Unfortunatly, written sources do not contain information about how the construction of the first stone of Khotyn Fortress and to this day existing citadel. But archaeological studies provide an opportunity to talk about the emergence of urban tenements around a fortified castle-citadel in ancient times. Slavic village on the high rocky promontory Dniester may already be protected by simple wooden fortifications from the floor side, there was in VIII-IX centuries. In X-XI centuries. settlement occupied a much larger area (about 20 hectares), lying, judging by the finds remains of houses and stucco ware, and in the neighboring hills. The location of the citadel in a lowland, surrounded on three sides by hills, indicates that the oldest castle was built long before the appearance of not only artillery, but also stone-throwing devices.

The first reliable fortifications in the form of an earthen rampart with wooden fences and a moat dug across the rocky promontory probably appeared on the border of the 10th and 11th centuries. It is believed that the first stone fortifications of the Khotyn fortress could have appeared in the 40-50s of the 13th century, when Danylo Romanovych, prince of Halytskyi, fortified the old and built new fortresses to protect against the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Another opinion is that it happened after 1259, when at the request of the Mongol-Tatars Danylo and Vasylko Romanovych were forced to destroy all the defense structures of the principality, including the wooden and earthen ones of Khotyn, in their place were later erected stone ones. The first stone walls could have been built even earlier, in the 12th-1st half of the 13th century, when the military conflicts between the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia and the Kingdom of Hungary did not stop. The territory of the ancient stone castle-citadel was located in the northern part of the modern fortress yard. The first fortress was small, with an area of no more than 2 hectares, surrounded by a wall and a subtriangular six-meter-wide moat. Only the remains of the wall, hidden in the thickness of the eastern curtain wall, survived from it. Probably, the main defensive structure was the tower at the place of the current quadrangular North Tower.

It could be a tower, immediately inscribed in the system of walls, or a separate donjon tower, to which walls about thirty meters long were later added, forming a square courtyard.In the middle of the 14th century a partial reconstruction and strengthening of the Khotyn fortifications takes place: a half-meter-thick wall of this time, found at a depth of 3.5 m from the modern surface, ran along the northern perimeter of the Commandant’s Palace to the eastern curtain, acting as a southern defensive wall. These measures were carried out at the initial stage of the conquest of the Galician territories by the Moldavian voivodes in the upper reaches of the Suceava, Siret and Prut rivers.

With the inclusion of Khotyn in the Moldavian Principality in the second half of the 14th century, the city acquired important military and political importance as a trade and customs point on the northern border of Moldavia.

The Moldavian king Stephen III, commonly known as Stephen the Great (1457-1504) actively began to strengthen the strategic defense system of the Moldavian principality, which consisted of 9 fortresses, including in Khotyn. This was probably caused by the development of artillery from the middle of the 15th century.

In the 60s – at the beginning of the 70s of the 15th century, the Khotyn castle is being completely rebuilt and expanded in the southern direction more than twice, to the size of approximately 110 x 55 m (now it is from the North to the South-West (Kowalska) tower inclusively). Thick (up to 5 m) and high (up to 40 m) walls and towers were erected as protection against cannon fire. They were decorated with a red brick ornament – rows of images of “Babylon” (probably a symbol of architectural wisdom) and “Golgotha” (the rock where Christ was crucified – one of the main Christian shrines). Walls decorated in this way acquired additional strength, protected also by the power of the Orthodox faith.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Ottoman Porte decided to improve the fortress’ defense capabilities. According to historical and literary sources, in July 1713, “more than 100,000 people, 200 large and small guns, horses, equipment and tools for strengthening the fortress advanced towards Khotyn, as it was necessary to strengthen both the fortress and the city of Khotyn on the Dniester” . Then the gaps were walled up, the South-Western tower was rebuilt with much thicker walls than the previous ones, a new defensive wall and a gate tower were built, moving them further south. The expansion of the castle during this period, among other things, is evidenced by the details of Ottoman architecture used in the design of the new fortifications.

Simultaneously with the reconstruction of the citadel, the Turks built more powerful fortifications around it – the New Fortress. The castle lost its importance as an independent defense object and became an element of a new system of fortifications, covering the eastern part of the courtyard of the newly created defense complex and serving as an arsenal in the future. Now the entrance to the citadel did not need additional protection, and therefore was arranged in the eastern side wall of the lower tier of the new overgate tower, which allowed ammunition to be quickly removed. Openings between the piers of the old bridge of the 15th century. were laid with stones, thus this area was included in the general system of external fortifications.

From those times to the present, the Khotyn Fortress has undergone significant architectural changes as a result of numerous wars, battles on its territory and changes of its masters. The majesty and power of the castle towering above the Dniester remain unchanged.