The Ukrainian frontier lands have introduced the principles of early-modern European urbanism which primarily included a defense component in the 16th–17th centuries. The inventory papers and studies of that time indicate that the presence of defense structures around the settlements was determined by the city status, which gave privileges and responsibilities to defend and keep both the city and castle fortifications. However, the presence of archaic ancient Kievan Rus’ traditions continued in the lands of Podillia up to the 18th century, which is proved by the inventory plans taken by cartographers of the Russian Empire after the Second Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. We distinguish between the two main types of fortifications which formed the basis of urban development and influenced their urban model. The first one is called spontaneous – it was formed without any integral plan; the second type is a regular one – the location of the defense system, market square, and sacral structures was designed according to the carefully developed plan. The basis of our research methodology is the fact that the planning structure of the historic city was invariable during the 16th-17th centuries and the works on the relics of ancient planning that have been preserved up to present (mentioned above cadastral prints). The stability of a design structure depended on the following factors: 1) slow colonization process in the border areas and, as a result, low urban growth 2) insufficient funding of the modernization of urban fortifications by the owner, possessor or the state 3) stable estate property management system which regulated the size of the plots. This systematization indicates that the application of regular principles in the city foundation on the steppe border is an exception rather than the usual phenomenon. On the territory between rivers Dniester and Bug we identified 15 cities and fortifications having features of regular planning, and 148 – spontaneous. Thus, the two models of urban development of the Ukrainian cities located on the steppe border in the 16th–17th centuries are analyzed. The analysis proves a close interrelation between the model of urban development and its defense system. It is defined three plans of urban development of border cities: 1. Conservation of urban planning structure of spontaneous planning due to economic stagnation or inappropriateness in the modernization of urban fortifications (Vinnytsia, Bratslav, Khmilnyk). 2. Development of a new city using the idea in cruda radice according to modern principles of fortifications of the 17th century and principles of regular city planning (Yampil, Rashkiv, Kalush). 3. Combination of old spontaneous and regular model principles of urban development in the process of modernization. The proposed method of identification of city elements by cadastral prints can be used only in combination with a careful evaluation of information on the settlement history, and by comparing it with historical context and events, as well as with a full-scale survey of preserved relics on the area
Construction Management in Ukraine