About the Vytautas Tower
The tower was built at the end of the 14th century when the southwestern part of modern Ukraine was under the rule of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Vytautas. Along the right bank of the Dnipro River, there was a borderline, and a customs post was located on the now-submerged island of Tavan. Nearby, a watchtower rose into the sky, from which the southern part of the island was monitored.
Regarding the date of the tower’s construction, sources often cite the late 14th to early 15th century. The most precise date is provided by the Zaporizhzhia researcher Yu. Vilinov, who specifically states that in 1396, after the death of his appointee in Kyiv, Ivan Holshansky, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Vytautas, installed a “knight of piety” there and entrusted him with erecting castles and towers (three in total) at the Tavan crossing.
Mentions of Vytautas Tower (Vytautas Customs) are found in various historical sources. The traveler Guillebert de Lannoy, who was in the Black Sea lands in 1421, testified that the population of the lower Dnipro recognized the authority of Vytautas. On the Dnipro crossing near Tavan Island, the toponyms “Vytautas Customs” and “Vytautas Tower” have been preserved.
In the mid-16th century treatise “On the Customs of the Tatars, Lithuanians, and Muscovites” by Michalon Litvin, the secretary of the Polish King Sigismund II Augustus and Lithuanian diplomat, Vytautas Tower is likely mentioned as a customs post, and it is stated that the tax collector (publicanus) of the Grand Duke of Lithuania stopped there to collect duties.
The tower has four tiers and stands on a solid monolithic foundation, built on a rocky base of the right bank. The stone masonry of the tower is made of locally quarried limestone. Vytautas Tower is architecturally similar to the White Tower in Kamenets of the Brest region, Belarus, and the Gediminas Tower in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Based on the available data, historians suggest that the fortress had a wall-tower shape (it is quite possible that there were several towers surrounding the fortress from different sides). Experts believe that Vytautas Tower was not a standalone structure but part of a large medieval architectural complex built at the Tavan crossing.
By the end of the 19th century, Vytautas Tower was part of the estate of Prince Trubetskoy in Kozatske and was converted into a water and observation tower. In the 1880s, a fourth tier with pointed windows in a pseudo-Gothic style was added.
With the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, Vytautas Tower, like Tyagyn Fortress in 2022, was under occupation. After the retreat of Russian forces, it remains in a zone of active hostilities, including aerial, missile, and artillery strikes, posing a significant risk to the preservation of these historical sites.
Vytautas Tower requires restoration and has the status of a national architectural monument.