Smolensk was the site of fierce Polish-Russian battles in the 17th century. Fortifications were built around the city through the efforts of King Vladislav IV. It was also on his order that the King's Mound of Fame was erected as a commemoration of the Smolensk relief. Today, however, we associate the Bastion of Wladyslaw IV more with Wawel than with Smolensk. However, let us follow this story.

Smolensk bastion of King Vlad islav IV
Built through the efforts of King Vladislav IV, the bastion (smaller rampart, Russian: Sheinov Bastion) was constructed in 1634-1638. The individual elements of the fortification were built as a fortification with the so-called Old Dutch outline. The interrelationship of the fortress elements according to strict geometrical principles is important in such a design.

The bastion filled the breakthrough made in the fortifications of the city of Smolensk during the siege by the Moscow army in 1632-1633 during the Polish-Russian war. Due to the defensive weakness of the site, the reconstruction of the destroyed wall and Granovitsa Bastion in its original form was abandoned. The construction of a bastion, protruding into the southern foreground of the ring of brick and stone city fortifications, made it possible to better defend the weakest section. Flanking (lateral) artillery fire from two curtains and the spike of the bastion protected the adjacent sections of the Smolensk walls.

The Vladislav Fortress by Johann Pleitner
. The plan of the bastion was drawn up by Johann Pleitner (c. 1605-1664), captain of the royal guard and military engineer to King Ladislaus IV, and he and the monarch then solemnly laid out the construction site on 6 October 1633.
The bastion was called the minor rampart or the Vladislav Fortalice (Fortalitium Vladislavianum).
The fortification, which has survived to the present day, is a regular earth bastion connected to the city walls, protected by a wet moat at the time. The 25-metre-wide bastion at the level of the upper rampart consists of a wider, lower rampart 5.5 metres high and a rampart proper 6 metres high and 3.5 metres thick. The circumference of the main rampart is almost 100 metres.

The laying of the fortification was started by soldiers of Elias Arciszewski's infantry regiment, who remained in Smolensk until the signing of the armistice with Moscow (April 1634). The work was completed by local forces under the supervision of Smolensk builder Jakub Wonlar. A pair of large-calibre cannons captured from the Russians after the surrender of the Moscow army (1634) were placed on the ramparts of the bastion.

During the siege of Smolensk by the Moscow army in 1654, the bastion was the site of fierce fighting during unsuccessful enemy assaults.

Vladislav IV at Sm olensk

Mikhail Shein's fortified war camp to the west of the city, near the bend of the Dnieper River, was the last point of resistance for the Moscow army. As a result of the relief efforts of King Vladislav IV's army, the army, which had unsuccessfully besieged the Polish-Lithuanian Smolensk for almost a year, found itself under siege for several months. As a result of constant artillery shelling, starvation, scurvy and low temperatures, dozens of Moscow soldiers and foreign mercenaries died every day. They were buried in mass graves around the hill. The ordeal of the Muscovite army ended with the surrender on 1 March 1634 before the king and the hetmans of the Republic.

The Mound of Fame of King Vladislav IV in Smolensk
. King Vladislav IV, to commemorate the victory of the Polish-Lithuanian army (the Smolensk relief) over the Moscow army unsuccessfully besieging the city in 1632-1633, ordered a mound of his fame to be built. The symbolic place chosen by the monarch was the hill being in Mikhail Shein's camp.

The mound was not completed until 1641 due to a permanent shortage of funds in the royal coffers. At that time the Vilnius Mint minted a commemorative gold medal with the King's bust on the reverse side and a view of Smolensk from the mound, on top of which there was a stone obelisk a few metres high.

The royal emblem from 1633 consisted of an obelisk on a pedestal topped with the letters IHS. By the obelisk stood a knight with palm branches and a laurel wreath. Next to it was the inscription Honoris Virtutis Praemium (Virtue will be rewarded).

The height of the mound can be estimated at about 20 metres and the hill on which it was raised at 30 metres; a total of about 50 metres above the level of the surrounding ground.

Remains of the Mound of Fame of the Polish King
After Smolensk passed to Russian rule in 1654, the stone obelisk was removed and the fortification was named Sheinov Bastion (Sheinov Bastion).