Moreover, they emphasise the value of the Bystrzyca Kłodzka panorama from the south-east.

History

Bystrzyca Kłodzka was founded in the Upper Neisse Trench, at a defensible place, embraced by the forks of the Neisse river and its left tributary, the Bystrzyca river. The town of Bystrzyca Kłodzka was granted municipal rights prior to 1253. After 1319 its rank was raised up to a royal city level. In early 14th century it was surrounded by a single ring of city walls, erected at the alderman’s expense. The brick alderman’s tower built in 1319, located in the south-western part of Bystrzyca Kłodzka, at the steepest and most defensive place, now at 1 Podmiejska Street, was also incorporated into the defense system. Originally, the alderman’s tower was separated from the town by a rampart and a moat, which are currently not clearly visible. At the same time, in the opposite north-western part of the town, away from the market and at the culmination point, the parish church of St. Michael the Archangel has been built since the second half of the 13th century. It was extended in the third part of the 14th century by, among other things, a tower, which was incorporated into the town’s defense system, treated as a gate tower. The town’s defensive walls comprised three gates: northern Kłodzka Gate (14th century), on the axis of the road to Kłodzko (Okrzei Street), southern Water Gate (14th-15th century), on the axis of the road to Międzylesie (Podmiejska Street) and Wyszkowska or Wyszęcka (approx. 1400) on the road to Nachod. The last one was bricked up in 15th century. Two wicket gates were made in the town walls. In 1580 a western New Gate was built at the corner of Kościelna and Starobystrzycka Streets. Only at the Kłodzka Gate there is a gate tower, the so-called Kłodzka Tower. To the south of it, in the line of the defensive wall, in Rycerska Street, there is a tower, the so-called Knights Tower, which is an element of the fortification system. The defensive system of the town thus shaped from the east was reinforced with a church tower, the channels of the Neisse and Bystrzyca rivers, and a section of the moat. Between 157 and 1745 some parts of the Bystrzyca Kłodzka’s town walls partially collapsed. They were repaired, among other things, in 1645, during the Thirty Years’ War. Already in the first quarter of 19th century they were pulled down, e.g. their eastern fragment due to the construction of an Evangelical church. More intensive demolition activities took place in 1840s. In 1842 the New Gate was demolished, and in 1843 - the Kłodzka Gate. The Town Hall would sell off plots of land with sections of walls to be demolished or used for new buildings. The demolition efforts intensified after 1865. In 1870 the town moat was filled in and in its place small scale town gardens were established. In 1960-1962 fragments of the city walls, north and east, were unearthed. During that time and in 1969, 1987-1989, 1993-1995, and 1998, the walls, including the retaining walls, underwent preservation and conservation process. Prior to 2013, large sections of the town walls exposed earlier were incorporated into the walls of the townhouses or their outbuildings at 20 Międzyleśna and Rycerska Streets. In 2014, the revitalisation of the city’s ramparts in Międzyleśna Street continued.

Description

The town walls of Bystrzyca Kłodzka were built of crushed stone, at places with more recent rebuildings or additions made of brick. Current preserved underground and to a large extent above-ground sections of the fortifications are as follows: In Wojska Polskiego Street - the northern section of the wall repaired in the 1960s. reaching the economic outbuildings of rectory. A second section of an eastern and south-eastern town wall between 20 Podmiejska Street and Rycerska Street, along Międzyleśna Street, partly high, with buttresses (vis-a-vis the Village Head’s office). Along a further section of Międzyleśna Street, sections of walls of various heights built into tenement houses or their annexes are exposed. South-western section of the town walls built into outbuildings of houses at 1-9 Market Street and 1-17 Church Street.

The site is accessible all year round.

Complied by Iwona Rybka-Ceglecka, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Wrocław, 14 December 2015.

Bibliography

• Bartnik K., Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Wrocław 1992.
• Dziewulski W., Bystrzyca i jej rozwój przestrzenny do II wojny światowej, “Rocznik Ziemi Kłodzkiej” 1959/60 (Bystrzyca and its spatial development until WWII, “Yearbook of the Kłodzko Region” 1959/60), vol. 4/5.
• Prace konserwatorskie na terenie województwa wrocławskiego w latach 1945-1968 (Conservation Works in the Wrocławskie Voivodeship in 1945-1968), Wrocław 1970. 
• Prace konserwatorskie na terenie województwa wrocławskiego w latach 1969-1973, Wrocław-Warsaw-Cracow-Gdańsk 1976.
• Prace konserwatorskie na terenie województw jeleniogórskiego, legnickiego, wałbrzyskiego, wrocławskiego w latach 1974-1978 (Conservation works in the Jeleniogórskie, Legnickie, Wałbrzyskie, and Wrocławskie Provinces in 1974-1978), Wrocław-Warsaw-Cracow-Gdańsk-Łódź 1985. 
• Prace konserwatorskie na terenie województwa dolnośląskiego w latach 1979-1999 (Conservation works in the Lower Silesia Voivodeship in 1979-1999), Wrocław 2005.
• Rudysz-Tuczyńska K., Układ przestrzenny i architektura średniowiecznej Bystrzycy, “Rocznik Ziemi Kłodzkiej” 1964 (Spatial layout and architecture of medieval Bystrzyca, “Yearbook of the Kłodzka Region” 1964), vol. 6.
• Volkmer F., Geschichte der Stadt Habelschwerdt in der Grafschaft Glatz, Habelschwerdt 1897.
• Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk (Art Monuments in Poland. Silesia), Wrocław 2006.