Reconstruction of the tower in defensive walls in Świebodzice

Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Architecture ; ul. Bolesława Prusa 53/55, 50-317 Wrocław

¹ Corresponding author: anna.malachowicz@pwr.edu.pl

Abstract

Fortification of Świebodzice, as presented in the eighteenthcentury drawings of Friedrich Bernhard Wernher, comprised one ring of walls, three gates in the form of towers with a passage on the ground floor, a rectangular gatehouse matching the height of the adjacent wall, and at least 8 rectangular towers. The entire fortification was surrounded by a moat. These architectural forms are in accordance with the oldest view over the city presented in the seventeenth-century oil painting [1]. The walls were crowned with rectangular battlements. Elements known from iconography were confirmed during research and inventory works initiated in 2007. The project, which was an aim of revitalizing the part of defensive walls along Piłsudskiego street in Świebodzice, was not only to make this relic accessible to the public (there is an observation deck in the defensive tower), but also to repair deformations formed as a result of the first restoration and because of the didactic exposition of wooden elements in the wall crowning (these elements were popular in medieval fortifications).