Kamianiec

Kamianiec (also spelled Kamenets) (Belarusian: КамÑ?неÌ?ц) is a town in the Brest voblast of Belarus and the center of the Kamianiec District. The town is located in the northwestern corner of Brest voblast, about 40 km north of Brest. As of 2002, the population was about 9,000 people.

It was first mentioned in the Halych-Volhynian Chronicle in 1276, when a castle with a keep, the famous tower of Kamianiec, erroneously called Bielaja Vieža, was being constructed on this spot, to protect the northern boundary of Volhynia from the raids of invaders. This site on the stony steep bank of the Liasnaja (Lysna) River had attracted Oleksa, the prominent builder and architect of Volhynia. He showed the site to Vladimir Vasilkovich, the prince of Volhynia, who appreciated the place and ordered Oleksa to build a castle with a keep on the spot. Later a town appeared around the fortification. The name of the place derives from the Slav word kamienny meaning stony, as it was founded atop a stony rise