castle was built on a man-made hill and town was surrounded with stone walls. A channel dug between the South Bug and Tasthusha rivers turned the town and fort into an island. During the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–1654, the castle was devastated by Cossacks. From 1672 to 1699, the castle was owned by Turks. They strengthened the defensive buildings, built a mosque and secret passages passing under the river and leading to the outskirts of the city. Some of the passages were later abandoned, used as storehouses, and part was made into a nightclub. The section that passed under the river has since collapsed, and flooded. Only a small part is now accessible from the Стара Фортреця (Stara Fortretsia - "old fortress") Restaurant located directly under the castle. In the eighteenth century, the castle lost its defensive function and was gradually ruined. The preserved mosque tower was restored many times, and between 1804 and 1917 it was turned into an Orthodox Church. Palace of K. I. Ksido Near the castle tower is a building that at first sight seems to be old. This is the palace of the local landlord K. I. Ksido. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he initiated a project to construct a large palace and park complex according to a design by the Russian architect Ivan Fomin, but it was not finished. The complex consists of the palace and an arc-like Venice bridge over the river. The palace is an example of neoclassical architecture uniting the forms of Renaissance and Classicism. The building has two floors, and is quadratic, with towers on the main façade and corners. There was a dome rotunda on the roof but it was knocked off by a Soviet air attack during World War II. From 1920 to 1964, the building was used for agronomic and electronic schools, storehouses, a mill, and several different establishments. Since 1964 it has been used as a hotel. Now, the building is in very poor condition, and needs major repairs. Famous people connected with Khmilnyk Oleksandr Korniychuk – Ukrainian playwright whose works include the problematic romantic revolutionary myth "Death of the Squadron" and the pro-collectivisation farce "In the steppes of Ukraine", which drew admiration from Stalin himself. Pelageya Lytvynova-Bartosh (1833–1904) – ethnographer and folklore researcher Viktor Bronyuk (1979–) – Ukrainian singer and a frontman of TiK was born nearby Khmilnyk. Ian Murphy – British journalist, actor,