Just step outside the door - breath of history

Sometimes you don't have to travel hundreds of kilometers to see an interesting place or face history.

Of course, when you live in a big city, you'll always find something interesting. On the other hand, all monuments and interesting places are becoming common. Viewed daily, they fade.

Just look around.

When I was a child, I played with my friends in a small forest, right in neighborhood. It's actually a park, not a forest, but it seemed bigger then.

There, trembling with fear and excitement, we were exploring the old, ruined bunker. It was our forbidden place to play.

I look at this place differently today.

These ruined buildings are part of the largest, nineteenth-century defense complex of Central Europe known as the Krakow Fortress.

the so-called Festung Krakau was built at a time when my country was not on the maps of the world. My hometown, located on the northern border of the Austrian Empire, was important for its defense. Therefore, already in the mid-nineteenth century, by the decision of Emperor Franz Josef I, the construction of the fortification system began. The Wawel Royal Castle became one of the first defensive object.

Over the 60 years the fortress grew - in the city and on its outskirts new objects were created, that surrounded the city with so-called rings of ever larger diameter.
The last construction and modernization works were carried out at the beginning of the 20th century and finally stopped in 1916.

Such extensive fortifications needed a powerful base - barracks, armories, warehouses and military hospitals were established. The city's current transport infrastructure is based largely on the basis of roads and bridges built for the fortress.

About one hundred objects have survived to this day, including 38 large forts. They can be visited using the walking and cycling trail with a total length of about 100 km. You don't have to do it in one day;)

And around one of them I played as a child.

This fort is small and heavily damaged. It was built in the years 1895 - 1896 based on the design of Emil Gołogórski, a Polish engineer and soldier.

The access road leads to a small guardhouse, just behind it emerges a compact block of armored fort, once equipped with four steel towers with cannons.

Unfortunately, this is one of the most damaged of the existing objects of the fortress. Graffiti, garbage, no ceiling between floors ... I remember when I was a child, I explored the interior trying to avoid the large holes in the floors.

Regardless of how spectacular the building is, I always think about people. I imagine those whose part remained trapped between walls forever - designers, builders, soldiers... I am surrounded by their feelings, emotions, passions and dreams. I hear the voices... For me they are still there, everyone.

This place has unique atmosphere. I go for walks there for years and I never get bored.

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All photos by @astinmin