The Minsk Castle (Belarusian: Мінскі замак, romanized: Minski zamak)[1] was a wooden defensive structure in Minsk, built in the mid-11th century on the right bank of the Svislach river at its confluence with the Nyamiha river (in the area of March 8 Square); destroyed in the early 19th century, and ultimately leveled by the Soviet authorities in the 1950s.

Archaeological excavations on the site of today's March 8 Square, located on a small hill measuring 75×45 meters, began in the mid-20th century.

Previous analysis of the cultural layers of the rampart did not show any human presence in this area before the construction of the castle in the second half of the 11th century.

Dendrochronological studies of the beams, which reinforced the rampart, allowed the determination of the time of the first buildings on this site to the year 1063.

[3] In 1949, at a depth of 1.5 meters near the present-day House of Physical Culture of the DSO Trudovyje rezerwy, remnants of a temple were discovered in the eastern part of the castle.

[8] In the 12th and 13th centuries, a town began to form around the castle – in the southern, southwestern, and southeastern directions;[7] the defensive stronghold consisted of 80–82 houses and around 400–500 residents.

[10] By the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the castle possessed a considerable number of cannons and other similar weaponry.

According to the Bychowiec Chronicle, in 1505, the castle repelled an invasion by the Tatars led by Meñli I Giray, while the city itself was burned.

[10] Documents from the 17th and 18th centuries typically mention the Minsk Castle as the venue for noble sejmiks, yet as late as 1750, it was still garrisoned.

[13] Due to warfare during the conflicts of the 17th and 18th centuries, along with accompanying epidemics, Minsk was nearly completely destroyed and depopulated.

Simultaneously, the city was the theater of Russian military actions led by Ivan Khovansky against the Lithuanians until Minsk was recaptured by the combined Lithuanian-Polish forces in 1660.

From the north, west, and southwest, as indicated by a plan from 1773, the castle hill was protected by marshy and swampy areas.

Based on archaeological research, it was determined that the castle was only a fragment of a fortified settlement located on a relatively flat part of the hill.

The strategic location of the Minsk Castle on a natural island was reinforced by an artificial embankment, built of sand and stabilized with wooden structures made of logs.

[10] Stretching from the bank of the Svislach to the northeast, it was 270–300 m long, and its width in the middle reached 150 m.[3] The entrance to the castle was a heavily guarded passage 3.4 m wide.

On the left side, it was concealed by the forward-leaning embankment, which reduced the impact force in case of artillery fire.

[3] The main street of the fortress was called Zamkowa and traversed the area inside the castle walls from the southeast to the northwest.

Over time, it was extended beyond the embankment until it intersected with Wielka Tatarska Street (now Dimitrova; its section outside the walls still exists today),[2] which slightly turned south and served as its continuation.

[2] The castle courtyard area was divided into courts[3] enclosed by a palisade made of logs dug into the ground.

In the izba chambers, clay stoves without chimneys were installed in the corner near the entrance (smoke escaped through window openings or doors), reinforced with a frame made of sticks or straw.

In the central part of the temple, the bases of four columns were preserved, opposite which, to the south and north on the inner side of the walls, two rectangular lesenes were uncovered.

[5] For unknown reasons, the temple was not completed, as evidenced by the lack of a floor and traces of ceilings laid on top of the walls.

Research indicates that the architect aimed to create a modest temple that would nevertheless be an ornament of the castle and dominate this part of the district.

The fact that the Polotsk method of constructing monumental buildings was not adopted as a model suggests that work on the Minsk temple began between 1069 and 1073 when the castle may have belonged to Yaropolk Izyaslavich, the nephew of Casimir I the Restorer.

Presumably, Yaropolk maintained close relations with his uncle's court, which influenced the use of the Western model of building religious objects.