11-12th centuries

15/03/2013 13:03

Situated on a cape formed by the right bank of the Zapadnyi Bug River and the left arm of the Mukhavets River, on the crossroads of important commercial ways through the lands of the Eastern Slavs to Poland, the Baltic countries and Europe, the city was more than once subject to claims and a cause of internecine struggle.

The favourable geographic situation of ancient Berestye allowed it to control the water ways on the Mukhavets River and the Zapadnyi Bug River from the south to the Baltic sea, and attracted the attention of Kiev, Vladimir-Volynski and Galician-Volyn princes, Polish kings and feudal lords, who were alternating in asserting their rights to the possession of the city in the 11-13th centuries. Therefore the city was gradually getting surrounded by more and more perfect wooden and ground works and becoming a reliable refuge for its inhabitants and the passing-by commercial caravans.

In the second half of the 12th century Berestye obtained considerable independence within the Vladimir-Volynski principality. A wooden castle was built in the city at that time.