ON THE QUESTION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE AND EXISTENCE PERIOD OF ROHATYN DEFENSIVE CASTLES

The article presents the results of the study of literary sources and natural surveys of the territory of the castle in Rohatyn carried out by the authors. As is well known, the city of Rohatyn of the Ivano-Frankivsk region is one of the oldest cities in Western Ukraine. As early as 1415, the city received the Magdeburg right, which gave potential for more intensive development of the settlement. The planning structure of the city go through certain transformations over time, but the location of the main objects of the city, such as churches, the market square, earthen fortifications and the castle, remained unchanged. There are a small number of references to Rohatyn castle buildings. Some claim that the castle was moved to another location not far from the previous one, within the city limits, next to the city fortifications. Others declare about the existence of another castle on a hill near the city in the Babyntsi village. These evidences largely complement each other, which enabled the researchers to localize the location of the city castle. However, it will be possible to confirm the existence of the Babyntsi Castle only after conducting archaeological research on the hill. Important evidence about the city castle is the studied metrics, descriptions and lustrations of the Rohatyn Starostvo from 1537, and the inventory from 1725. Thanks to these materials, we became aware of the existence of a number of premises and buildings in the castle, such as kitchens-bakeries, carriage houses, stables, storage rooms, gates and other premises, as well as the presence of cannons, grottoes and a list of craftsmen who were part of the castle’s collateral. Thanks to these statements, many conclusions have been drawn regarding the list of premises and their relative location. The results of natural studies and measurements of the casemates, which have survived to this day on the territory of the castle, allowed many researchers to confirm the location of the defensive fortifications in the southeastern part of the city and to localize the castle in the city of Rohatyn according to literary sources and now also according to the results of the fixation of the remains of the casemates.