Kostrzyn nad Odrą Fortress

Kostrzyn nad Odrą Fortress was a fortress built in the second half of the 16th century to protect the residence town of Küstrin of the then Margraviate of Brandenburg-Küstrin. From the 18th century, because of its position at the confluence of the Warta with the Oder, it held, through the development of the waterways around Berlin combined with the acquisition of Silesia, the eastern key position for the defence of the central landscape of the Brandenburg-Prussian state. In connection with the Küstrin fortress and its outlying fort works, also west of the Oder, one speaks of the Küstrin fortress ring. The great importance of the fortress is shown by the fact that it was only in 1920 that the victorious powers of the First World War ended its existence through the Treaty of Versailles.

Shortly afterwards the demolition of the eastern town rampart began. At the end of the Second World War Küstrin was again declared a fortress in 1945 and the town was almost completely destroyed by the fighting up to the end of March 1945. Since the end of the war the part of the fortress works on the right bank of the Oder has lain in the Polish town of Kostrzyn nad Odrą, the remaining outworks in the German municipality of Küstriner Vorland. The fortress works situated in Poland, already damaged in any case, have been further destroyed by blasting and demolition work to obtain materials. Since the 1990s a restoration of the fortress installations in the old town and of Fort Gorgast, which was spared war damage, has been under way, while the other outworks are decaying as a result of standing empty.

Machine-translated from “Festung Küstrin” on the German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Kostrzyn nad Odrą Fortress ranks #4,163 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #154 of the 374 mapped in Poland. Founded c. 1550, it is older than 39% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,666 times in the last 60 days, more than 73% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Berlin, 85 km away. See how Poland compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in German) ↗