“Neither Ukraine nor Europe has other monuments like this”

Founded in 988 by Prince Volodymyr the Great of Kyiv, Volodymyr-Volynskyi is one of Ukraine’s most ancient towns, which had its own castles that have not survived up to now. But still in a good condition are the earthen defensive ramparts which, together with the castle ruins, are a monument of national importance. Volodymyr-Volynskyi recently hosted a roundtable to discuss the project, so far in a sketch form, “Restoration, Adjustment, and Museification of the Monument of Urban Development and Architecture ‘Earthen Ramparts of a 13th-16th-Century Castle’ and the Architecture Monument ‘The 9th-13th-Century Hill Fort and Ramparts.’” The picture looks tempting on paper. But the city council has allotted 150,000 hryvnias for making the draft design alone, while the project implementation will cost more than one million. The problem is that there is no investor who would bring in the money. Then why is it all being done?

Volodymyr PYKALIUK, director of the State Historical and Cultural Preserve “Ancient Volodymyr,” says: “Our city has long needed a tourist attraction site. We have, of course, a 12th-century Assumption Cathedral, St. Basil’s Rotunda Church, and other ancient and really interesting objects of sacral art. But towering in the very downtown are 10-meter- high earthen ramparts which, in spite of being a monument of national importance, do not attract tourists much. Meanwhile, the project provides for restoration of the ramparts and the building of the former tsarist prison, which will house the preserve’s administration, the establishment of an interactive museum, and full archeological reconstruction of the hill fort. Where will we get funds for all this? We are pinning our hopes on a grant as part of Poland-Ukraine-Belarus cooperation.”

But even if they receive this grant, it will not matter much, which Pykaliuk also knows. He says that the archeology of ramparts, as well as restoration of the museum premises, will require about 15 million hryvnias each. And no one knows how much the restoration of the ramparts themselves and the construction of towers and the gate on them (as projected) will cost – too much money indeed. Besides, there must be permission from the Ministry of Culture to carry out the project.

There is another ticklish point. A few years ago, when Volynian and Polish archeologists were excavating the ramparts, they found burials of the executed citizens of the Polish Republic. The remains were reburied at Volodymyr’s city cemetery. Following the excavations, Volyn archeologists Oleksii Zlatohorskyi and Serhii Panyshko published a work, Examination of the Hill Fort “Ramparts” in Volodymyr-Volynskyi in 2010-2012.

But the point is that the goal of their excavations was not to search for the shot people’s graves. There were only conjectures about these burials, for the city’s old residents knew about executions in the Volodymyr-Volynskyi NKVD jail. The archeologists looked for the remnants of Polish King Casimir the Great’s castle. They found both the castle foundation and the graves. Zlatohorskyi and Panyshko believe it is too early to set up sort of “Disneyland” on the Ancient Rus’ ramparts, for there can be more graves there and the excavations should go on. And while the city council has allotted 150,000 for the draft design of the project, which may or may not be carried out, the archeologists have not received even 10,000 for ramparts excavations… If properly advertised, the foundation of King Casimir’s castle can be an interesting attraction. No one knows what the ramparts were like during the construction, so it is also strange to speak of their restoration. By all accounts, it will be a new construction effort.

In a word, there are more questions and problems than answers. And the main question is: even if the project is historically correct, where will the funds be found for this construction?

COMMENTARY

Volodymyr STEMKOVSKYI, director, Omelian Dvernytskyi History Museum, Volodymyr-Volynskyi:

“Ancient Rus’ ramparts in Volodymyr-Volynskyi are a unique and very little explored archeological monument. It is invaluable in its present-day shape for history in general and for the history of our region in particular. Neither Ukraine nor Europe has other monuments like this. The ramparts and the hill fort is a well-preserved model of early medieval urban development. Other towns also had ramparts. But they crumbled, sank, and vanished altogether long ago. The well-known academic Tsynkalovskyi, who focused on exploring our region, particularly wrote in his publication Volodymyr’s Princely Town: ‘There had been the so-called hill fort in times immemorial where the castle and the prison are now. As the population grew, this hill fort became narrow and could no longer receive people from the outskirts. This made it necessary to dig a ditch around the already large structures of the hill fort. This resulted in a ‘stockade town’ which was gradually expanding and strengthening until it outgrew the old hill fort still in the princely times. Then another set of earthen reinforcements was built in the shape of high ramparts with oak walls and towers.’ It is up to such serious institutions as the Ministry of Culture and the Academy of Sciences, as well as perhaps academics and experts of international repute, to decide whether to build something on such a unique monument as Ancient Rus’ ramparts.”