Difficult military-political circumstances in Ukraine XVII-XIX cent. contributed to the emergence of a defensive fortification - the Dubenskaya fortress in the Rivne region (Tarakanovsky fort among the people). It was erected to protect the Lviv - Kiev railway and was a concrete and earth fortification.
Tarakanovskiy Fort has the shape of a quadrangle or even more of a rhombus, the walls of which are about 240m. From the outside, the fortress is surrounded by a wide, deep moat. In the middle of the fort, there was a two-story building, to which a long stone tunnel, which has survived to our time, leads. The building housed living, storage, and utility rooms for the artillery company and the headquarters of the commandant of the fort. Along the perimeter of the fort, there were so-called safe casemates that could accommodate 800 people. In total, there were 105 casemates on the territory of the fort, each of which had its own clear purpose: for military operations, utility, storage facilities, an infirmary, an operating room, rooms with wells, and more. The grid of underground passages with loopholes for shelling under the Tarakanovsky Fort is impressive.
