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Ancient castle discovered in Belarus thanks to archaeologists

Photo by the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

MINSK, 1 July (BelTA) – A previously unknown fortification of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania has been discovered in Gomel Oblast, the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) told BelTA.

An archaeological expedition of the NASB Institute of History is working in Narovlya District of Gomel Oblast. During research in the village of Antonov, structures of fortification buildings of a defensive manor (or castle) of the 16th-17th centuries, previously undescribed by science, were discovered. They belonged to the Orsha starosta and well-known polemicist Filon Kmita-Chernobylsky and his son-in-law, nobleman Lukash Sapieha. On the first relatively detailed Radziwill map of 1613, Antonov is marked as pagus cum domo nobilis (a village with a nobleman’s house), and a symbol of a defensive tower is used for its conventional designation.

As it was noted by Oleg Dernovich, leading researcher at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the study likely uncovered the foundation structures of the defensive tower that rose above the Slovechna River and is known from the 1628 inventory description. The tower was built using the common brick of that time: the so-called palchatka brick with characteristic grooves on its base (surface).

The hydrogeological problem of the archaeological site lies in the fact that it is being eroded by the Slovechna River, which once protected the castle. A significant part of the hill with the structures has already been flooded by the river. A large number of tiles dating to the late 16th-early 17th century ended up on the shore and in the water. Some pieces of decorative and architectural ceramics are kept in the museum of Secondary School No. 2 in Narovlya.

During the expedition, among other findings, remnants of a defensive rampart were discovered. The “nobleman’s manor” itself and the village of Antonov were likely destroyed during raids by Cossack detachments in the mid-17th century.

“It can be stated that as a result of the research, another castle of the late 16th-first half of the 17th century has returned to the map of Belarus, and its fate reflects the complex but life-affirming history of our land,” the institute noted.

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