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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Starosillia Castle today looks like a huge ruin near Lviv, but once it was a powerful fortress with high walls, six towers, and moats. At various times, its grounds also housed a palace, storage facilities, a distillery, and even a brewery where beer was brewed.
The castle’s towers are particularly interesting: their tops were adorned with Baroque elements, and one of them preserved a stone structure in the shape of a crown. The intent was to emphasize the status of the fortress’s owners – the princes Ostrozhsky-Zaslavsky, who were regarded as exceptionally influential rulers of Rus', writes 24 Channel .
Why is Starosillia Castle so large?
Starosillia Castle is located in the village of Stare Selo near Lviv. Its area is about 2 hectares, and the perimeter of the defensive walls is approximately 500 meters. The walls once reached 14–16 meters in height.
The fortress has the shape of an irregular pentagon. Initially it was reinforced with six towers, but only three have survived to the present day. The defensive walls were decorated with arcature—rows of decorative arches that gave the stern fortress a rather unusual appearance.
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The first fortifications on this site were wooden. At the end of the 16th century, the Ostrozhsky princes began building a masonry fortress here.
In the years 1584–1589, the construction likely involved the Lviv architect of Italian origin Ambrosius Prykhylny.
The fortress endured a difficult history. In 1642 construction of a new castle began, but already in 1648, during Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s campaign to Lviv, the structure suffered serious damage. After that it was rebuilt again.
In the years 1649–1654 a strong masonry fortress was erected that was intended to serve several functions at once: to be the owner’s residence, a defensive point, and a place where local people could hide during an attack.
It had high walls, moats, and fortifications. And those fortifications truly proved necessary. The castle withstood one of the subsequent sieges, and in 1672 it withstood an attack by Ottoman troops.
Where did the crowns on the fortress come from?
One of the most interesting details of Starosillia Castle is the decorative finials on its towers. The towers were embellished with Baroque stone carving, and their tops resembled crowns.
This decoration was not accidental: it was meant to demonstrate the status and wealth of the castle’s owners. According to one interpretation, the crowns emphasized the Ostrozhsky family’s claim to a special status—they were called “the uncrowned kings of Rus'.”
Part of this ornamentation on one of the towers has been preserved to this day.
What remains of the castle now: Inst: @dr_shevchuk
Why did they start... brewing beer in the fortress?
Perhaps the least obvious chapter of the castle’s history began once its military significance gradually diminished. New owners did not take much care of the fortress.
A distillery, grain warehouses, and a brewery appeared on its grounds. In other words, a structure that once protected people from attacks later turned into a sort of economic complex. Moreover, according to local history sources, the beer produced within the castle walls was in demand.
So at some point Starosillia Fortress could have become associated not only with defense but also with local production.
There is even a legend about eggs in the mortar
A rather whimsical local legend is associated with the castle. According to it, during the fortress’s construction, eggs and milk were added to the mortar to make it stronger. There is also a story about a nobleman sentenced to death who was given a chance to save himself: he had to bring to the construction site a whole cart of eggs so that none would break.
The man allegedly found a clever way—he boiled the eggs, then loaded them onto the cart. However, his ingenuity did not help, and the sentence was carried out.
From fortress to ruin
In the 19th century the Potocki family acquired the castle. During Alfred Potocki’s time, part of the complex was used as a brewery, distillery, and warehouses. A railway line Lviv–Chernivtsi was laid nearby, and the fortress gradually lost its former importance.
After 1939 the castle was left without its former owners and began to decline. In the Soviet period it was used, among other things, as collective farm storage, which also did not contribute to the preservation of the monument.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the structure was at least partially cleared. In 2007 the area was cleared of self-seeded trees and vegetation, and the work was financed by the singer Ruslana Lyzhychko.
Later the castle was given under concession for 49 years, but the planned restoration was never fully carried out. Today of the once huge fortress only massive walls and three towers remain. But even in this state, Starosillia Castle clearly shows how rich the past of a single structure can be.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Корони на вежах і найсмачніше пиво: які таємниці ховає найбільший замок Львівщини". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Channel 24.
