Castle Tower and Ksido Palace, Khmilnyk
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Octagonal castle tower of 1534, a minaret under the Turks, now a history museum, and the two-faced Palladian palace of Count Ksido of 1911–1915 to a design by Ivan Fomin.
The castle in Khmilnyk on the Southern Buh is mentioned in documents of 1331 on the transfer of Podillia to the Lithuanian princes Koriatovych, and in 1534 Grand Crown Hetman Jan Tarnowski modernised all the town's fortifications (zabytki.in.ua). Of those fortifications the octagonal fortress tower of 1534 survives, which under Turkish rule served as the minaret of a mosque (travels.in.ua): in 1672 the Turks occupied Podillia, restored the old castle and set up a mosque in one of its towers (zabytki.in.ua). In 1905 Count Kostiantyn Ksido, of Greek origin, married Kateryna Levashova (vn.20minut.ua), and from 1911 a Palladian palace with a semi-rotunda and two entirely different main facades was built over four years on the castle hill to a design by Ivan Fomin (zabytki.in.ua): a white one with a colonnade — and a massive “fortress” one facing the river; travels.in.ua dates the construction to 1913–1915, and it was halted by the First World War (vn.20minut.ua). Later it housed warehouses and an electrical engineering school (ye.ua), NKVD offices (funtime.com.ua), and in 1945–2008 a hotel; the rotunda on the roof was blown up during the retreat of 1944 (zabytki.in.ua). Since 1976 a volunteer-run history museum has operated in the Turkish Tower (travels.in.ua). The palace is unsafe: through-cracks, parts of the facade are falling off (vn.20minut.ua, 22.03.2025); since 2017 the town has remembered its value, but funds for restoration are lacking (zabytki.in.ua, funtime.com.ua).
Address: Khmilnyk, 1 Tarasa Shevchenka St (travels.in.ua, 27.02.2025; zabytki.in.ua gives No. 7), Castle Hill in the town centre. Museum in the tower: 09:00–18:00, break 13:00–14:00, closed Sun and Mon, tel. +380 4338 26 777 (travels.in.ua, 27.02.2025); discover.ua gives different hours — 14:00–17:00, closed Thu and Sun, and vn.20minut.ua (22.03.2025) warns that the museum “is not always open”, so it is worth calling ahead. Entry to the grounds is free (funtime.com.ua). The palace is unsafe — parts of the facade are falling off (vn.20minut.ua, 22.03.2025): do not go right up to the walls, do not enter the palace. Hotels and sanatoriums are nearby — Khmilnyk is a balneological spa (discover.ua).