Kamieniec Podolski
Kamieniec Podolski is a
medieval fortress in what is now southern Ukraine. It was once part of
Poland. The town's current name is Kamyanets-Podilskiy, which I suppose is
the Russian or Ukranian version of the Polish name.
In the summer of 2001 I bought this old picture/map at a yard sale
for $5. It's cheaply framed but the
print looks nice. It looks hand colored (at least the original was) and
when scanned at high resolution it doesn't dot out, meaning that it used a
nicer printing process than many used currently. The text is all in French
as well. I did find out that the image used in the map is a reverse image
of what it should be. I believe this was due to a copying error at some
point of this map's history. Compare to
this
map to see how it should really be set up.
You might notice that the
longitude is 50 deg, 10 minutes, which would place it much farther west
than the Ukraine. That's using our current Prime Meridian in
Greenwich, England.
That's only been the Prime Meridian since 1884. Before that it was located
in the Portuguese
Madeira Islands. The Portuguese were the best sailors in the Medieval
world, so they got to place it.
What happened
in August 1672?
A 100,000- strong Turkish
army invaded Podillia and in August 1672, the fortress of Kamyanets (Kamyanets-Podilsky)
fell after a long siege. These events are described by the brilliant
Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz in his novel Pan Michael.
I read the last half of
this book, which was published in 1905 or thereabouts (now out of print,
but you can probably get it at your library). Pan Michael was a Polish
knight, apparently short of stature, because he was constantly described
as 'the little knight.' I think Pan translates to Sir. It was an
interesting read.
At this time in Polish
history, this part of the Polish kingdom was very remote and there was
only a small force (the book doesn't say how large either army is)
protecting the castle and town. The vizier comes up from Turkey and
wants to take control of this town (it's pretty close to Turkey), the
Catholic Poles say, no way you heathens, so the Turks set up a siege.
The townspeople aren't so happy about this, they don't want to loose any
money from trading and such so Pan Michael, the leader of the fortress,
helps talk them into not just giving in. The Polish warriors are mostly
veterans from recent Polish actions (a Swedish invasion and some others)
and many of the Turks aren't so skilled. The janissaries are the elite
Turkish forces though. After some skirmishes outside the castle walls,
which the Poles mostly win, the Turks press on to the siege, starting
with endless cannonades. The Poles return fire and this continues the
rest of the day. The Turks also begin mining under the castle in several
areas, for easy access. The miners are able to mine to inside the main
gate of the castle and the Turks are able to force the Poles to give up
the new castle and move back to the old, inner castle, which is build on
a rock foundation (harder to mine into) after a day or so of fighting.
All the while, the Turks are described as loosing large numbers of
troops and the Poles very few, but since the Turks have such a large
numerical advantage, it doesn't really matter. The Turks are mainly
ignoring the town, concentrating all fire on the castle. After another
day or so of siege, with the Poles hoping to hold out for a few months
until reinforcements can arrive, there is a nasty, cold rainstorm.
The Poles wait until the dead of night and send out two regiments to go
into the mines and kill the miners, break the tools, and such. This
succeeds very well but one of the knights leading a regiment is knocked
unconscious and left for dead. He comes to, puts on the uniform of a
janissary, and since he knows Turkish from being a Turkish prisoner of
war previously, walks around and inspects the Turkish troops and moral.
He reports back that they are discouraged, disheartened, and hate the
cold, rainy weather since most of them are from warm climates such as
Ethiopia. Shortly after this though, the Turks all disappear from
the battlefield and this mystifies the castle garrison. After looking
towards the town though, they see white flags of surrender and come to
find out that the town surrendered out from under them to the dirty
heathens. Being noble and honorable knights, they comply, except Pan
Michael. He is so upset that he kills himself.
The epilogue goes on to
describe another Polish knight finally gathering an army two years
later, and in November of 1674, with a much smaller force than what they
were facing (about 20,000 vs. 90,000), they conquer the Turkish army on
a battlefield near here, getting revenge for the capture of Kamieniec.