Warsaw Barbican
The Barbican of Warsaw (Template:Lang-pl) is a barbican (semicircular fortified outpost) in Warsaw, Poland, and one of few remaining relics of the complex network of historic fortifications and defensive barriers encircling the city of Warsaw. It currently serves as a tourist attraction, and is located between the Old and the New Town.
History
The Barbican was erected in 1548 in place of the old gate to protect the Nowomiejska gate, and designed by Jan Baptist the Venetian (also known as Giovanni Battista the Venetian), an Italian Renaissance architect who lived and worked in the Mazowsze region of 16th century Kingdom of Poland, and who was instrumental in the 16th century redesign of the 14th century city walls, which by that time have fallen into disrepair. The barbican had the form of a three-level semicircular bastion, manned by fusiliers. It was 14 metre-wide and 15 metre-high from the bottom of the moat which surrounded the city walls, and it extended 30 metres from the external walls.
Almost since its inception, the 4-tower Barbican had become an anachronism and served almost no practical purpose mostly as a result of the rapid advancement in artillery power. It was used in the defense of the city only once, during the Swedish invasion of Poland, on 30 June 1656, when it had to be recaptured by the Polish army of Polish king Jan Kazimierz from the Swedes.
In the 18th century the barbican was partially dismantled as its defensive value was miniscule, and the city benefited more from a larger gate which facilitated movements of people and goods in and out of the city. In the 19th century its remains were incorporated into the newly built apartment buildings (kamienica). During the interwar period, in the years 1937–1938, Jan Zachwatowicz reconstructed part of the walls and the western part of the bridge, demolishing one of the newer buildings in the reconstruction process, but lack of funds delayed the plans to reconstruct the barbican in its complete form, and the invasion of Poland (1939) by Nazi Germany rendered such plans moot for many years.
During World War II, particularly the Siege of Warsaw (1939) and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the Barbican was mostly destroyed, as were most of the buildings in the Old Town. It was rebuilt after the war, in 1952–1954, on the basis of 17th century etchings, as the new government decided it would be cheaper to rebuild the barbican and the nearby city walls as a tourist attraction, then to rebuild the kamienice appartments. In its reconstruction, bricks were used from historic buildings demolished in the cities of Nysa and Wrocław; most of the barbican was rebuilt save for two exterior gates and the oldest tower on the side of the Old Town. It is currently a popular tourist attraction.
See also
- Barbican of Kraków - the largest barbican in Poland (Warsaw's is the second largest)
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