Palace ruins with traces of fire damage

This is a photograph of part of the ruins that can be seen on tour route I. Palace ruins and fallen vault (south wing). This 16th-century corner cellar is trapezoidal in shape. Its exterior walls are nearly three metres thick, while the interior walls are about two metres. The cellar had a barrel vault with extra abutments (imposts) along the eastern and western walls, suggesting that the vault had very deep lunettes (smaller vaults perpendicular to the main vault).

Access to this cellar was from the one next to it, by way of two doors in the western wall. The floors of both these cellars were of packed dirt. The arrangement of the bricks suggests that there may have been several openings for windows.

The cellar was heavily damaged during the mid-17th century war with Muscovy and occupation by foreign troops. It may have been blown up. The blast caused the ceiling vaults of the floors above to break and collapse, sinking the corner of the building into the ground. Even now one can see the darkened bricks from the fire and smoke, and in the south side of the building remnants of the collapsed vaults are on display.