Fort Tscha of the fortress Warsaw

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Chimney attached to the casemate in the wall

The fort Tscha of the fortress Warsaw (Russian: "Щ", as an abbreviation for fort "Szczęśliwice") was one of the artillery places of the Warsaw fortifications of the 19th century . It was built at the end of the 1880s as part of the inner fort belt and is now part of the Warsaw district of Ochota . The fort is relatively well preserved and is currently not in use. It is freely accessible and subject to deterioration due to the weather and vandalism.

Name and location

The designation "Tscha" used in German military maps corresponds to a simplification of the German transcription of the Russian letter Щ, actually Schtsch (a) . In Russian spelling, this is the first letter of the nearby village of Szczęśliwice, now incorporated into Warsaw.

The fort is now located between Śmigłowca, Drawska, Zadumana and Aleja Jerozolimskie streets. With the moat that still exists, it covers an area of ​​around 70,000 square meters. Together with the outdoor areas, it was almost 34 hectares . The fort is about 110 meters above sea level, the height difference in the facility was 11 meters.

The fort was part of the inner defensive belt of the Warsaw city fortifications built by the Tsarist regime at the end of the 19th century. The fort's original task was to defend the city's southwestern flank and to secure the railway line and road to Kraków .

history

The exact construction date of Fort Tscha is not known; it was probably built between 1886 and 1890 at the same time as the four other large artillery forts in the inner belt.

The fort had the typical pentagonal ground plan, was equipped with a wall and an initially dry moat. There were brick casemates in the wall and there were also sheltered shelters. Also from brickwork were front and shoulders of caponiers and Halbkaponnieren that rose from the outside of the wall. As part of the general modernization of the fortifications in the 1890s, the system was expanded into a supply fort. Additional protected storage rooms were created. The decision to demolish the building in 1909 was only partially complied with. In addition to disarming, only the caponiers and some buildings were blown up; the two large casemates in the front wall were preserved.

In September 1939, the fort was captured by German troops early in the Battle of Warsaw . On the night of September 25-26, 1939, the 1st Battalion of the Polish 56th Infantry Regiment, under the command of Major Wladyslaw Legutko, attempted to recapture the facility. The attack collapsed in the fire of the German infantry near the village of Szczesliwice. Further attempts by Polish units to take the fort also failed with great losses.

After the Second World War , Fort Tscha was taken over by the Polish army, which also used it as a warehouse. Around 150 garages were built in the rear interior of the fort, which - along with other post-war buildings - were demolished around 2005. Allotment gardens were created in the immediate outer area, separated by the now water-filled moat.

  • Entrance to the fort in summer 2010

  • Preserved casemates

  • The well-preserved moat that separates the fort from the allotment gardens today

  • Post-war military documents in the casemates

Web links

Commons : Fort Tscha ("Szczęśliwice")  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 12 ′ 24.5 ″  N , 20 ° 57 ′ 0 ″  E