The Medieval City Wall in Warsaw
The medieval city wall of the Warsaw Old Town remains one of the most impressive traces of historic Warsaw. Many visitors wonder whether the walls are actually original, whether they were reconstructed and what the fortifications looked like in the past. We have therefore decided to devote a more detailed description to this special attraction.
The Beginnings
The city wall was built in several stages and enclosed the Old Town over an area of 8.5 hectares. It ran along Podwale and Mostowa Streets as well as along the edge of the Vistula escarpment on the eastern side of the Old Town. Its total length was approximately 1,200 metres.
The first historical mention of the city dates back to 1339, when Warsaw was described as qui muro circumdatus est. Unfortunately, there are no detailed records of what exactly this wall looked like. We do know, however, that at that time there were two gates and a section of wall running along the western side as far as Waski Dunaj Street. One gate stood in the south, on today’s Castle Square, directly in front of the Gothic bridge. The second gate stood in the north, where the Barbican is located today. The wall was reinforced with two or three defensive towers.
As construction continued, the western side was completed as far as the northern gate, while the wall was also extended further to the north.
After the fourth stage of construction, the entire city, including the ducal court (today the Royal Castle), was enclosed by a wall. The appearance of the gateways and of the wall along the steep escarpment is not known. In this area, the wall deteriorated relatively quickly. At the intersection of Celna and Brzozowa Streets, old sections of wall dating from that period can still be seen. We are talking here about the end of the 14th century.
Two Walls Are Better Than One
The space between the walls @ Adrian Grycuk, CC BY 3.0 PL, via Wikimedia Commons
At the beginning of the 15th century, the Old Town was surrounded by a second line of walls with twelve or thirteen defensive towers to the south, west and north. A moat up to 40 metres wide was dug, while the northern and southern gates received additional outer gatehouses connected to the main gates by narrow passages crossing the moat.
The most striking part of the medieval fortifications is the Barbican in the north of the Old Town. It was built around 1550.
Two Lines of Walls
Of the two lines of fortifications, only the inner wall completely surrounded the city and the ducal court. It was approximately 6 metres high and reinforced with seven confirmed defensive towers. Almost all of them were rectangular and equipped with narrow defensive openings for the defenders. Only the tower in the north-eastern section of the wall was oval in shape, and it was also the tallest tower. The best-preserved defensive tower stands on Rycerska Street between Waski Dunaj and Piekarska Streets.
The outer wall stood 9–14 metres away from the inner wall and was also around 5 metres lower. This difference in height made it possible to defend both lines of walls at the same time. The outer wall had twelve or thirteen defensive towers positioned at intervals of 35–65 metres.
The moat was not filled with water. It is still visible today.
Barbican
The Barbican in the north of the Old Town @ Walking Warsaw
Barbicans are additional fortifications placed in front of a city wall and designed primarily to strengthen the entrance gate. Warsaw’s Barbican has a rounded shape and was connected by a narrow passage to the gate and city wall, neither of which survives today.
The entrance was shifted slightly away from the north-south axis towards the south in order to reduce the momentum of attacking forces. The Barbican is the most extensively reconstructed section of Warsaw’s city walls.
From Defensive Wall to Obstacle
As military technology developed, medieval city walls gradually lost their military importance. In Warsaw, too, the fortifications became increasingly less useful as defensive structures during the early modern period. By the 17th and 18th centuries at the latest, parts of the walls had become an obstacle to the city’s urban development. Individual sections were therefore demolished or incorporated into residential houses and other buildings.
This is precisely what makes Warsaw’s city walls so interesting today: some sections survived not as freestanding walls, but because they were incorporated into later buildings. In this way, fragments of the medieval structure were preserved for centuries.
Rediscovery and Reconstruction
During the 20th century, interest in the remains of Warsaw’s historic fortifications increased. The first excavations and preservation works had already begun during the interwar period. The Second World War, however, once again brought enormous destruction to the Old Town.
After 1945, Warsaw’s Old Town was rebuilt, together with important sections of the city walls. The Barbican and several stretches of the fortifications in particular acquired their present appearance during the 1950s. The reconstruction was based on surviving sections of wall, historical images and architectural research. What visitors see today is therefore a combination of original preserved masonry and careful reconstruction.
What Visitors Can See Today
Anyone walking along Podwale Street today can follow the route of the former fortifications particularly well. The reconstructed sections of the wall, the Barbican and several preserved defensive towers are especially impressive. The area between the Royal Castle, Podwale Street and the Barbican is one of the most beautiful walking routes around the Old Town and still provides a good impression of medieval Warsaw’s defensive character.
This is also where it becomes clear why the city wall is more than simply a decorative structure. It is a visible reminder of the city’s medieval history, the destruction caused by war and Warsaw’s extraordinary reconstruction after 1945.
Guided Tour of the Old Town
If you would like to learn more about the Old Town, the Royal Castle and the medieval city walls, we invite you to join our public guided walking tour of the Old Town. We start at Castle Square (Plac Zamkowy), visit the courtyard of the Royal Castle and the Royal Gardens, continue to the Old Town Market Square, walk alongside the city walls into the historic New Town and finish the tour at the Monument to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
This allows you not only to learn more about the fortifications themselves, but also to understand the wider historical context. More information and the option to book can be found in the following overview:
