Warsaw Barbican (barbakan warszawski)

Barbican, a tower or other fortification on the approach to a castle or town, especially one at a gate or drawbridge.

From around 1300 the Old Town was surrounded by an earthen rampart. In the 16th century the old walls of mud and sand were replaced by walls of bricks, on stone foundations, with rectangular bastions and the Barbican (here, in front of the Nowomiejska Gate) designed by Giovanni Battista of Venice. In the second half of the 18th century, the walls were pulled down. Today's walls are a reconstruction done in 1946-1954, based on their state in the late 16th century. Remnants of the old Gothic bridge remain. Within the walls, monuments include: Jan Kilinski, the leader of the townsmen of Warsaw during the Kolciuszko Insurrection in 1794, the statue by St. Jackowski, made in 1935, and the Young Insurgent in 1983 by Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz.

Photo 116, May 2007

Warsaw Barbican (barbakan warszawski)

Photo 111, May 2007

Barbican

Photo 110, May 2007