a major military-political center of the Black Sea Kingdom.

The rule of the Goths lasted a little over a hundred years and ended in 375 with the complete destruction of the city by the militant tribes of the Huns (an alliance of nomadic Turkic-speaking tribes) during their conquering Eastern European wars.

The favorable strategic position again provided the city in the 6th century with an objection already as the residence of the militant Antes tribe - one of the strongest Slavic tribes.

Photo 4.

However, in the 9th century, the city passed into the possession of the East Slavic landowning tribe of Tivertsy, who annexed it, already as Belgorod-on-Ust-Dniester, to the lands of the newly formed Kievan Rus. As part of the Old Russian state, the city is experiencing rapid growth and development due to its border location.

The 13th century turned out to be rich in historical events: with the weakening of Old Russian domination - in 1214 it passes under the rule of the Kingdom of Hungary with the name Feger-Var, and already in 1241, at the entrance of the Western campaign of Batu (1227 - 1255/1256), it joins the Golden Horde under the name Ak-Libo. It is this period that is considered the beginning of the construction of the Belgorod-Dniester fortress in the form in which it remains today. Its construction continued for two centuries.

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The beginning of the XIV century was marked for the city by the arrival of the Genoese, who made the Golden Horde transfer the possession of this fortified shopping center(Moncastro) to expand the scope of their trade.

In 1362, the city, renamed Belgorod, again becomes Slavic as a result of the weakening of the power of the Golden Horde at the entrance of the Great Memory, when, after the murder of the twelfth Khan Berdibek (Tat. twenty-five khans.

The construction of a fortress on the territory of the city (the Moldavian name Chetatya-Alba) was completed under the rule of the Moldavian principality in 1438, although nominally the rights to the city belonged to the Polish crown under the Treaty of Lublin in 1412. The city is still playing importance in world trade as a crossroads of trade routes of East and West.

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The city ended up in Turkish citizenship on the third attempt in 1484 after the defeat of the Moldavian troops by the army of Bayezid II (Os. with border states. Thanks to the Turks, the city gets a new name - Akkerman (White Stone) and new system defensive structures in the spirit of the times.

Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the city was destined, despite the desperate attempts of the Russian Empire to liberate it during the Russian-Turkish wars, to exist for 328 years. Only in 1812, Russian attempts were crowned with success and the city became part of Russia.

With the development of siege technology, powerful stone fortifications were not a guarantee of security. More and more more collisions began to be decided in open battles on the field. So gradually to XIX century Akkerman fortress is outdated as a fortification object. And in 1806 during the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812. Russian troops led by Richelieu took it virtually without a fight. And in 1832. the fortress was already officially abolished as a military-defensive object and it was transferred to the care of the city. From this time on old fortress for a long time there was no supervision: in the 60s of the 19th century, the city duma even decided to appoint auctions for the fortress walls, i.e. an attempt was made to dismantle it for building material. The Imperial Odessa Society of History and Antiquities intervenes in defense of the monument. And only in 1896. The Archaeological Commission manages, with the consent of the Minister of the Interior, to transfer the Akkerman fortress to the jurisdiction of this society, but despite this, the society did not have the funds to maintain the fortress.

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After the removal of the status of a military facility from the Belgorod-Dniester fortress in 1832, the city authorities dismantled internal buildings, but the walls, thanks to the strong mortar, withstood. The fortress had to resist human encroachments until 1896, when it was given the status of a historical and architectural monument. And in 1900, excavations of the first settlement, Tira, began on the territory adjacent to the fortress.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the main gate began to collapse, watch tower, which after digging and storms split. The walls on the side of the estuary were in particular danger, where, as a result of erosion and sampling of the clay on which the rock lies, the northeastern tower of the citadel and a large section of the walls collapsed. In 1927-1928, being the mayor, P. Nicorescu organized the restoration of the storage or guard tower, as well as the main gate, the roof of which had completely collapsed. Here the buttresses were restored and holes were patched up, new floor beams were installed to replace the rotten ones, the tiled roof was restored, for which tiles were collected from old city houses. But all these works were isolated.

In the period from 1918 to 1940, Akkerman was part of the Kingdom of Romania, which, with the collapse of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, expanded its borders at the expense of Banat, Bessarabia, Bukovina, Transylvania, Maramures.

The USSR did not abandon attempts to annex to its territories the lands lost during the collapse of the Russian Empire. His attempts were crowned with success in 1940, when on August 2, the victory of the Red Army, Akkerman County was included in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

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Less than a year later, on July 26, 1941, the city was captured by the combined Nazi and Romanian troops and until August 1944 was part of the occupied territories.

After the liberation by the Soviet troops, the city was returned to its Slavic name - Belgorod-Dnestrovsky - and was given the status of an architectural monument.

Akkerman fortress, built on a high rocky shore of the Dniester estuary, has always admired and surprised with its special power and inaccessibility. Local limestone was used as building material.

In plan, the fortress is an irregularly shaped polygon with an area of ​​just over 9 hectares. The length of the defensive walls is almost 2.5 km, their thickness is from 1.5 to 5 m, and the height is from 5 to 15 m.

WITH north side the fortress is washed by the waters of the Dniester estuary, and on the other sides it is surrounded by a deep moat carved into a rock. This ditch, previously filled with water, has a width of 14 m and a depth of about 20 m.

34 towers are built into the walls of the fortress, different in height and purpose. Some of them were hollow inside and were living quarters. Some of the towers have names associated with ancient traditions and legends: Dungeon, Treasury, Komendantskaya, Ovid and Pushkin towers.

From the side of the city, one could enter the fortress through the Main (Kiliya) gate, which was the most important object in the defense. At one time there was a drawbridge here, there were folding gates, two pointed gratings (gers), and on the second tier there were holes through which boiling water and resin could be poured.

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Inland territory Belgorod-Dniester fortress divided by defensive walls into 4 courtyards, each of which had a specific purpose and could independently withstand a siege.

The purpose of the Civil Court was to protect the population during the siege. The yard occupied the most large area- almost 5 hectares, and at that time residential buildings were located there. Today on the high place are highest tower Watchtower and the remains of a Turkish mosque built on the ruins of a Christian church of the XII-XIII centuries.

The next yard is Garrison, the area of ​​which is about 2 hectares. On the territory of this courtyard there were barracks, ammunition depots, stables. It was possible to get into the territory of the courtyard through special gates with a special protection system. Now a ring road is paved from this gate.

The port or economic yard, which was intended for warehousing and trade, was completely destroyed.

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The citadel (fortress within a fortress) is the oldest (end of the 12th century) and mysterious building. At the four corners there are 4 most powerful towers, the initial height of the walls of which is 20 m, and the thickness is 5 m. The courtyard, which occupied a little more than 300 square meters, was densely built up. IN commandant's tower the headquarters of the commandant was located, there was also the commandant's palace, the guards of the commandant were located, the city treasury was kept, there was a powder cellar. The citadel had all-round defense and was an impregnable castle.

Now the Belgorod-Dniester fortress is a monument of national importance and attracts many tourists. Despite many historical events, reconstructions and repairs, the fortress has retained its original structure.

Every summer, at the end of June, a youth music Festival"Fortress" and knightly battles.

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Address: Ukraine, Odessa region, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky.

Opening hours: from 8 to 21, seven days a week.

Films in which the fortress is involved: “Knight's Castle”, “Musketeers 30 Years Later”, “Fire Roads”, “Othello”, “Devil's Dozen”, “High Price”, “At the Beginning of Glorious Deeds”, “Waves of the Black Sea” .

How to get there

By motor transport on the highway T 16 04 (through the city of Zatoka), T 16 10 (through the city of Sergeevka), T 16 26 (at the exit from the highway E 87).

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky is located 90 km. from Odessa, travel time in a minibus is about an hour and a half.
If you get on your own, it is most convenient to fixed-route taxi No. 560, which leaves every 10 minutes from the Odessa railway station (from the side of Privoz).

If you slowly go around the fortress, it will take from 3 to 5 hours, so it is better to take something to eat with you, as there are only small stalls with cookies, chips and beer in the area and on the territory of the fortress.

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Maiden's Tower– According to the legend, a Moldavian princess, the daughter of the Moldavian ruler Alexander the Good, was immured in this tower of the ball for cruelty and self-will.

Watchtower- from the open platform of the last tier of the tower, sentinels gave danger signals.

Minaret- this is all that remains of the Turkish mosque, which was built in honor of Sultan Bayezid Veli and bore his name. It was erected on the site of a Christian church of the 13th century.

Pushkin Tower- named after the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin, who in 1821. visited our region and visited the Akkerman fortress.

Treasury Tower- according to legend, the treasury of Belgorod was kept in this tower. In 1888 most of the towers collapsed washed away by the waters of the estuary.

evacuation tower- was intended for defense and residence of the garrison. On the first tier there was an additional exit to the east.

Tower Dungeon- damp and gloomy served as a place of imprisonment for prisoners of war.

commandant's tower- it was the headquarters of the commandant of the fortress, and it was in it that in 1789. The Turks handed over the keys to the fortress to M.I. Kutuzov.

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