Stand up and fight!

Old maps show how the commanders of Zamość Fortress used their head. The map which dates back to 1854 shows where feverish works were carried out. Earth, wooden beams, palisades – there was no time for time-consuming masonry works. The existing so-called Janowickie lunettes from 1813 were remodelled and fitted with earthen and wooden blockhouses*. This is how lunettes 2 and 3 originated. Far from the face of Bastion *VI a redan-shaped redoubt* I was built. Only one of the 4 planned forts – redoubts* was built in the lunette in front of curtain wall VI-VII. It was not, however, a masonry and earthen structure with a casemate but an earthen redan*. The Crimean War had started and Zamość had to be ready for combat. Austria could at any moment turn against Russia and side with Turkey, England and France and the border with the Habsburgs’ empire was not very far. Restless Poles sought setting up a Polish legion in Turkey, supported by Adam Mickiewicz himself. Zamość Fortress was getting ready for combat for the last time.