Kamianets

Kamianets-Podilskyi occupied a plateau within a loop of the Smotrych River, with a citadel guarding the narrow approach. Lithuanian princes took control in the 1360s; Polish rule followed in 1430. Granted Magdeburg law in 1432, the town became the capital of Podilia voivodeship and a duty-free royal city in 1463. Its stone defences expanded during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as commerce and crafts flourished.

Ukrainian, Armenian and Lithuanian-Polish burghers possessed separate municipal institutions. Their rights were unequal: Ukrainian residents were excluded from the walls in 1534, and their council was merged with the Polish council in 1670. Ottoman forces captured the city in 1672 and held it until the Treaty of Karlowitz returned it to Poland in 1699. A minaret added beside the Catholic cathedral marked that occupation. Russian annexation in 1793 brought another administrative change; by 1797 Kamianets was the capital of Podilia gubernia, remaining a centre of trade and artisan production.