A Brief History of Zamość

The construction of bastion fortifications according to the design of Bernardo Morando started in 1586 and was completed in 1618. The fortifications were modernised many times by eminent military engineers. Between 1618 and 1623 Zamość was rebuilt by Andrea dell’ Aqua. Between 1687 and 1693 Jan Michał Link improved the barbettes and he also reinforced the lines of close defence in view of the more and more powerful firearms and more numerous besieging armies.

A bit over a hundred years later, between the years 1809 and 1813, Colonel Jean Baptiste Mallet, together with some Polish engineers, helped Zamość to adjust to the reality of the Napoleonic era, further modernising and developing the fortress to the outside. Later, already as a general of the Kingdom of Poland dependent on Russia, he perfected his plan in 1817. 8 years later he radically remodelled his design, changing Zamość into a somewhat too perfect and extremely complex “war machine”. However, at that time the fortress was not to serve Poland but it was to serve the purposes of the Russian Empire. Works to implement this idealistic and costly project lasted for over next 50 years, evidently speeding up in 1854, when there was a danger of a conflict with the Austrian Empire. However, the design became obsolete before it had been fully implemented. The progress in artillery was more rapid than the progress in fortifications. Between 1866 and 1868, following the order of Alexander II, the fortress was demolished and most of the fortifications were destroyed. The parts which have been preserved until today tell the story of over 250 years in pursuit of ideal fortifications, the story of a competition between the artillery and the defensive architecture, in which the best engineers of their times participated. They tell the story of bloody sieges and the price of progress. Their traces cannot be valuated as to which are more precious (because they are more dated) and which are less precious (because they come from the times of the Russian Empire). They are all traces of the same colourful, dramatic and true history of the Ideal Town and of the Ideal Fortress. These traces were already appreciated, restored and completed in the times of the Second Polish Republic (Interwar Poland, 1918-1939) and the process of restoration, interrupted by World War II, has been continued until today.

However, it was the works started in 2006, 3 years later subsidised by substantial financial support from the European Union as part of the programme entitled: “ZAMOŚĆ AS A UNESCO CITY, THE MONUMENT OF THE HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND, AS A TOURIST PRODUCT OF POLISH ECONOMY. OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME: INNOVATIVE ECONOMY, ACTIVITY 6.4 “INVESTMENT IN TOURISM PRODUCTS OF SUPRA-REGIONAL IMPORTANCE”, which made the completion of the fortification ring broken off in 1868 possible. The project brought back the ideas of Jan Zachwatowicz and Stanisław Herbst from before World War II. The passage of time cannot be stopped. Neither can the Renaissance fortress or the 19th century one be regenerated. Still, the fortified looks of the fortress can be brought back.