History
Stone town defensive walls began to be erected in Jelenia Góra (Latin: Cervinusmons, German: Hirschberg) most probably in the mid-fourteenth century, although probably in the thirteenth century the town was surrounded by a ditch and wooden-earth fortifications. The first mention of them was recorded in a document from 1341. Prince Henry of Jawor allowed to build an inn outside the town walls (“extra muros civi”), which may, however, refer to a wooden-earth fortifications as well as a completely brick ones. The Hussites besieging the town in 1427 were probably already stopped by stone fortifications. The first confirmation of the existence of walls was recorded only in 1480.
War experiences from the Hussite wars and the development of firearms in the 15th century prompted the townspeople to modernize the town’s fortifications. Probably at the end of the fifteenth century, the construction of a second, outer perimeter of the walls reinforced with squat towers began. In 1506 Jelenia Góra was described as a small but well-fortified town. Pankracy Geier in 1521 clearly indicated that the town had double defensive walls, surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge at each gate. It is possible that the wooden elements of the fortifications were damaged in 1549, during the great fire of the town.
The Thirty Years’ War of the first half of the 17th century and the destruction of the town during it affected the fortifications. Veduta from the second half of that century indicate that due to the increasing range of early modern artillery, additional earth ramparts were built in front of the old fortifications. Eventually, the medieval town walls lost their defensive significance at the end of the 18th century and then they were demolished, especially in places where they interfered with the town’s development. In 1837, the Long Gate was completely demolished, then the foregate of the Castle Gate, and since the late 1820s, most of the walls were dismantled and the moats were filled.
Architecture
The town was founded in the northern part of the Jelenia Góra Basin, on a high terrace at the confluence of the Bóbr and Kamienna rivers. The town walls were kidney-shaped, with the northern side adjoining the edge of the slope called Deer Drop, descending towards the Bóbr. Additional protection was provided from the west by the Kamienna River, which flows into the Bóbr on the northwestern side of the town. As early as the 13th century, the Mill Canal was dug on the northern side of the town. Its water, regulated by a system of locks and weirs, became the driving force for numerous mills. Castle was located away from the town walls, on a northwestern hill, situated on a bend of the Bóbr River, about a kilometer from the market square. While the parish church, situated at the highest point of the town in the eastern corner, stood by the town walls.
The inner wall of the main perimeter was about 7-8 meters high, and its thickness on the crown reached 1.5 meters (in the ground 2 meters thick). Above it was equipped with a wall-walk for the guards and a cover in the form of a battlemented breastwork, later replaced by a roofed porch, along which there were loopholes. In addition, the perimeter was strengthened by semicircular towers, open from the town side, protruding in front of the face of the wall, spaced at intervals of 20-30 meters (distance of shot from the crossbow). Towers were higher than the defensive wall by about 3 meters and initially similar to it topped with battlement. Later, roofs were installed on them, probably some of the towers also received closures from the town side. The number of towers of the inner ring of fortifications varied over different periods and ranged from 24 to 36.
In front of the inner wall, at a distance of 5.5 to 7.5 meters, from the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, a lower outer wall stood. It was only 2.2-2.5 meters high, and its curtains were no more than 0.6 meters thick. Nine low towers or bastions, were placed around the outer perimeter, adapted for firearms and thus spaced at greater intervals, approximately 100 meters apart. Also in the line of the second wall was St. Anne’s Chapel, built into the bastion protecting the Wojanowska Gate (this solution was popular in late medieval Silesian towns, found among others in Świdnica and Strzegom). In front of the outer wall was a moat, ranging from 13-16 meters wide to a maximum of 19.5 meters (at the Wojanowska Gate) and 5.5 to 6.5 meters deep.
Three town gates led to the town. In the west, the Castle Gate, in the east the Wojanowska Gate and in the south the Long Street Gate. From the north, Jelenia Góra did not have a gate, because on this side there was a high embankment of the Bóbr river, making it impossible to build convenient access, and at the same time constituting an additional security of the town. The gates were traditionally accessed from streets leading from the corners of the market square, with the exception of the Long Street Gate, which divided the southern frontage of the market square into two parts. The connection of the Castle Gate with two short streets converging at it was also unusual. In front of the town gates stretched suburbs, whose names derived from these gates. Each of suburbs contained a chapel with a hospital, but it were not fortified.
Each gate was a gateway in a low building, flanked on one side by a tall cylindrical tower. The Castle Tower had a diameter of 7.8 meters at the ground floor, and its walls exceeded 1.5 meters in thickness. The cylindrical section of the tower was divided internally into five stories, with cross-shaped loopholes on the third and fourth floors. Next to the tower was a gatehouse, containing two doors, 17 meters apart, additionally protected by a portcullis and a drawbridge. Similar security measures were in place at the Wojanowska Gate. Its tower was over 34 meters high and had a diameter of 7.2 meters, while the walls were constructed with thicknesses ranging from 2.5 meters at the bottom to 1.5 meters on the upper floors. The tower at the Long Street Gate, protected by a barbican, may have had a similar design.
Current state
Only small sections of the town walls and the Castle Gate tower (raised at the end of the 16th century), the Wojanowska Gate tower (currently topped with a Renaissance helmet) and the Castle Tower have survived to this day. By the Castle Tower, the southern foregate wall with a gothic stone corbel integrated into the decorative tracery has been preserved, while by the Wojanowska Gate a longitudinal bastion from the 16th century. Wall fragments have also been preserved between Długa street and the tower of the Castle Gate, on the section of walls north of the Castle Gate and behind the parish church.
bibliography:
Atlas historyczny miast polskich, tom IV Śląsk, red. R.Czaja, M.Młynarska-Kaletynowa, R.Eysmontt, M.Goliński, zeszyt 14 Jelenia Góra, Wrocław 2017.
Łaborewicz I., Mury miejskie, czyli jak mieszczanie dbali o swoje bezpieczeństwo, “Biuletyn Jeleniogórski”, nr 6, 2008.
Przyłęcki M., Miejskie fortyfikacje średniowieczne na Dolnym Śląsku. Ochrona, konserwacja i ekspozycja 1850 – 1980, Warszawa 1987.
Przyłęcki M., Mury obronne miast Dolnego Śląska, Wrocław 1970.
Rozpędowski J., Różycka E., Jelenia Góra, Warszawa 1975.