The Cytadela in Poznań

Poznan

Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...

 (western Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

) is a large park on the site of Fort Winiary, a 19th-century fortified area north of the city centre. It contains a military museum, military cemeteries, and the remains of some of the fortifications. It lies within the Stare Miasto district of the city, south of Winogrady.

History of the fort

Fort Winiary was part of Festung Posen ("Fortress Poznań"), a system of defensive fortifications around the city built under Prussian

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

 rule in the 19th century. It was the main fort in that system, and was among the first elements to be constructed. Detailed plans were approved on 21 February 1829, and the name "Fort Winiary" soon came to be applied, as the fort was situated on a hill where there were two villages called Winiary (the name alluding to the vine

Vine

A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...

 cultivation which had once taken place there). The fort would later become popularly known as Poznań's citadel

Citadel

A citadel is a fortress for protecting a town, sometimes incorporating a castle. The term derives from the same Latin root as the word "city", civis, meaning citizen....

 (cytadela).

On 10 October 1829 an order was made restricting civilian building in a strip in front of the planned fort. In May and June 1830, the villages of Winiary and the nearby Bonin farm were evacuated, the inhabitants being moved to an area to the north-west (Neu Winiary). This is the neighbourhood known as Winiary today, part of the city's Jeżyce district (there is also an estate there named Bonin).

The fort had a main reduit

Reduit

A reduit is a fortified structure such as a citadel or a keep into which the defending troops can retreat when the outer defences are breached...

 (Kernwerk) on the southern (city) side, flanked by four redoubt

Redoubt

A redoubt is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, though others are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldiers outside the main defensive line and can be a permanent structure or a...

s (Redoute I and Redoute II to the west; Redoute IV and Redoute III to the east). At the eastern and western extremes were Ravelin

Ravelin

A ravelin is a triangular fortification or detached outwork, located in front of the innerworks of a fortress...

 I and Ravelin IV. The northern side of the fort consisted of (from west to east) Bastion

Bastion

A bastion, or a bulwark, is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification, situated in both corners of a straight wall , facilitating active defence against assaulting troops...

 I, Ravelin II, Bastion II, Ravelin III and Bastion III. The first and third redoubt were the first to be completed, in 1830, and the main réduit was finished in 1832. In 1834 three infantry battalions were garrisoned there. The third and fourth ravelins were finished in 1838 and 1839, completing the fort.

On 15 October 1856 the bastions were renamed Bastion Johann, Bastion Leopold and Bastion Ludwig, these being the forenames of the chief architect of Festung Posen and of the fort itself, Johann Leopold Ludwig Brese (later von Brese–Winiary).

Between 1865 and 1873 work was done to reinforce the fort's powder stores (Kriegs-Pulver-Magazin No. 1 and No. 2). In the early 1890s an artillery laboratory (Spezial-Kriegs-Laboratorium) was built within the fort, and in 1903 a telegraph station was added. The fort was further reinforced in 1910.

Unlike the bulk of the city's inner fortifications, Fort Winiary was not demolished during the early twentieth century. It served as the German army's last point of resistance in the Battle of Poznań (1945)

Battle of Poznan (1945)

The Battle of Poznań during World War II in 1945 was a massive assault by the Soviet Union's Red Army that had as its objective the elimination of the Nazi German garrison in the stronghold city of Poznań in occupied Poland...

, and was finally taken by the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 on 23 February 1945. The main réduit was seriously damaged in the fighting.

The park and cemeteries

In the post-war period the site of the Fort Winiary was converted into Cytadela park. Most of the fortifications were demolished, although some structures can still be seen. The Spezial-Kriegs-Laboratorium building now houses a military museum. There is also a Poznań Army

Poznan Army

Army Poznań led by mj. gen. Tadeusz Kutrzeba was one of the Polish Armies during the Polish Defensive War in 1939.-Tasks:Flanked by Armia Pomorze to the north and Armia Łódź to the south, the Army was to provide flanking operations in Grand Poland region, defend it and withdraw towards lines of...

 museum on the southern edge of the park. A rosarium is located near the northern edge of the park, and an amphitheatre

Amphitheatre

An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...

 (now disused) was built at the eastern end, on the site of Ravelin IV. The park contains a large number of walkways and open spaces, and various open-air sculpture displays.

On the slope on the south-western edge of the park are a series of military cemeteries. These include a Commonwealth cemetery ("Poznań Old Garrison Cemetery"), set up after World War I, and containing graves mostly of prisoners-of-war from World War I and airmen from World War II (many killed during bombing of Stettin, now Szczecin). There are also Polish and Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

cemeteries on the slope. A "Heroes' Monument" overlooks the cemeteries, standing at the top of the flight of steps which form the main entrance to the park.