Kamyenyets

Kamyenyets stood on the Lesnaya River, where a tall brick tower formed the durable core of a largely timber-built castle. The surrounding country suffered repeated Teutonic raids in the 1370s. Possession of the town also changed during conflicts between neighbouring princes: Janusz of Mazovia seized it in 1382, and Jogaila took it after a siege the following year. Jogaila besieged it again during his struggle with Vytautas in 1390. The tower's survival should therefore be distinguished from the safety of the surrounding settlement. Passing through in 1517, Sigismund von Herberstein described a stone tower within a wooden castle. Warfare in the middle of the seventeenth century again damaged the town and defences, but a 1771 description still distinguished the town from its castle. Earthworks and a defensive ditch remained around the tower into the early nineteenth century.