MENU
THE FORTRESS YESTERDAY
  • pl
  • en
  • de
  • ua
On a small square, above the opposite slope of the scenic embankment, behind vantage point P.8. Information about the role and significance of developing the views of fortified towns (foregrounds, shape of fortifications, areas of camouflage trees).
Explanation of facilities of the north-eastern front of Zamość Fortress. Program containing drawings, animations and commentary, explaining former defensive value and contemporary exhibition value of a defensive landscape. Links to other information kiosks.
Zamość Fortress, one of the largest fortresses in the First Republic of Poland and then in the Duchy of Warsaw and in the Congress Kingdom of Poland was built in 1579-1618 to defend a town founded by Hetman Jan Zamoyski in 1580. Started in 1586 and completed in 1618, the construction of bastioned fortifications was based on Bernardo Morando’s design. The fortifications were modernized several times by the following outstanding military engineers:
View and the plan of the fortress of Zamość from the Northern side with the beginning of the 18th century
  • Andrea dell’Aqua in 1618-23
  • Jan Michał Link in 1687-93
  • Colonel Jean-Baptiste Mallet (later during his service in the Congress Kingdom of Poland known as General Jan Mallet-Malletski) in 1809-13 and 1817-26.
Modernization works lasted till 1856. In 1868, on the order of Tsar Alexander II, the fortress was closed down and most of its fortifications were demolished. Their preserved remains have been maintained (with some elements being supplemented) since the 1930s till the present day.
A landscape of a fortified town would change over the years. A medieval town was “squeezed” into a circle of defensive walls topped with battlement* or hoarding* and interlaced with soaring towers defending the most significant places. Till the middle of the 19th century modern era town fortifications had been much lower but covered a significantly larger area. Earthen embankments of curtain walls and bastions, as is the case with Zamość, were “dressed” i.e. faced from the outside with a brick or masonry wall. Internal fortifications – ravelins*, redans*, lunettes*, etc. were usually made of earth and covered with sod, with only small fragments having masonry elements. Water obstacles and fortress greenery constituted additional elements of defence, having a great impact on the shape of fortifications. All these elements created a specific “fortification landscape” preserved in Zamość in the north and east and now partly reconstructed elsewhere.

  • View and the plan of the fortress of Zamość from the Northern side with the beginning of the 18th century .

  • Similar view at the painting form the first half of the 19th century .

  • Idealistic vision of the view of Zamość after the axis of treaty in Lublin . A view from the north , in the water-color of Jan Paweł Lelewel , in that way the Fortress of Zamość will look like after the full completion of the project of Jan Mallet-Malletski from the 1825 . No matter that it comes from the 19th century , it repres

    A view from the north , in the water-color of Jan Paweł Lelewel , in that way the Fortress of Zamość will look like after the full completion of the project of Jan Mallet-Malletski from the 1825 . No matter that it comes from the 19th century , it repres