Przemyśl Fortress

Information

The Przemyśl Fortress is one of the largest buildings of defense architecture in Europe. It is located at the junction of the Sandomierz Basin and the Carpathians. Its construction began in the mid-nineteenth century, during the Crimean War and the deterioration of relations between Austria and Russia. The main purpose of building the fortress was to defend the Przemyśl Gate. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Przemyśl fortress was one of the largest and most modern in Europe and was the main link in the defense of the Austrian Empire from the east. The city was defended by two rings of fortifications - the inner one with 18 forts connected by embankments and walls with arrowslits, and the outer one, 45 km long, about 10 km away from the city, consisting of 42 powerful forts, including 15 armored ones, not to be destroyed by the then artillery. The forts in Łętownia, Siedliska, Duńkowiczki and Orzechowce are well preserved. Around the forts, both the relics of masking trees and the remains of the trenches filling the space between the forts have been preserved. The Przemyśl Fortress Museum is located in the building of the Guild of Various Crafts at 6 Katedralna Street. You can see a model of the fortress, collections of photographs, weapons, uniforms and other memorabilia from the times of the soldier Švejk and Emperor Franz Joseph I. In 1968, the fortress was placed under protection as an important monument of defensive architecture. The Defense Architecture Trail, marked in black, runs along the forts.

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