Fort III Piątnica

The forts in Piątnica Poduchowna – three mighty forts joined by a system of ramparts and moats into a complex named the "Main Cover" – are a part of the 19th-century fortifications of the Łomża Fortress.

Construction of the fortress's five forts began in 1887. At first these were earthen redoubts; subsequently the 3 forts in Piątnica were expanded, among other things by adding concrete elements. The forts in Piątnica were originally designated with the numbers 1 (eastern), 2 (central) and 3 (western), and were then renamed, in accordance with the Russian alphabet, A, B, V.

Unlike classic fort fortresses, the works at Piątnica were joined into a continuous belt of defence, with ramparts, moats, a covered road for the rapid movement of troops and supplies, as well as with passive and combat shelters. In addition, the construction of new forts was planned, pushed forward into the fortress's approaches – "Kalinowo", "Rządkowo", "Czarnocin", "Jeziorko" and "Budy". The chief builder was General Aleksey Shoshin. The expansion probably did not go beyond the planning stage, and in 1909 the fortress was abolished.

In 1939 the Polish Army strengthened the fortifications, building on the ramparts 12 small shelters with machine-gun positions. The fortifications at Piątnica were the main point of resistance of the Polish forces during the battle of Łomża, one of the battles of the September campaign of 1939.

The fortifications at Piątnica constituted a modern, uniform defensive complex, with multiplied fire coverage of the approaches, especially of the roads leading to Łomża. Each fort had an individual, asymmetric outline.

Machine-translated from “Forty w Piątnicy” on the Polish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort III Piątnica ranks #6,489 of 7,044 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #318 of the 360 mapped in Poland. See how Poland compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in Polish) ↗