Hi Steemians!

Today's post is devoted to the ancient times of Transcarpathia. You have probably noticed that I'm going there often enough. The fact is that this place is filled with very strong energy and mysticism. It pulls like a magnet and it's very attractive not only for me but to touristsas well.

The most mystical places in this region are ancient castles, full of riddles that nobody can yet solve. One of these places is Uzhgorod Castle, one of the oldest in Ukraine.

If you will be there some day, you will need a half of day to see everything arround.

On one of the walls there is a small sculptural sword devoted to Prince Laborets - the legendary founder of Uzhgorod and Uzhgorod castle.

This sculpture reminded me the story of the world-famous sword of King Arthur Excalibur, which nobody could pull out of the stone 😁😂😂.

Unfortunately, this sword has no magic, but people love to do a photo near it. I also did 😎😁.

This sword is a modern sculpture made by Uzhgorod master as a memory of a very brave Prince. It looks very cool, just look:

The castle occupies a fairly large area and its territory was set up as an ethnographic museum. Each room is a separate exhibition.

Unfortunately, a large part of the exhibition is on the reconstruction so we weren't able to see everything.

Once upon a time, the Italian dynasty Drugets lived in this castle. I was also very surprised by the fact about Italians and how they have appeared in Transcarpathia?

As the guide explained, once these lands belonged to Austria-Hungary and their king gave Uzhgorod castle and the whole city to this dynasty.

Very generous gift, isn't it? 😁😁

The discovery for me became mysterious ruins on the territory of the Uzhgorod castle. As it turned out, these are the remnants of the oldest church of St. Yuriy!

Some people call this place the " witches pit" - something like the ruins of the tower, where women were held accused of witchcraft. In fact, it's the ruins of the first Uzhgorod mural St. Yury's cemetery church. Many years ago the church was destroyed by fire.

The Uzhgorod castle doesn't pretend to be some kind of pomp and luxury, so lovers of exquisite palaces can be a little disappointed. His appearance is rather rigorous and powerful. This is not surprising, because the main purpose of the medieval fortress is a military defense.

It was difficult to seize the castle for the enemy. The fortress wall is quite powerful, its thickness is 2.5 - 3 m.

From the three sides Uzhgorod castle is surrounded by a moat, a depth of 8-10 m and on the fourth side - by a steep abyss. Even if the enemy could break through the inner courtyard behind the fortress wall, to take the castle under control would be an overload task!

Opposite the main gate of the castle is a palace-citadel with well-designed security system. The building was surrounded by another ditch and the palace was connected with the inner courtyard of the castle only by a lifting bridge.

So now you can only imagine how intelligent people were in those days! To build such a mighty castle is simply incredible!!

I hope you liked my post about this impressive place in Transcarpathia.
Soon I'll write a continuation 😉😉😉

Best wishes,

Olga:)