The Smolensk Citadel is a forgotten fortress on the eastern borderlands. It was built by Prince Władysław in honour of his father, King Sigismund III. The citadel was known as the ‘Greater Rampart’, whilst the Russians referred to it as the ‘Royal Bastion’.

A Polish citadel in Russia
The Smolensk Citadel (Fortalitium Sigismundanum, Sigismund’s Fortress, Russian: Korolyevsky Bastion) was built between 1626 and 1632 as an earthwork fort, independent of the city walls, featuring the so-called Old Dutch design. It filled a gap in the fortifications of the city of Smolensk that had been breached between 1609 and 1611 during the siege by Polish-Lithuanian forces. Due to the defensive weaknesses of this site, plans to rebuild it in its original form were abandoned.

The Smolensk Citadel – designed by Wilhelm Appelman
Prince Władysław, the founder of the citadel, together with its designer, Wilhelm Appelman, took their inspiration from the famous citadel in Antwerp. The construction of this five-bastion fortification – modern for its time – made it possible to provide flanking fire coverage for the deep ravine of the Czuryłówka stream running alongside the walls, as well as the section of walls and towers in the northern part of the fortifications. This was achieved through artillery and musket fire from three bastions projecting beyond the walls. Fire from the remaining two bastions, directed inwards towards the town, made it possible to keep any potential uprising by the Orthodox inhabitants of Smolensk under control.

Wilhelm Appelman (after 1585–1636), a Dutchman, also referred to in contemporary sources as a Belgian, captain of the royal guard and military engineer to Sigismund III (who oversaw the fortification works of the Polish camp at the Battle of Chocim in 1621), drew up the plans for the citadel. Upon its completion, Prince Władysław named it Fortalitium Sigismundanum (Sigismund’s Citadel) in honour of his father.

The Smolensk Citadel – a magnificent frontier fortress
Construction work began in 1626 under the supervision of Appelman, who brought in several hundred skilled workers and master builders from Royal Prussia and Gdańsk. The simplest earthworks were probably carried out by free-hired townspeople or peasants from Smolensk and the surrounding area. The cost of the work is estimated at nearly 200,000 Polish zlotys of the time. The work was not completed until 1632, just before the Moscow siege of the city (1632–1633).

The Sigismund Citadel – architecture and function
The surviving citadel is a large pentagonal (five-sided) earthwork fort with five bastions. The lengths of the sides between the vertices of the bastions are 170 x 160 x 130 x 160 x 170 metres; and the height of the pentagon between the shortest curtain wall (the wall between adjacent bastions) and the apex of the longest bastion is 235 m.

Unlike its Dutch models, the fortress is characterised by a considerable height of 18 metres, i.e. reaching the level of the city walls. During the period when it belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Smolensk citadel was equipped with a wet moat 19 metres wide and 3 metres deep.

The citadel could only be accessed from the town side via a drawbridge spanning the moat and then through a walled gate-tunnel in the curtain wall leading into its interior. On either side of the entrance in the curtain wall, brick casemates were built to house the gunpowder store and the armoury. The courtyard, surrounded by ramparts, housed the barracks of the Smolensk garrison, a guardhouse, the commander’s residence (known as the Palace of Sigismund III) and a tall watchtower with an alarm bell. A dozen or so cannons of various calibres were stationed on the ramparts of the bastions.

The Citadel and the sieges of Smolensk
The citadel served its purpose well during both of the Moscow sieges of the town. During the first siege of Smolensk (1632–1633), the enemy did not even attempt to storm the citadel due to its inaccessibility. Artillery fire from within the fortress caused the Moscow dragoons’ attack to collapse during a skirmish with King Władysław IV’s relief force. An attempt to storm the fortress during the second siege (1654) was repelled by artillery fire and the musket fire of the Polish and German infantry under Colonel Mikołaj Korff, as a result of which the Muscovite forces suffered heavy losses.

The Polish-Lithuanian city of Smolensk capitulated in 1654 and once again fell into Russian hands. It was then named the Royal Bastion (Korolyevsky Bastion) and incorporated into the city walls.

A forgotten borderland fortress – a prison and park within the Smolensk citadel
Towards the end of the 18th century, the Smolensk citadel and walls fell into disrepair. In place of the ruined barracks, a transit prison was built, where those sentenced to hard labour in Siberia were held – as well as in the preserved casemates. Among others, those temporarily held there included captured participants in the Bar Confederation, the Kościuszko Uprising and the November Uprising of 1830. It is estimated that as many as 10,000 Poles subjected to repression may have passed through the transit prison in the Smolensk Citadel.

In 1874, the citadel’s courtyard was converted into a municipal park, with a restaurant built on the site of the former prison. On the centenary of the victory over Napoleon, in 1912, Tsar Nicholas II visited Smolensk in person, viewing the city’s suburbs from the heights of the citadel’s ramparts. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the fortress fell into a state of complete neglect; it was used partly as a rubbish tip and partly as a site for unauthorised storage areas and garages.

It was not until 2012, as part of the celebrations marking the 1,150th anniversary of Smolensk, that the Russian authorities allocated federal funds for the restoration of the city walls and towers, including the renovation of the citadel. A large information board in Russian, Polish and English has been erected in front of the entrance to the restored fort.

1626–1632

Jerzy Czajewski