Brody is a city located in Ukraine, in the Lviv region, with a history dating back to the Middle Ages. From earliest times, it was named after the marshes that surrounded it. In the 15th century, it belonged to Jan Sieniński, coat of arms of Dębno, Chamberlain of Przemyśl and Starosta of Sandomierz, to whom, in 1441, King Władysław Jagiellończyk granted the castle of Olesko with the town and the entire county as a reward for his services. Around 1580, Sieniński's descendants, Jan and Wojciech Kamieniecki, sold their entire estate to the Bełsk voivode, Stanisław Żółkiewski, who founded a town here called for a short time Lubicz (Lubicz). However, the old name turned out to be more durable, hence a document sealed by Stanislaw's daughter-in-law, Anna of Chodorostaw Żółkiewska, dated 20 December 1598, mentions St Stanislaw's Church in Brody. "As many towns in the country transformed from villages did not accept the new name given to them by their founder, so it happened with Lubicz, which the heirs themselves, succumbing to the custom, had to call Brody, as it turns out from the following privilege: Łukasz Żółkiewski of Żółkwie, the heir to the town of Lubicz alias Brody", we read in one of the sources. In 1629, Anna's son, Łukasz, the Bracław voivode and starosta of Kaluga, sold Brody together with the surrounding villages to the crown field hetman, Stanisław Koniecpolski. He appreciated the location of the town and its development potential. Not only did he choose Brody as his headquarters and "capital" of his vast domains in Red Ruthenia, but he also expanded and fortified the entire town. There were large pine forests all around, full of raw material for the development of crafts, there were also numerous fish ponds, and the marshy black earth created after draining the moors guaranteed fertile crops. Koniecpolski made use of this potential and turned Brody into a significant centre of crafts and trade on an international scale. He established a silk manufactory, saltpeteries and vineyards, which Morsztyn praised in a poem addressed to Stanisław [Oświęcim, marshal of the hetman's court - note by ABR]:

"Tell me, brother, for thou hast visited the tastes of

You have drunk and drunk alike.

And of your own accord, not wishing to embarrass your homeland

Thou didst drink of the wines of the fertile

Brody land; where the pennants hung

Hetman, and started a good thought Podhorce."

It is worth mentioning that the king issued an extremely favourable privilege for Brody in 1633, putting it on a par with Lvov, Lublin, Torun and other cities under Magdeburg law in terms of privileges and liberties. In the same year, in a parliamentary resolution signed by Mikołaj Ostroróg, Subdelegate of the Crown and Speaker of the Parliamentary Circle, we read about the confirmation of privileges for "the town of Brody, which His Lordship Stanisław Koniecpolski, Castellan of Kraków and Great Hetman of the Crown, has fortified at great expense, establishing a mighty fortress there against pagan insults". In the years 1630-1635 Koniecpolski erected a citadel in Brody, and the royal engineers Guillaume le Vasseur de Beauplan (1600-1675) and Andrea dell'Aqua (1584-1656) were probably involved in the design and construction work.

On 7 July 1640, Albrycht Radziwill wrote in his diaries: "I went to see the castellan of Cracow in Brody, his usual residence, which he had girded with a Dutch munica [i.e. fortification - note ABR] at almost royal expense." It is worth adding that the Brody citadel, in addition to its military function, served as the castellan's residence, which allows it to be classified as a specific architectural type, the so-called palazzo in fortezza . The early Baroque bastion fortress of the New Italian type was built on a regular pentagonal plan with a deep moat, earthen ramparts, walls and buttresses made of brick and stone. The citadel was connected axially with ten bastions, constituting the earthen fortifications of the city. The gate was placed in the curtain on the side of the city, with a drawbridge and causeway leading to it. A ravelin extending in front of the curtain was an additional defensive element. The bastions had hexagonal halls with palm vaults on the central pillar and straight sides, similar to the castle in Podhorce, where the hetman had his summer residence. The casemates on the courtyard side were carefully finished with stone. A reference to Italian models was the doubled pilasters and the arcades between them, the rusticated windows and portals. The rooms in the casemates, used as quarters for the troops and as a storehouse for weapons and supplies, with cross vaults, were connected in amphitheatre. The fortress commander lived in a wooden building in the courtyard.

The powerful and influential castellan of Krakow and Great Hetman of the Crown Stanisław Koniecpolski took care of the son of Stefan Koniecpolski and Marcjanna née Daniłowicz - Andrzej - in 1644. He took care of the young relative's military career, and thanks to his patronage Andrzej was able to marry Wiktoria Potocka, daughter of the then Braclaw voivode and field hetman Mikołaj. The Hetman celebrated their wedding at Brody castle. In 1648, when the Chmielnicki Uprising broke out, the fortress in Brody resisted the Cossacks, and in later years it was bypassed by Turkish and Tatar armies. During the Battle of Beresteczko, heavy cannons (kartauns and semi-cartauns) were drawn from Brody, which lay nearby, to fire on the enemy army. "The cannons were brought from Brody, with which the enemy's guns were being used" - it was noted in the camp diaries under the date of 5 July 1651. As we read from Samuel of Skrzypna, author of Civil War with Cossacks and Tartars :

"[...] And on these li little,

Which were brought here,

To fetch more guns to Brody, as many as possible,

To make or to force them to the quicker

To force them to make treaties."

The Citadel in Brody served as a base - more important prisoners and carts with war equipment were sent there, and sometimes even the ruler found hospitality here: "My lord the king, having given orders to the lord of Cracow and others who were on their way to Ukraine with the army of the Republic, himself, having bidden farewell to the army, stayed in Brody die 19 [i.e. 19 July 1651, for the night - note ABR].

During the times of the hetman's grandson, Stanisław Koniecpolski, the citadel and the palace needed renovating and tidying up. Nor did he neglect the city itself, whose inhabitants sought protection in the Brody citadel in times of danger. During the Turkish invasions in 1672, residents from Kamień Podolski, Bugacz and Jazłowiec also took refuge in Brody. Stanislaw, who rose to the dignity of castellan of Cracow and proved a worthy successor to his grandfather and namesake, was the last heir of Brody from his family. Before his death, he bequeathed his estate to Prince Jakub Sobieski, as we read in his will:

"...the fortress of Brody vetustate of time, worn out and not yet a little restored, with all great and small and cannons, mossards and all other in genere et specie cannon (except 24 great cannons, which he formerly donated to His Majesty the King), with the town, with the village of old Brody and the Lachodowski pond [....I give, donate and bequeath to posterity the memory and immortal fame of the Koniecpolskis". There were stories circulating that Queen Marysieńka Sobieska had a hand in this bequest. It is said that when Koniecpolski applied for the post of Krakow castellan, she approached him and grabbed him by the beard with her hand, joking: "Give Brody, you will be Krakow castellan!".

What did Brody look like at the end of the 17th century? We are indebted to François Paulin Dalerac, French courtier to John III and Marie Casimire, for the following extensive and detailed description of the town and fortress, which he included in his diaries:

"The city is situated in a vast sandy plain, surrounded by pine forests, in places by gauchos cut by a pond or marsh, over which rises a citadel, surrounded by these marshes on three sides. It is a perfect pentagon and well made. The bastions are brick-built with cornices and other ornaments made of hewn stone, but there are no court entrenchments or bulwarks at the gates. Even the moat is quite large or covered with swamps, which make quite good court entrenchments. The earthen ramparts on the town side are beautiful and well-proportioned. The gate is well and practically walled with a wide entrance. The drawbridge is very long and spacious. The inner weapons area is very spacious and free, and finally, as for the size of the citadel itself, it is built on the same plan as the citadel in Stenaj [...]. But the interior of the Brody citadel is not at all like the Stenaj citadel and the structure is far more impressive. Its cortices are large vaulted rooms with joints. The vaults are held up by pilasters and reinforced with transverse iron anchors, still up to the outer wall from the moat. From these, large and beautiful windows with iron grilles lead out into the courtyard. On the same wall, where the windows face the courtyard, on the rampart, there is a balcony or a stone porch on stone balustrades, of such height that one can support oneself on it with one's elbows, looking from the rampart to the courtyard, and this splendid balcony impresses the whole citadel courtyard. Between these cortinas there are five staircases in the Roman style, similar to the tuillery terrace, which serve for the entry and passage of the cannons to the ramparts and bastions. These accommodations in the cortinas are very regular and comfortable. No house can be seen in the courtyard, only a simple wooden dwelling, quite long and built in the Polish manner, intended to house the governor or commandant of the citadel. Under the bastions there are rooms for the garrison, with stables for the cavalry. These have wide vaults, supported only by a single pillar of hewn stone, built in the middle, and are as thick as the vaults of the cortinas, and so well bonded that they have withstood all trials. They are thickly plastered on top, and earth ten feet at least in thickness is sprinkled over them. There is a beautiful well in the courtyard and an arsenal under one cortina well furnished and covered. The two bastions facing the town have ramparts strongly raised, and beautiful bronze cannons, marked with the coat of arms of the lord who owns the citadel. Between these cannons, there are eight or ten serpentine cannons, which carry balls weighing twelve pounds; these are cannons of considerable size, and there are also a great number of smaller cannons. The arsenal is also stocked with various artillery and war equipment, with everything imaginable abounding. There are bullets of various sizes, fireballs, iron and glass grenades, chains, cartridges, mortars, bombs, hand weapons, and finally everything that serves for the defence of the fortress, especially the wealth of the lord who built and fortified this citadel.

This extensive description is not only a valuable source on the architectural state and defensive potential of the fortress at the time, but also testifies to the role Brody played on the defensive fortification map of the time. From Dalerac's description, it is also possible to infer further reconstruction of the citadel - the walled palace was built much later, as was the magnificent clock tower above the gate and the ravelin in front of the gate and the drawbridge.

By the end of the 17th century, Brody's citadel was repeatedly used as a refuge from invasions. In the 1680s, the Tartars ravaged Volhynia and occupied Brody, but the fortress resisted them, sheltering, among others, the Dominican friars from Podkamień with the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary and the monastery goods. In 1690, King John III Sobieski stayed in Brody in the place of his son, Jakub. After the king's death in 1696, Brody was again sacked by Turks and Tatars. In the following years, the conflict over Brody continued between Jakub Sobieski and Jan Aleksander Koniecpolski, who invaded Brody and dispersed the citadel's crew. By a sentence of the Lublin tribunal in 1700, he was banned for this.

At the beginning of 1704, Brody became the property of Józef Potocki, but the new owner did not ensure the safety of the town. First, after the battle of Poltava between Russian and Swedish troops, he left Brody at the mercy of Russian troops. Then, as a result of Potocki's absence, Jan Aleksander Koniecpolski again claimed his rights, seizing the town and declaring himself its hereditary lord. Again Potocki obtained a decree of banishment at the Lublin tribunal on 5 October 1714, under which:

"Jan Alexander Koniecpolski, Voivode of Sieradz, who by Zbigniew Lubieniecki with his swaggering men violently invaded Brody with the castle and fortress, drove his own heir's men out of the Brody castle by beating and maiming, took cannons, mortars, ashes, grenades, bullets and other weapons, scattered them around his various domains, and illegally collected income from these estates; He was sentenced to make good the damage he had done and to the shame of eternal banishment".

Peace did not come until Koniecpolski's death in 1720, but unfortunately not for long, because with the death of King August II, known as the Strong, the Commonwealth once again found itself in a state of chaos. Russian troops under the command of Fieldmaster General Ludwig Gruno, Duke von Hessen-Homburg, entered Podolia and Volhynia, plundering and murdering. Prince Hessen-Homburg at the head of thirty thousand Russian troops, advancing on Ternopil and Załoźce, stopped at Podkamień on 4 June 1734, from where he observed the Brody fortress. An eyewitness, Father Augustyn Filipowicz of the Podkamień Dominican monastery, in his News worthy History of the Passage of the Moscow and Cossack Armies through Rosary Mountain , described the event as follows:

"On the following day the xiege ordered to beat from cannons at the sound of which sim iliter was beaten in Brody. On the same day Colonel Wedel was sent from the Prince to Brody castle, in a thousand very regular Muscovites cum additam ento of Cossacks [...] there he treated with Commander Hauzen for the surrender of Brody fortress [...]".

On 8 June, Prince Hessen-Homburg set off with his entire army near Brody, where the camp was broken up and the fortress surrendered. After a few weeks, he settled his own garrison in the citadel, and himself with his army went to Zbarazh.

As a result of the war, the fortifications in Brody were destroyed and lost their military significance. In the mid-18th century, Stanisław Potocki transformed Brody into a late Baroque residence. At that time, a palace was built on the northern curtain and a magnificent gate with a clock tower was built on the side of the town. The palace was of brick, plastered, with sandstone detailing. It had a modest architectural programme, a two-bay and two-storey structure, with side risalits. The front and side elevations were decorated with large pilasters. In this palace, just before the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, the governor held a wedding reception for his eldest daughter, Teofila Potocka, who was marrying the crown carpenter, August Fryderyk Moszyński. The wedding was followed by carnival games and a ball, and then it was time for some unusual entertainment. After the wedding entertainment, all the guests went to see... a huge ox that was born on the Potocki estate. This animal was famous throughout the Crown and Lithuania. Let us give the floor to the journalists of the "Kuryer Polski", who reported in the supplement to issue 83 for 1755:

"Among other entertainments there was a presentation in the manor house of H.W. J.W. Lord Voivode of Kiev, an unseen rarity, an ox in three years, which has the head and muzzle of a buffalo, the throat of a bison, but what is most important, apart from two ordinary curly horns, the third horn above the eyes at the very top of the forehead of this animal has grown, The third horn, above the eyes at the very top of the forehead, has grown up, straight, pointed, and in these years is already more than half a cubit long, and in the nest itself is so thick that it cannot be touched by three fathoms, and in the same place around it is surrounded by hair which is longer and finer, forming a beard; This spectacle caused the natural admiration of everyone, and the opinion that such curiosity should be in the first menagerie of Monarchs, in a word, and to wonder and look at this peculiar animal is a thing of great interest and pleasure.

In a later description, from 1836, we read:

"This ox was of the usual size of Ukrainian oxen, and like them light of ashen colour. In the composition of its muzzle it was somewhat similar to a bison, but the most striking thing was that between the two horns of ordinary form, there grew in the middle of its forehead a third horn, thicker, straight and only slightly inclined towards the front. This horn was half a cubit long, sharp-pointed, white underneath, blackish towards the end, and near its base there were long locks of hair falling to the front. The genital parts of this bull were of immeasurable size, and whenever anyone touched them lightly, the animal became angry and the keepers could barely hold it. In order to get him from one place to another, he had to be preceded by two cows, which he would like, then he would follow them calmly. This is how he was brought from the Ukraine to Warsaw and from Warsaw to Dresden; for Voivode Potocki gave him as a gift to King August III, and from then on he was bred in Saxony along with other rare animals".

In the post-partition era, Brody became part of the Habsburg monarchy, entering the territory of the crown country of Galicia as a district town with a district director's seat. From 1776, it enjoyed a special status in Galicia as the only free trading town apart from Krakow, and due to its location on the border it also lay on the trade route to Russia. In 1779 Emperor Joseph II granted Brody the privilege of a free trading town on a par with Trieste and Fiume. A.F. Geisler, in his Description of Joseph II's Travels in the Country , recorded an account of the Emperor's visit to Brody:

"Joseph II left Vienna d. 26 April 1780, at eight o'clock in the morning, heading for Bern in the direction of Galicia, stopping a little at Wieliczka and Bochnia, and went straight to Lwów, accompanied by General Brown, several colonels and adjutants. On 19th May he continued his journey to Brody and Polonne, where he was received by Colonel von Schutz, who showed him the local fortifications.

The heir to Brody, Wincenty Potocki, Grand Chamberlain of the Crown, received the title of Duke from the Emperor in 1784. As we read in the Gazeta Warszawska of 5 May:

"The Emperor has deigned to confer upon His Lordship Wincenty Potocki, chamberlain in the Crown Poland, and his offspring, the title and dignity of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, permitting and establishing a Majorate on the estates lying in Galicia, for the maintenance of the eternal adornment of the family of the Potocki princes".

From this period comes the description of Brody by the famous geographer, writer and bibliophile, Count Ewarysta Andrzej Kuropatnicki, author of the Geography of Galicia published in 1786 :

"The city adorns itself with a magnificent castle between the marshes. The road in the middle of the town is walled, the streets are weighty, the houses dense with wood, after the last conflagration more walls show". A letter dated 24 April 1860 preserves a description of the fortress by the Polish poet, novelist, novelist and playwright, Józef Korzeniowski, who was born in the town: "From the market square, through a narrow street between brick Jewish houses, one came out onto a large castle square. At that time, the castle was still quite defensible, with ramparts and spacious casemates, and a drawbridge in front of which was a large pre-bridge building with a large quadrilateral tower housing a clock, the only one in the city. Behind the castle stretched the mud and further on the pond and from that side it was inaccessible. On the town side it was defended by wide ditches in front of the walls, which could be seen to be flooded with water from the pond [...]. In the castle's vast courtyard, there was only a circle of huge and fragrant ancient lindens in the middle; to the right was an outbuilding housing the Dominion's chancelleries, wooden and walled, attached to the ramparts of the fortress; opposite the entrance gate was a huge five-storey palace with huge halls, where Potocki's commissioner lived, who administered the entire key, the mandatary and justiciary, and where the entire first floor stood empty, because Mr Wincenty Potocki, then the governor of the fortress, was a member of the Potocki family. Wincenty Potocki, the then heir to Brody, having left Niemirów, lived in a manor house not far from the castle [...], where he had a nice garden and where his mistress lived with him, Mrs Hofmanowa, whose husband was also in Brody at the time, but lived separately, had other relations, and sometimes only visited Potocki. [...] This castle looked great in 1809 [...] Today there is only rubble of this castle, I saw these walls, and this tower flying into the air."

In the spring of 1809, during the Polish-Austrian war, Colonel Piotr Strzyżewski, marching from Zamość, entered Galicia with his unit and advanced on Brody, capturing the town without a fight. After the Polish army surrendered, Brody Castle was disassembled in 1812, and Potocki dismantled the fortifications on the town side, with a gate tower, curtain, two bastions and a ravelin. Only the residential part and a half-circle of ramparts with casemates used as storerooms and warehouses were left. Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz recalled his visit to Brody in his Podróżach historycznych po ziemiach polskich między rok 1811 a 1828 skywanymi :

"During the last war the Austrians dismantled the fortress; only a small part of the casemates remained, the remains of the old castle are nowhere to be seen. It is unbelievable that the Austrian government, which has possessed Brody for half a century, receives immeasurable income from it, and collects toll on the cobblestones at every turnpike, still suffers from such mud and such a sinkhole in such a commercial town, especially when it has stone nearby and immense gravel mountains under the castle itself."

Around 1833 Brody passed into the hands of its next owner, who was Jan Kazimierz Młodecki. Still during the years of the Crimean War (1853-1856), they experienced their last period of splendour due to the closure of the Black Sea ports. Unfortunately, in 1877 the Austrian authorities stripped the town of its extraordinary trading privileges, resulting in the departure of some of the wealthier population. The palace remained in the hands of the Mlodecki heirs, who took care of the reconstruction after the damage done by the Russian army in 1915 and 1920. The last owner was Jadwiga Ryszczewska, Mlodecki's granddaughter, in whose possession the palace remained until 1939. During World War II, the fortress was further damaged by Soviet and German troops stationed there, and the Potocki family's valuable collections were also lost with the turmoil of war. Eventually, the palace and part of the fortifications survived to the present day. The Brody Fortress is an object of considerable historical and urbanistic value and great significance for the history of Polish and European architecture and fortifications.