EN
This is a concise presentation of the origin and development of Silesian fortifications up to the middle of the seventeenth century i. e. the period when medieval constructions and facilities modernized in the sixteenth century and at the beginning of the seventeenth century, lost their military usefulness. The first fortifications were palisades and moats used, according to the author, already during the early Stone Age (900-1450 В. C.), and earth mounds made for instance, in Niemcza, in the seventh or eigth century A. D. They were continued by ramparts of tenth-century castle-towns in Wrocław, Opole, Legnica and Głogow as well as numerous early medieval defensive settlements. The first half of the thirteenth century inaugurates brick defensive constructions. The first defensive brick walls were raised around the Pallatium in Legnica during the reign of Henryk I the Bearded in the first quarter of the thirteenth century. After the Mongol invasion of 1241, multiple towns in Silesia (over 100) erected single and then double lines of walls, with bastions and gate towers, enforced with moats, earth mounds and frequently palisades. This movement took place from the second half of the thirteenth century up to the fifteenth century, and p roduced tens of castles with developed defensive structures. During the Hussite uprising ( I4 l6 - l4 3 6) and subsequently, i. a. due to the use and progress of firearms, the fortifications of Silesian towns, castles and other buildings (e. g. churches and arsenals) were subjected to modernization, reconstruction and expansion. New defensive elements — gatehouses and angle towers — were introduced. Outer lines of defensive walls were accompanied by wider and deepe r moats. The consecutive stage in the transformation of Silesian defensive premises and constructions comprised the second quarter and second half of the sixteenth century, a time of great changes caused i. a. by the threat of a Turkish invasion (1526 — the battle of Mohacs). A novel feature of this phase were artillery towers and outer defensive walls, so-called fences. Similar fortifications were raised, apart from castles and towns, around Silesian churches. The turn of the sixteenth century denoted a continuation of this trend with extremely interesting tendencies towards decorative forms (attics, portales, window frames). The Thirty Tears’ War (l6 l8 -l6 4 8 ) resulted in numerous great damage to the Silesian defensive constructions, and signalized the end of the military usefulness of medieval fortifications. Already from 16ЗЗ (Oława, Wrocław), the appearance of totally new defensive formations — bastion fortifications — resulted in the liquidation of large fragments of medieval structures. A second tide of their replacement came at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the passage of Napoleonic armies. Not until ca. 1850 were remnants of Silesian fortifications noticed, initiating a period of their examination, protection and securing. From that moment on, they were regarded as monuments of the past.