Halshany Castle

Halshany, Belarus

Halshany or Holszany Castle is the ruined residence of the Sapieha magnate family and was the seat of the one of the largest land estates in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Paweł Stefan Sapieha commissioned its construction and it was erected circa 1610 to replace the older castle, built by of the Holszanski princely family, of whom Sapiehas were descendants and heirs.

Also known as the Black Castle (although it is built of red brick), the residence formerly rivaled Mir Castle as the most elegant private château of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The name Black Castle in fact originally applies to a fictional building from a book by Uladzimir Karatkievich, which was loosely based on Halshany Castle.

The castle and the surrounding estates were devastated, robbed and looted, twice: by the invading Swedes troops during the Deluge and during the Great Northern War in 1704. Due to financial stress experienced by the Sapiehas in the wake of the Domestic War and ongoing Great Northern War, the castle had never been fully restored.

Later during the 18th century the castle with its estate diminished by creditors passed to the Żaba family, to be sold to the Korsak family with the estate further diminished by the creditors. The last Polish landlords. the Korsaks, sold, in the last quarter of the 19th century, the castle to a Russian landlord, Gorbanyov, who had the castles' towers pulled down in 1880, but in 1880s, according to the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, there were still 2 floors occupied with some of the wall paintings visible.

Currently, the castle continues to crumble away. An annual tournament is held near its walls each summer.

References:

Comments

Your name



Address

P95, Halshany, Belarus
See all sites in Halshany

Details

Founded: 1610
Category: Castles and fortifications in Belarus

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Denis Donov (7 months ago)
Full of history
Olga Galenchik (2 years ago)
I have been here many times before and after the reconstruction. I liked the approach to museumification. The castle was destroyed a long time ago and it makes no sense to create another gingerbread house. The rest was preserved as much as possible, covered and organized for safe access. A small exposition is organized in the tower on 3 levels. At the entrance there are ticket offices where you can buy nice souvenirs and a tidy bathroom.
Christoph Menelaou (3 years ago)
It's quite fascinating, needs a proper guide
Igor Rykovskii (4 years ago)
An interesting castle with its own history. It's good that onycho is in this form, but survived. Such places need to be reanimated, because history is the foundation of a nation. A must visit.
Borulia Vadim (4 years ago)
These are the ruins that began to be preserved, not the castle
Powered by Google

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Abbey of Saint-Georges

Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.

The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).