Medzhybizh Fortress (UA) - Historic walls once again protect people, goods,

Medzhybizh Fortress (UA) - Historic walls once again protect people, goods, art and culture

The fortress of Medzhybizh has been an official FORTE CULTURA station in Ukraine since April 2022 and is an imposing defensive structure with roots in the 12th century. The present form of the bulwark on the River Bug dates from the 16th century. Today, the Medzhybizh fortress is part of a state historical-cultural protected area of Ukraine. Within the imposing walls are museums on the history of the region, ethnography and the Holodomor (famine in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1930). Formative battles and conquests as well as the eventful history of the Medzhybizh rule are presented in detail. Festivals and cultural events bring history to life for visitors.

In the time of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine since February 2022, the historic Medzhybizh fortress once again became a shelter and refuge for many refugees, especially women and children. The staff of the fortress support families fleeing war zones, collect donations, offer children's day programmes and accommodation, sew camouflage nets and support their country as best they can. At the same time, attempts are made to maintain a largely "normal museum operation" in order to offer the people and guests of the fortress some diversion and comfort. In addition, archaeology workshops are offered as therapeutic measures to mitigate war traumas.

Furthermore, since 2023, art, cultural assets and exhibits from surrounding museums and cultural institutions have begun to be stored in the fortress to protect them from the possible consequences of war.

The betterplace project is intended to help purchase the necessary equipment so that the people and cultural assets in the Medzhybizh fortress can survive the war. This includes, for example, generators and photovoltaic panels, power banks, security technology, notebooks, containers for storing museum exhibits, accessories for philately, philokartie, numismatics, universal tools, drying cabinets, vacuum chambers and much more.

Your donation will help to purchase the needed equipment for the Medzhybizh fortress. The donations generated, minus costs and fees, will be used exclusively to support the Medzhybizh Fortress. The equipment purchased from the donations will be handed over personally by FORTE CULTURA staff to employees of the Medzhybizh Fortress at the German-Polish border, and we will report on this.