Wisłoujście Fortress ( pl, Twierdza Wisłoujście, german: Festung Weichselmünde) is an

historic History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

fortress A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

located in

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

by the

Martwa Wisła The Martwa Wisła (; german: Tote Weichsel; both literally "dead Vistula") is a river, one of the branches of the Vistula, flowing through the city of Gdańsk in northern Poland. It got its name when this branch of the river became increasingly m ...

river, by an old estuary of the river

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

, flowing into the

Bay of Gdańsk A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

. The fortress is located close to the Wisłoujście

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

Westerplatte Westerplatte is a peninsula in Gdańsk, Poland, located on the Baltic Sea coast mouth of the Dead Vistula (one of the Vistula delta estuaries), in the Gdańsk harbour channel. From 1926 to 1939, it was the location of a Polish Military Transi ...

and the Port Północny (Northern Port). It is listed as a Historic Monument of Poland.

Description

Different parts of the

are clearly in different architectural styles (predominantly

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

) and in different styles of construction and building materials. This is the result of the fortress being rebuilt every time it was destroyed or badly damaged. The basement and foundation of the fortress is based on wooden crates (''kaszyce''), which are hidden underneath in the water. On top of these structures, rubble was heaped up and strengthened - providing a stable and strong base for the fortress. The heart of the fortress is based around a

circular Circular may refer to: * The shape of a circle * ''Circular'' (album), a 2006 album by Spanish singer Vega * Circular letter (disambiguation) ** Flyer (pamphlet), a form of advertisement * Circular reasoning, a type of logical fallacy * Circula ...

tower (currently devoid of the

coping Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...

), which until 1785 was used as a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

. The lighthouse is surrounded by a

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

flange A flange is a protruded ridge, lip or rim (wheel), rim, either external or internal, that serves to increase shear strength, strength (as the flange of an iron beam (structure), beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam); for easy attachment/transfer of ...

(also known as a circular battery), whose inner walls are sealed together with the officers' living quarters. Around the battery there is a four-

bastion A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...

''Fort Carré'', which is led by a

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mos ...

with a

postern A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern ...

from 1609. The north-western side of the fort-carré is adjoined to the

river, while the rest of the fortress is separated off from land by a

sconce Sconce may refer to: *Sconce (fortification), a military fortification *Sconce (light fixture) *Sconcing, imposing a penalty in the form of drink *Sconce Point Fort Victoria is a former military fort on the Isle of Wight, England (), built to ...

known as the ''Szaniec Wschodny'' (Eastern Sconce). The sconce is lined up with five

s, two of which are

ravelin A ravelin is a triangular fortification or detached outwork, located in front of the innerworks of a fortress (the curtain walls and bastions). Originally called a ''demi-lune'', after the ''lunette'', the ravelin is placed outside a castle ...

s - one of which survived. The ''Fort carré'' as well as the Eastern Sconce are surrounded by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

, sourced by the

river. Up until 1889, the lighthouse tower was topped with a later-

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

, from about 1721. After its burning, due to a fire caused by lightning, the

was reconstructed and coated with

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

, which survived up until 1945. The tower had formerly a clock, dating back to the eighteenth century. In 1945, due to artillery strikes the tower was almost completely destroyed, the coping and officers' headquarters and upper levels were also devastated. The only parts of the fortress which were left untouched, were the walls of the ''Fort Carré''. In 1959 the tower was added to the Register of Heritage Sites, and reconstruction of the fortress began. Wisłoujście3

History

Following the Teutonic annexation Gdańsk, in the fourteenth century, a wooden fortress stood by the mouth of the river

, flowing into the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

; which was burnt down by a

Hussite The Hussites ( cs, Husité or ''Kališníci''; "Chalice People") were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, who became the best known representative of the Bohemian Reformation. The Hussit ...

Sirotci The Sirotci ("Orphans"; german: Waisen), officially Orphans' Union ( cz, Sirotčí svaz), were followers of a radical wing of the Hussites in Bohemia. Founded in 1423 originally under the name Lesser Tábor, it consisted mostly of poorer burghers ...

raid, in September 1433. In 1482, a

tower was built in place of the former fortress. The tower was assigned to control the passage of ships, traveling to and from the

's main port city of

. The Wisłoujście Fortress was target for military campaigns. In 1577 the fortress was besieged several times by Stefan Batory, inconclusively, during the Battle of Oliwa (1627), when the fortress was cannonaded by a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

fleet; in 1734 by Russian-

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

, in 1793 by Prussian, in 1807 by

Napoleonic Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

, and once again in 1814 by Prussian fleets. Between 1622-1629 the fortress was known as ''Latarnia'' (''Lighthouse'',

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

), under the name of a fortress - while actually being a naval base of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

. On the night of 5–6 July 1628 the fortress was attacked with artillery fire, from a

fleet traveling from Wisłoujście, into the fortress, sinking the vessel ''Złoty Lew'' (''Golden Lion'',

), and a

galleon Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch War ...

. After the Second Partition of Poland, the fortress came under Prussian control, and from the 1820s it served as a prison, mainly for Polish political prisoners, including members of the

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...

, protesters, insurgents of the

November November is the eleventh and penultimate month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars, the fourth and last of four months to have a length of 30 days and the fifth and last of five months to have a length of fewer than 31 days. No ...

and

January January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is also the first of seven months to have a length of 31 days. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day. It is, on average, the coldest month of the ...

uprisings and refugees from the Russian Partition of Poland fleeing conscription into the Russian Army. Among the prisoners were

Karol Marcinkowski Karol Marcinkowski (23 June 1800 in Posen, Kingdom of Prussia, today Poznań in Poland–6 November 1846) was a Polish physician, social activist in the Greater Poland region (also called the Grand Duchy of Posen), supporter of the basic educ ...

Gustaw Potworowski Gustaw Potworowski, count, (; 3 June 1800, Bielewo – 23 November 1860, Poznań) was a Polish activist, founder of the ''Kasyno'' in Gostyń, activist of the Polish League (Liga Polska). Born into an old Calvinist noble family, was one of the ...

Walenty Stefański Walenty Stefański (12 February 1813 in Śródka, Poznań County - 30 June 1877 in Pelplin) was a Polish bookseller, publisher, political activist and co-founder of the Polish League (Liga Polska). He supported autonomy for Greater Poland during ...

and General Józef Szymanowski.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wisloujscie Fortress Buildings and structures in Gdańsk Forts in Poland Buildings and structures completed in 1308 Round towers Rebuilt buildings and structures in Gdańsk