Town fortifications - Zabytek.pl
Address
Ośno Lubuskie
Location
woj. lubuskie, pow. słubicki, gm. Ośno Lubuskie - miasto
They belong to few such systems of that type in Poland, almost entirely preserved, i.e. in the form of nearly whole wall perimeter with twelve fortified towers.
History
The town walls were built in stages from approx. early 14th century, in the place of earthen ramparts with a wooden palisade. The walls are made of stone and have crenellations in the top section. They were more than 7 meters high and approx. 1350 m long. They included two gates - Sulecińska Gate (from the south-east) and Frankfurcka Gate (from the north-west), a number of wicket gates, twelve rectangular lookouts, as well as ramparts and moats stretching along the external outline of the walls. They were many times reinforced (among other things after 1477) and extended. In the 16th century, three cylindrical fortified towers were built of brick and the gates were extended by foregates and gorges. In the late 18th century, works to reduce the fortifications - damaged in war hostilities - began. First, moats were filled and foregates were dismantled. Then, in the 1870s, gates were demolished. At the turn of the 19th and 20th century, walking paths along the walls were delineated, and works aimed at reinforcing and renovating the surviving fortifications started.
Description
The town walls have survived along the entire perimeter of the old-town layout shaped as a flattened oval, with the driveways in the place of former gates and three openings which remained of the dismantled fortified towers. Two circular fortified towers have survived in the walls, as well as three rectangular shell towers with roofs, seven rectangular uncovered shell towers and four original wicket gates. The walls are made mostly of field stone, laid in the oldest part in layers bound by lime mortar, and in fortified towers and in the western section they are made of brick. The walls are up to 1 m wide and from 2 to 5 metres high. In the top section of the walls, there is a layer of bricks of concrete and ceramic tiles. The cylindrical towers (southern and north-eastern one) are approx. 14 m high and are covered with brick conical tented roofs. They were used as a prison. The shell towers are built on a rectangular floor plan and project approx. 1 m ahead of the wall line. Three roofed towers have survived (gable or hip roofs), 7 m high. Their upper sections are made of brick and pierced with embrasures and windows. Of other towers, only the ground floor sections have survived. In the place of the former ramparts, there are strolling paths with lines of old tree specimens.
The site is open to the public.
compiled by Marta Kłaczkowska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Zielona Góra, 25-11-2014.
Bibliography
- Karta ewidencyjna, Mury miejskie, oprac. Nowakowski C., 1998 r, Archiwum Wojewódzkiego Urzędu Ochrony Zabytków Oddział Delegatury w Gorzowie Wielkopolskim.
- Kaczmarek-Dębska A., Ośno Lubuskie, [w:] Zabytki północnej części województwa lubuskiego, red. Lewczuk J., Skaziński B., Gorzów Wlkp. - Zielona Góra 2004, s. 136.
- Kowalski S., Zabytki architektury województwa lubuskiego, Zielona Góra 2010, s. 278.
- Garbacz K., Przewodnik po zabytkach województwa lubuskiego, Tom III, Zielona Góra 2013, s. 120.
Category: defensive wall
Architecture: nieznana
Building material:
stone
Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records
Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_08_BL.59178, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_08_BL.11872