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Abstract:
The strategic positioning of the Ratno wedge, which during the late Middle Ages is included in the land of Chelm, has conditioned the development of particular forms of fortification of its inhabited settlements. For this reason, widespread was the type of fortification, characteristic to west European castles, which had a “motte”, a mound with a level surface on top (Ratno, Luboml, Wietły, Wyżwa Nowa). The prevalence of the concept of building a separate tower atop a knoll can be related to the 13th century, when in Polesia the so-called “volhynian towers” were being built. One of such towers was placed on a hill in the territory of the former Rus’ Uhrowsk – the predecessor of Chełm as the administrative centre of the principality.
