Warsaw Citadel
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(November 2021) |
| Warsaw Citadel | |
|---|---|
| Warsaw,Poland | |
 Aerial view of Citadel in 2024 withPolish Army Museum(on the left) andMuseum of Polish History. | |
  Warsaw Citadel | |
| Coordinates | 52°15′54″N21°0′0″E/ 52.26500°N 21.00000°E |
| Type | citadel |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | Imperial Russia(until 1918) Poland |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1834 |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | 3rd Rocket Anti-Air Artillery Brigade |
Warsaw Citadel(Polish:Cytadela Warszawska) is a 19th-centuryfortressinWarsaw,Poland.It was built by order of TsarNicholas Iafter the suppression of the 1830November Uprisingin order to bolsterimperial Russiancontrol of the city. It served as a prison into the late 1930s, especially the dreadedTenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel(X Pawilon Cytadeli Warszawskiej); the latter has been a museum since 1963.
History
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The Citadel was built by personal order of TsarNicholas Iafter the 1830November Uprising.Its chief architect,Major GeneralJohan Jakob von Daehn(Ivan Dehn), used the plan of theAntwerp Citadelas the basis for his own plan (the same that wasdemolished by the Frenchlater that year). Thecornerstonewas laid by Field MarshalIvan Paskevich,de factoviceroyofCongress Poland.
The fortress is a pentagon-shaped brick structure with high outer walls, enclosing an area of 36 hectares. Its construction required the demolition of 76 residential buildings and the forcible resettlement of 15,000 inhabitants.
Work on it commenced May 31, 1832, on the site of a demolished monastery and of the estate ofFawory.Officially it ended May 4, 1834, to mark the 18th birthday of Russian Crown PrinceAlexander,for whom it was named. In reality, however, the fortress was not completed until 1874. The cost of construction came to 11 million rubles (roughly 8.5 tonnes of pure gold or 128 million euro at today's' prices), a colossal sum by 19th-century standards, and was borne entirely by the city of Warsaw and theBank Polski,as yet another punishment for the failed uprising.
In peacetime, some 5,000 Russian troops were stationed there. During the 1863January Uprising,thegarrisonwas reinforced to over 16,000. By 1863 the fortress housed 555artillerypieces of various calibers, and could cover most of the city center with artillery fire.
About the fortress, 104 prisoncasemateswere built, providing cells for 2,940, mostly political, prisoners. Most notably, is included the Tenth Pavilion. The list of Poles imprisoned and/or executed there up throughWorld War Iincludes many notable patriots and revolutionaries:Apollo Korzeniowski,writer, political activist and father ofJoseph Conrad;Romuald Traugutt,leader of the 1863January Uprising;Jarosław Dąbrowski,later military chief of the 1871Paris Commune;Feliks Dzierżyński,a leader of theRussian Revolution of 1917and founder of theChekasecret police; theMarxisttheoretician and revolutionary,Róża Luksemburg;the futureMarshal of Poland,Józef Piłsudski;Piłsudski's political archrival,Roman Dmowski;andEligiusz Niewiadomski,assassin ofPoland's first president,Gabriel Narutowicz.The Citadel's Tenth Pavilion has, since 1963, served as a museum.
Well before the turn of the 20th century, it was apparent that such traditional fortifications had been made obsolete by modernrifledartillery. TheTsaristauthorities had planned in 1913 to raze the fortress, but the process had not begun before the outbreak ofWorld War I.In 1915 Warsaw was occupied byGermanforces with little opposition from the Russian garrison, which abandoned the fortress and withdrew east. The Germans blew up several of its structures, but the main part of the Citadel remained intact and German forces performed a mass execution of 42 people in 1916.[1]
After Poland regained her independence in 1918, the Citadel was taken over by thePolish Army.It was used as a garrison, infantry training center, and depot formateriel.During the 1944Warsaw Uprising,the Citadel's German garrison prevented linking between the city center and the northernŻoliborzdistrict. The fortress survived the war and in 1945 became again Polish Army property.
See also
[edit]References
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- ^Sovereignty and the Search for Order in German-occupied Poland, 1915--1918 Jesse Curtis Kauffman, Stanford University page 68, 2008
- "Cytadela warszawska,"Encyklopedia Polski,p. 109.
