History
Wrocław was established at the intersection of important trade routes leading from the south to the Baltic Sea and from Rus to the west. In the early Middle Ages, it was one of the most important settlements of the Ślężanie tribe. From the end of the 9th until the mid-10th century, together with the whole of Silesia, it belonged to the Czech and from about 990 it belonged to the Polish Piasts dynasty. The main element of Wrocław was then a wooden and earth stronghold at Ostrów Tumski Island, the seat of feudal and its entourage. Beside, on the also fortified borough, craftsmen and merchants lived. In 1000, Wrocław was elected the capital of the bishopric, and since 1138, was the capital of a separate land. It began to play an increasingly important role. The area of the original borough of Ostrów Tumski, too small for rapidly growing population and new foundations, was extended to the areas located in the north and on the west bank of the Odra (the Benedictine monastery was built on Ołbin, and the monastery of regular canons on the Piasek Island). On the left bank of the Odra River, a settlement of Wallonian weavers has developed. Around 1229, the first square was laid out and streets were marked out, however this lively development was interrupted by the Tatar invasion of 1241.
The destructions caused by the Mongols made the townspeople aware of the need to build defensive walls around the town, which would allow them to be protected in the future. The construction of masonry fortifications began around the middle of the 13th century, on the site of former earth ramparts with a palisade. In documents it were recorded as early as 1260 regarding the main part of the city, while in 1263 the fortifications of the New Town (incorporated into Wrocław in 1327) were mentioned. Construction works on the most important sections were completed around 1270, but only at the end of the 13th century, fortifications from the river side were erected. In 1291, the ditch in front of the walls was replaced at the behest of Henry V with a wide moat, irrigated with the waters of the Oława River. In 1291, the ditch in front of the walls was replaced at the behest of Henry V with a wide moat (called Black Oława), irrigated with the waters of the Oława River.
The town grew rapidly and already in the 14th century the buildings that were built outside the town walls were large enough and vast that it was decided to build, from the south and west, a new ring of walls and surround it with a moat. Work on the new circuit lasted from the end of the 13th century to around 1351 (then the church of St. Stanislaus, Wenceslaus and Dorota was founded, described as “inter duos muros”). The area of the New Town received brick fortifications from the east only in the 15th or 16th century. The older internal wall lost its military functions at that time. Criss-crossed by many wicket gates leading to bridges over the Black Oława (moat), it was absorbed by residential buildings. The earliest, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, this process began on the west side, where on the municipal land settlements of small houses of fishermen, wheelwrights and potters were built.
The fortification system was constantly expanded and improved as the war technics changed. With the spread of gunpowder and under the influence of the experiences of the Hussite wars, in the 70s of the 15th century, the construction of a second, outer ring of fortifications with bastions began. In 1427, the Nicholas Gate was to be rebuilt, and modernized again in 1479. Works on the second line of fortifications continued at the beginning of the 16th century, when they were accelerated due to the fear of the Turks. In 1528, the construction of the tower at the Bricklayers Gate began, from 1530 work continued on the wall behind the All Saints Hospital and between the Świdnicka and Nicholas gates. In 1531, however, the extension of the city moat began from the Świdnicka Gate to the Nicholas Gate. It was recorded then, that for this undertaking, each inhabitant of Wrocław, regardless of his wealth, had to give 5 groshes. The last major modernization works on the outer wall were carried out before 1562, when it became just a retaining wall for the then high earth embankment.
In the 17th century, an early modern bastion system was created in front of the late medieval fortifications. This necessity, completely changing the appearance of the city’s foreground, resulted from the changes in fighting methods that have taken place since the late Middle Ages. The development of firearms and siege techniques, and above all the use of increasingly stronger artillery, caused that the former brick city walls lost their defensive value. After the occupation of Wrocław by Napoleon’s troops, beginning in 1807, the long process of demolishing the walls of Wrocław began.
Architecture
The defensive wall of Wrocław from the second half of the 13th century was about 6 to 9 meters high, about 1-2.2 meters thick and topped with a battlement, which protected the wall-walk. It was strengthened by 39 rectangular half towers, placed at distances of about 30 meters, so within the range allowing for an effective shot from a crossbow. The towers were used on most of the perimeter, but on the safest section in the northern part of the city, on unstable grounds on the banks of the Odra and Oława rivers, they were spaced at greater intervals. They had a four-sided form in plan and protruded on both sides in front of the defensive walls. All towers were probably originally similar in height to the curtains of the defensive wall and topped with battlement.
The first, single ring of Wrocław’s defensive walls was surrounded by a wide moat filled with the waters of the Odra and Black Oława rivers, while in the northern section the role of the moat was performed by the Oder itself. In the north-east, White Oława separated the main part of Wrocław from the New Town. The Odra separated the area of the city from the Tum castle situated on the island, while the irrigated short arm of the moat probably separated the area of the left-bank castle (later arsenal) from the city. The third castle, built at the beginning of the 14th century, the imperial castle, was already located inside the city’s defensive circuit, in the northern part of Wrocław.
In the first half of the 14th century, the city area was enlarged from the west and south, and also from the east, where the former New Town was incorporated. The south and west sections of wall probably obtained a height of about 7 meters and a thickness of up to 1.5 meters. It was erected on the ridge of a sand and fascine embankment that encircled the area of the enlarged city from 1261. The new perimeter consisted of slightly thinner walls, so its wall-walk had to be created on a timber, covered porch, placed on the wall offset and supported by diagonal beams.
The enlarged defensive circuit was again reinforced with numerous half towers, opened from the city side and protruding 3.5 meters in front of its face. Some of the towers were then raised by about 3 meters, closed by screens from the city side and covered with hip roofs. In the 15th century, there were about 50 towers in total, spaced at regular intervals, providing the chance of flanking fire. Some of the newly erected was formed on a quadrilateral plan, but many also have a semicircular shape.
In the 70s of the 15th century, the construction of external fortifications began. In front of the main wall from the 14th century, an earth rampart and a low but thick wall about 2.4-2.5 meters wide were built, made of bricks in the opus emplectum technique, in the lower part, from the side of the moat, faced with stones. Above the stone strip, there were recesses, about 1.3 meters away, presumably for loop holes, with splayed jambs, probably crowned with segmental arches, with stone framed openings from the side of the moat, alternately round and partially rounded. The recesses were about 2.5 meters high. At their upper edge, there were sandstone, square corbels ending in a quarter-circle at the bottom, which probably served as a support for the timber porch or hoarding. The wall was crowned with a brick battlement with a thickness of 2.5-3 bricks, but the younger (western) sections were thicker. A characteristic feature of the later created curtains were also timber transverse braces, ended in the form of double dovetails. They were probably a structural element of the original porch, in the western part of the fortifications founded on steps rising towards the breastwork. After some time, the loop holes in the wall were bricked up, which could have been caused by the rising level of the moat, or they could have been ineffective due to the significant thickness of the curtains. The outer wall from the 15th / 16th century was reinforced with ten semicircular bastions.
There were originally five town gates: Świdnicka, Nicholas, Rus, Sand (this gate was probably initially an ordinary tower, raised and equipped with a gate passage at the beginning of the fourteenth century) and Oławska. Mostly they had the shape of a gatehouse on a square plan with a lockable drawbridge. The roof was covered with shingles.
After the 14th century expansion, the new gates: Świdnicka, Nicholas and Oławska took over the names of the old 13th-century entrances, because they were situated on the extension of the same streets. There was also built an auxiliary Beg Gate in the south-eastern corner of the city, modest Bricklayers Gate on the north-eastern side and the Oder Gate in the north. From the 20s of the 15th century, gates defense was strengthened by the foregates, supplyed with barbicans, preparing positions for firearms. In 1479, due to fear of invasions and as a result of experience after the Hussite wars, the west Nicholas Gate was expanded by two towers surrounding the gatehouse, adapted for setting up artillery and using firearms. A similar reinforcement was also built at the Oławska Gate and in 1525 the Świdnicka Gate, protected by the largest of the Wrocław towers. The entire system was supplemented in 1536 with a bastion at the exit of the Beg Gate.
In the 14th – 16th centuries, the outer defense zone was still an irrigated moat and the Odra River from the north. When the outer line of fortifications was marked out, an outer moat was also dug on three sides of the city, distant from Black Oława by about three hundred meters. Initially, the outer moat ran a little further south in the central part of the southern section, while the church and monastery of Corpus Christi was located on a peninsula-like area protruding from the Świdnica Gate.
Current state
Until today, of the once impressive city fortifications, only the Bear Tower has survived, reconstructed in large part along with a short fragment of the wall, located on Kraińskiego Street in the north-eastern part of the former defense circuit of Wrocław. In addition, you can find two towers and a fragment of the curtain of the defensive wall in the municipal arsenal, which is now the seat of the Archaeological Museum (branch of the City Museum of Wrocław).
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