Kraków fortress (Polish:Twierdza Kraków,German:Festung Krakau) refers in the narrow sense to the 19th centuryAustro-Hungarian fortifications, and in the larger sense - to the interconnected fortifications inKraków,Poland, including 18th centuryKościuszko Insurrection fortifications, and the medievalWawel Castle and city walls.
Bastion III "Kleparz" – a standardreduit fortification from the 1856-1866 period. The live music venue Forty Kleparz is located here. It features a 200-person concert hall as well as two bars.[1]
Fort citadel 2 "Kosciuszko" - Built surrounding theKościuszko Mound in 1850–56, and designed by Franz von Pidoll Quintenbock, Felix Księżarski and Bernard von Caboga. Today, the fort houses a museum devoted toTadeusz Kościuszko, the radio stationRMF FM, a hotel and cafes.
Fort 31 "St. Benedict Fort" (Polish:Fort św. Benedykta) - the only one of three surviving fortresses built inPodgórze in the mid-19th century to protect theVistula River and the road toLviv. It is located atop the Krzemionki cliffs on Lasota Hill, and takes its name from the adjacent St. Benedict's church. The fortress quickly lost its usefulness in the 1890s. Since, it was used as an Austrian military barracks and converted into apartments in the 1950s. Today, it lies in general dereliction, filled with abandoned furniture and building materials. The fort has recently been transferred back to the property of the city ofKraków, with plans for its renovation awaiting approval.
Fort 32 "Krzemionki" - The only other tower fort constructed in addition to the Fort 31 "St. Benedict" within the Krakow Fortress. In the 18th and 19th century, the fort was adapted to serve as barracks. Around 1954, the fort was demolished to make way for the construction of the Television Krakow building.
Memorial to 440 Poles murdered by the Germans in Fort 49 duringWorld War II
Fort 45 "Zielonki", today a hotel
Fort 47 "Łysa Góra"
Fort 48 "Batowice"
Fort 49 "Krzesławice" - During theGerman occupation of Poland in theSecond World War, it was thesite of German massacres ofPoles committed as part of theIntelligenzaktion andAB-Aktion. In 1945, 29 mass graves were discovered, with 440 victims, which were murdered from November 1939 to November 1940.[2] In the forest of Fort 49, the German security police murdered around 1,300 Poles.[2] Among the victims of the massacres in the fort and forest were Poles arrested in various towns and villages of the region, including Kraków,Nowy Sącz andWadowice.[3]
