History
Strzegom (German: Striegau) was formed from a settlement that grew up near a hillfort, recorded in 1155 (“gradice Ztrigom”). Around 1203, castellan Imbram founded St. Peter’s church in Strzegom, which he donated, along with the right of patronage, to the Order of St. John. Then, around 1242, the settlement received town privileges, and Duchess Anna, widow of Henry II the Pious, donated land adjacent to the church to the Hospitallers as compensation for other lands seized in connection with the town’s spatial reform. The seat of the Ilikowic-Strzegomit family, descendants of castellan Imbram, must also have been located near the church, as princes Bolesław II and Henry III issued documents in Strzegom in 1251 and 1266, and in 1245, Strzegom was recorded as the seat of the castellan. This residence may have passed into ducal hands after the childless death of Paweł Ilikowic, son of comes Imbram.
In the third quarter of the 13th century, the town was likely surrounded by wooden and earth fortifications, built shortly after its foundation. These fortifications were likely not solid, as Prince Henry IV Probus placed the Hospitaller commandery in 1272 under his protection and released from the obligation to build moats, walls, and a castle in the future. Construction of stone defensive wall began in Strzegom in 1291, at the behest of Prince Bolko II, who commissioned Henry, Commander of the Knights of St. John with this task and provided the necessary funds. Construction work was evidently carried out very efficiently, as the fortifications were supposedly completed by 1299, with the incorporation of Strzegom castle into the city’s defense system.
By the end of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, Strzegom was already an important and well-fortified center, where numerous documents were issued by princes and duchesses. For example, in 1305, Duchess Beatrice and Prince Bernard endowed the castle chapel; between 1324 and 1350, Bolko II issued ten documents at Strzegom castle; and in 1327 and 1331, Duchess Kunegunda issued two documents. In 1338, Bolko II gave the entire Strzegom district, including the town and castle, to his wife Agnieszka, as a widow’s inheritance. After the death of Bolko II the Small in 1368, when the ducal power weakened, Nicholas von Zeissperk became the burgrave of Strzegom castle, recorded in 1369. Six years later, Duchess Agnieszka gave the castle as a fief to Gungil of Łażany, after whom the local estates frequently changed hands (Nicholas von Üchtritz in 1405, Jenchin von Schellendorf in 1425-1429, Dipprand Reibnitz in 1468, and Christoph von Seidlitz in 1483-1499).
The Hussite Wars of the first half of the 15th century and the repeated invasions of Silesia highlighted the need to strengthen the town’s fortifications. While Hussite troops appeared at Strzegom’s walls in 1428, they failed to capture the town, only burning the suburbs. However, the development of firearms rendered the old town walls obsolete. Therefore, around the mid-15th century, Strzegom’s fortifications were expanded with a second, outer ring of wall, and according to a local chronicle, around 1475, elongated, semicircular bastions were erected along their line at key points along the perimeter. Their construction was made possible by the period of the town prosperity, experienced at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries.
In the fourth quarter of the 16th century, the castle adjacent to the town walls was demolished to allow for the construction of newer, early modern buildings. During the Thirty Years’ War, the town fortifications were damaged but rebuilt about twenty years later. The castle burned down in 1719, after which its remains were converted into economic buildings. Demolition of the now-defunct town walls and the development of the zwinger began in 1748. Formally it were dismantled after 1823. The Jawor Gate was the first to be removed, followed by the Świdnica Gate at the turn of 1825 and 1826. Several towers were subsequently slightened, followed by the so-called Wittig Tower in 1842. In 1888, the last relics of the castle were also removed. The most recent destruction of the town’s fortifications occurred during the fights in 1945.
Architecture
The defensive walls were built of stone bonded with clay and lime mortar. Their lower section was approximately 1.2-2.4 meters thick, and they were approximately 8-9 meters high, with a parapet approximately 1.8 meters high (according to 19th-century measurements). The finial likely initially had the form of an unroofed wall-walk protected by a battlemented parapet, replaced during the spread of handheld firearms by a covered porch with loopholes. The wall line was reinforced with quadrangular towers, initially opened on the town side, protruding from the face of the adjacent curtain walls. The town outer defense zone was a moat, fed by the waters of the Strzegomka River. From the second half of the 15th century, the town was surrounded by a second, outer, lower ring of wall, later equipped with semicircular bastions.
Five gates led into the town: Jaworska to the north, Wrocławska (Wittiga) to the east, New to the south, Świdnicka to the southeast, and Grabińska to the southwest. These were quadrangular and octagonal gate towers with passages at the ground level, likely closed by portcullises or drawbridges. In the mid-15th century, after the construction of the second line of the defensive wall, the gates were extended with necks connected to the outer fortifications, where low gatehouses or simple portals were erected in the front walls of the foregates. Simpler posterns likely also existed within the town walls, facilitating access to the river or the mill canal.
The oldest structure of Strzegom castle was a building from the first half of the 13th century, built on a quadrangular plan, 11 meters wide, using large granite boulders and cobblestones bonded with clay mortar. Due to the considerable thickness of its walls, approximately 1.2 meters, it may have been designed as a tower house. The building was originally surrounded by a wall approximately 1.5 meters thick, replaced in the late 13th century by a more massive, 2.3-meter-thick wall constructed of limestone and basalt slabs, bonded with lean lime mortar. The newer wall formed the town defensive perimeter in the eastern part of Strzegom. It was designed in such a way, that it formed a new southern wall of the older tower house.
Current state
The best preserved fragment of fortifications is the Birds Tower (Bow Tower) from the second half of the fourteenth century, located in the western part of the Old Town at Kamienna street and a tower that is part of the chapel of St. Anthony. In the park between Kamienna and Parkowa streets is a low wall with the outline of the tower. Further south – west of Krótka street to St. Thomas street also retains a section of walls, partly used as a wall of buildings. The most neglected section of the walls with bastion was located in the south and southeast of the Old Town, but it has been restored in recent years. The lower part of the wall is located at the monastery complex where formerly was the Jawor Gate. The buildings of the medieval Strzegom castle have not been preserved above ground.
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