Fort Va in Poznań: A Nineteenth-Century Fortress Work
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Poland
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- German
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page7 sections
History
Fort Va in Poznań, Poland, was a Prussian fortification built between 1887 and 1890 as one of 18 forts in the Poznań Fortress, a nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century defensive system surrounding and protecting the city. Known originally as Zwischenwerk Va, it was designed by the Engineering Committee of the Main Inspectorate of Fortresses during the second stage of construction of the system.
Construction and names
The fort was given the name Bonin in honour of Eduard von Bonin, a Prussian general and minister of war. In 1931, its patronage was changed to Polish figures, and it was renamed after General Ludwik Mierosławski, a nineteenth-century Polish general and military leader.
The Battle of Poznań
Fort Va saw combat during the Battle of Poznań, an operation in February 1945 during the Second World War. On the night of 13 to 14 February, units of the 246th Infantry Regiment, supported by batteries of 203 mm howitzers, attacked Forts IVa, V, and Va from the north. Fort Va surrendered after 12 hours. Fort IVa had surrendered after two hours, while Fort V held out for ten hours.
The fighting damaged several parts of the fort. The flank shelters and the shelter in the gorge rampart were destroyed in February 1945, and Russian forces also destroyed a blockhouse protecting the entrance on the gorge side.
Protection and conservation
Fort Va entered the heritage register under number A-245 on 25 May 1983. It forms part of the Natura 2000 protected area “Fortifications in Poznań” (PLH300005). The Polish Society for Nature Protection “Salamandra” owns the fort, while the Kernwerk Fortification Enthusiasts’ Association cares for it on the owner’s behalf. Conservation work includes removing trees whose roots could threaten the historic masonry and uncovering nineteenth-century paving within the fort.
Remains
Moat and defensive structures
Fort Va lies in Poznań’s Piątkowo area, between Wojciechowskiego, Lechicka, and Księcia Mieszka I streets. A dry moat surrounds the fort for approximately 500 metres. It is about 9 metres wide and 5.5 metres deep. Three caponiers, fortified structures projecting into or beside the moat so defenders could fire along it, consist of one at the rear side, or gorge, and two at the front and flanks.
The caponiers were linked by a postern, a concealed passage running beneath the moat. A water tank in the main postern survived until recently. The fort’s rooms also provide a regionally important wintering site for bats.
Modernized features and surviving fabric
Modernization in 1913 and 1914 added a water tank, a well, and a shelter for a counter-assault squad on the counter-scarp, the outer side of the moat opposite the fort’s main wall. A counter-assault squad was intended to launch a counterattack against attackers.
Three observation-combat shelters were built into the rampart in 1939. The fort also retains nineteenth-century paving uncovered through conservation work. The wartime destruction of the flank shelters, the gorge-rampart shelter, and the entrance blockhouse forms part of the surviving structure’s physical history.
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