Stołpie

Poland, Poland

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Stołpie is a small village in eastern Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, in Chełm County within Gmina Chełm, located about 8 km northwest of Chełm along route 12 near the Ukraine border. 

Its defining landmark is a medieval masonry tower house from the late 12th century, likely founded by Prince Roman the Great or Daniel Romanowicz of Halych-Volhynia as a defensive border fortress on the Volhynian-Piast frontier, part of a larger fortified complex with a gord, chapel on the top floor, and sacred springs at its base tied to local legends.

Exhibiting Rus'-Byzantine architectural traits with later 1280s militarization evident in smaller stones and a vaulted ground floor, it was abandoned after destruction by the late 13th century, later researched by Russian archaeologists in 1909-1912 who uncovered rosette floor mosaics now in Chełm's museum, and visited by Józef Piłsudski in 1925 amid its romantic hilltop ruins.