During 1604–1609 the Roman-Catholic church of St. Lavrentiy (Laurence) appeared there. It became a peculiar necropolis of the Sobesky and the Zolkiewski families.

There was a publishing-house in the town, five large cloisters and a Jewish religious centre and two synagogues were situated there. The Zhovkva painting and carving school became a baroque leader in the territory of western Ukraine.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

During the Northern War in 1706–1707 Tsar Peter І placed his residence in the castle and right here a historic Zhovkivskyy plan that helped to win a victory over the Swedes was developed. Ukrainian hetman Ivan Mazepa also visited this place.

In 1741-1742 Italian architect Antonio Kastelli, commissioned by the new owner Mychal Radziwill, expanded the palace from the stronghold, decorating the portico and the staircase with the sculptures of  Lithuanian and Polish crown hetmans. But shortly after that the castle was out of History's favor for nearly two centuries and it only once regained its glorious past. In 1809 there was a solemn ball in honor of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The next owner of the castle was the author Glodowski. In 1887 he sold one by one some of the walls, arcades, portico with the sculptures and one castle tower …to be used as building materials. And in 1915 a fire broke out.