Lviv Citadel
The citadel of Lviv ( Ukrainian Львівська цитадель , Russian Львовская цитадель , Polish Cytadela we Lwowie) was the reduit of the Ukrainian fortress city of Lviv (ukr .: Lviv).
The construction
The citadel was built from bricks by the Austro-Hungarian fortress administration between 1852 and 1854 and consisted of a barracks and several towers according to the Montalembert system (two large ones with a diameter of 36 meters and two smaller ones with a diameter of 18 meters). After completion, the Austro-Hungarian fortress artillery battalion 9 was housed here. After Lemberg fell to the new Polish state in 1918, Polish fortress artillery was quartered in the barracks.
The towers were surrounded by a dry moat with a concrete moat wall, over which a bridge led to the respective entrance.
The barracks may have been built as a defensive barracks. It forms two flanks that are at an obtuse angle to each other - a square extension is attached to each end in the manner of a flanking tower.
The prisoner of war camp
During the Second World War , the Stalag -328 and 325 were located here from December 3, 1942 to January 1944 , the former a camp for Soviet prisoners of war. For better guarding, a system of smaller concrete bunkers was built, which were placed on the slopes around the mountain. Interrogation rooms and death row were located in Großer Maximilianturm No. 2.
The accommodation rooms were not heated. According to witness statements, a total of around 284,000 prisoners of war were imprisoned in the camp, of which over 142,000 were victims of hunger, disease, torture and shootings.
Inscriptions from Soviet prisoners of war were found in the cells: “Here, thousands of Russian prisoners died of starvation. January 22, 1944 ”,“ The Glorious Russian Army is impatiently awaited not only by peoples, but also by prisoners of war who have been starved to death. How hard it is to die / Death is hard. ”Today a simple wooden cross commemorates the murdered. In the meantime (2018) there is a large metal cross on top of the mountain with an information board in Ukrainian and English.
The branch of the Stalag 325 was set up in Lemberg in January 1943, the French and Belgian prisoners from the concentration camp in Rawa-Ruska were housed here by the Germans . In the autumn of 1943, Italian soldiers who refused to continue fighting were imprisoned here, and 46 of them were executed.
Remains of the citadel
The remains of the citadel consist of a three-story barracks building, which is located on the east-west axis, and four towers. These are located in the south and north of the barracks, not very far apart.
In one of the two larger towers, the large Maximilianturm in the east, there is now a private hotel, the “Citadel Inn”, the other in the north is used as a satellite storage facility for the Lviv national Stefanyk library. One of the two smaller towers is still quite handsome, while the other is in ruins.
The barracks building is still in use, and one wing building houses a bank.
literature
Taras Pinjaschko, L'vivs'ka Cytadel '. L'viv 2008 (with Polish, English and French summaries, 53 illustrations and a 75-page document annex)
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 50 ′ 8.1 ″ N , 24 ° 1 ′ 25.6 ″ E