Fort Legionow was built between 1852 and 1854 on the southern foreland of the Warsaw Citadel. Initially, the fort had the shape of a three-storey artillery turret, surrounded by a fortified ditch with three cofferdams and a gallery in the counterscarp. Its task was to guard the citadel from the side of the New Town and also to defend the seasonal bridge over the Vistula River.
In the years between 1866 and 1874 the fort was modernized. A battery emplacement in the shape of the letter “L” was built between the bastion and the River Vistula, equipped with two emergency brick shelters and also a brick battery which was meant to control the Vistula River bed. The fort survived during the Warsaw Uprising despite the ongoing fierce fighting over the Polish Security Printing Works and after 1945 it was used by the military.
Since 1999, the fort has been privately owned by a well-known family of Warsaw restaurateurs, Agnieszka and Marcin Kreglicki. Three buildings have survived in Warsaw arranged around the Citadel. Fort Legionow is the only structure in the Warsaw Citadel of a “mountainous” nature, with a complex underground system.
References:The Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. They were also the largest and strongest fortification in both the ancient and medieval world.
Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, they were, when well-manned, almost impregnable for any medieval besieger.