May 26 in the Adzhider (Ovidiopil) fortress of Lower Dniester unfolded the expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine under the direction of Doctor of Historical Sciences I.V . Sapozhnikov. The structure of the "Expedition 53" included a group of searchers Military History Center "Memory and Glory", led by the chairman of L.V. Ignatiev.
This non-governmental organization constantly conducted by "Memory Watch" is well known in Ovidiopol, in the course of “Memory Watch” were found and reburied more than 200 Red Army soldiers who died in the defense and liberation of Odessa in 1941 and from the 1945th year. Their experience today is very useful for scientific and archaeological research of the new facility, which became Adzhiderskaya fortress.
Excavations at the fortress will be scheduled throughout the summer, so that everyone (both tourists and people who care about the history of their region) will have plenty of time get to know a whole set of archaeological events. This is exactly what expedition is designed for. After all, archaeological tourism is interesting for a lot of people, but not all of them have the ability to professionally work with it. Members of the expedition will help those who want to learn the search work and go through the hard way in a short period of time and feasible cost, as the work of "Expedition 53" is designed for financial support from the tourists. The only problem is that residents are not informed enough about the existence of such a tourist novelty.
More information you can find on the official website of Expedition 53 - eXteam.com.ua, or by phone: (048) 743-35-72 and (097) 808-87-72. Today, the offer to visit the archaeological site interested Odessa National University by I.I. Mechnikov. One of the first to visit expedition were the Polish delegation from the municipality Piwniczna Zdroj.
Note also that the expedition have all the support from the village council, the chairman of Ovidiopol – V.M. Homenyuk, the head of the public organization "Union of artists' Beach Ovid" V.V. Liauchuk and others.
And recently, after an unprecedented storm, which affected 12 tents of the archaeological town, to the rescue came a local resident Sergei, who selflessly volunteered to weld the destroyed metal frames affected by fallen trees tents.
Historians themselves hope that their stay on the territory of monument of archeology of Ovidiopol district would benefit the local people and help to uncover previously unknown page history of Odessa region and explore the deeper story of the construction of fortresses of XVIII century.
An interesting story about the construction of the fortress was told by the Frenchman, consisting at that time at the Russian service of O. de Lagarde. In particular, he claimed that during the construction of the fortress, "Colonel-General Foerster ordered to blow up the soft rock, at a time when the land was startled by the explosion of gunpowder thousands of snakes crawled out from under the earth and surrounded the workers."
Under the description of the Sardinian Ambassador de La Turbo for 1976 fortress had trenches on a hill and the three tiers of batteries to protect grain stores.
In the 1803-1805 the Germans who came to settle in the colony of Libental District remained in the fortress .
As of 1835 the fortress housed: the commandant's house, kitchen, servants house, outbuilding, barracks, a guardhouse, powder magazines and the furnace for the manufacture of bricks.
Two years later, a German traveler I.G. Kohl has found the ruins of fortresses surrounded by ramparts. In the middle there were a few buildings without roofs, which housed 15 Cossacks of Ovidiopil customs outpost.
In 1848, the castle was put up for sale and it was bought by Odessa merchant Alexander Domenico.