Poland · 19th century
Fort III Anioła – a fort of the Prussian Świnoujście Fortress, built in 1854–1858, intended to defend the western fortification complex from the landward side.
It consists of a three-storey rotunda crowned with a terrace and an observation tower. In the outer walls are embrasures for light guns and hand weapons. Around the structure are earth ramparts on a pentagonal outline with a fortified defensive gate, equipped with additional rifle and artillery positions. By 1863 the fort was surrounded by earth ramparts with a double water moat. In 1870–1880 three shelters for field guns, a small ammunition magazine and a shelter for gunners were incorporated into the inner earth rampart. At the end of the 19th century telegraph communications and an electrical network were brought to the fort.
During the Second World War the structure was connected by a narrow-gauge railway with other fortifications of the fortress. Machine-gun positions appeared around the fort. In the interwar period the fort was adapted for chemical warfare, with gas-tight doors and armoured window covers installed here. On the tower a position for an anti-aircraft radio station was built. In the second half of the 19th century Fort Anioła was manned by infantrymen and artillerymen with the strength of a company of about 100 men. During the First World War it began to lose its significance as a combat structure. In the interwar period it passed into the hands of the German navy.
In the 1930s an anti-aircraft observation and reporting company was installed here. In May 1945 the garrison evacuated westwards by ship without a fight. After the war the fort was occupied by the Soviet navy, which used it as an observation post.
The defensive gate with embrasures for guns and rifles. In the outer piers steel wheels for raising the drawbridge over the moat have survived.
Machine-translated from “Fort Anioła w Świnoujściu” on the Polish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Angel's Fort in Świnoujście ranks #7,984 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #320 of the 398 mapped in Poland. Founded 1858, it is older than 7% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 717 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Poland compares in the castle statistics.
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