Kamianets-Podilskyi stands on an island of rock: the Smotrych River loops back on itself so tightly that it nearly closes a circle, cutting a canyon around the old town and leaving one narrow neck of land as the way in. The castle was raised to plug that neck. Its towers went up between the 14th and 16th centuries — paid for by Lithuanian and Polish rulers and, in one case, by a pope — as defenders held the line against Ottoman and Tatar armies from the east. In August 1672 the line broke. The city spent the next 27 years as the capital of an Ottoman province, and its new rulers raised a 36.5-metre minaret beside the Catholic cathedral. When the Treaty of Karlowitz returned Kamianets to Poland in 1699, nobody pulled the minaret down: in 1756 the Poles crowned it with a gilded Virgin Mary, and she stands there still.
The way in has not changed. You cross the Castle Bridge — 88 metres of stone the Ottomans rebuilt so thoroughly that locals still call it the Turkish Bridge — with the riverbed 27 metres below. Beyond it the old town packs its Polish, Ruthenian and Armenian quarters onto the plateau, spires and tiled roofs above pale limestone, while the rim path below runs under cliffs up to 50 metres high — the rare sight of a whole historic city moated by its own river. The fortress is a state museum-reserve, voted one of Ukraine's Seven Wonders. One thing is missing from the sky: the hot-air balloons that rose over the canyon twice a year at the Podillia Cup fiestas have not flown since Ukraine closed its civilian airspace in February 2022. The town lies far from the front and still receives visitors, but air-raid alerts punctuate the day and shut the sites while they last.