Fort 49½a "Mogiła"
Fortress Kraków
A small inter-field infantry fort from 1895-1896, adapted for close defence, one of the works of the third ring of fortifications of Fortress Kraków. It guarded the Sandomierz road and the Vistula escarpment in Mogiła, protected the foreground of the "Wanda" redoubt and controlled the Vistula valley with the help of a linked battery. It stands on Igołomska Street, about 500 metres south-east of Wanda's Mound, next to the Fort Mogiła tram stop. In construction it is almost identical to Fort 41a "Mydlniki".
History
Fort 49½a "Mogiła" is a small intermediate infantry fort on Igołomska Street, in the former village of Mogiła, now part of Nowa Huta. It stands about 500 metres south-east of Wanda's Mound. It was built in 1895-1896 as part of the third ring of fortifications of the Kraków Fortress. Its task was to guard the Sandomierz road in the Vistula valley and the Vistula escarpment, to protect the foreground of the "Wanda" redoubt and to control the Vistula valley with fire from a linked battery positioned at the southern shoulder. In construction it is almost identical to Fort 41a "Mydlniki".
The fort had a flattened rampart outline with three front faces and two shoulders, and a classic open moat. The barrack block housed two large dormitories, sanitary facilities and service rooms. The walls were built of brick and the ceilings of steel and concrete. The careful details stand out: lintels and stone facings around the windows and the gate portal. It was heated with stoves and lit with paraffin lamps, and later probably with acetylene lamps. To blend the fort into the farming landscape, camouflaging greenery was planted, including black locust trees, which could be cut down if needed to make extra entanglements.
The batteries linked to the fort and the "Wanda" redoubt probably took part in the First Battle of Kraków in November 1914. Between the wars the fort lost its military value. In 1939-1945 it housed barracks and storerooms of the German airfield construction service, and while Nowa Huta was being built, workers were quartered here. Later abandoned, it slowly fell into ruin; the most damaging loss was the complete levelling of the rear rampart and the battery earthworks.
In 2014-2018 the City of Kraków carried out restoration work here: the flat roof was secured, and in 2017 the brick facades of the barracks were renovated. In 2019 windows modelled on the historical ones and replicas of steel shutters were fitted in the barracks building. The site is looked after by Zarząd Budynków Komunalnych w Krakowie (the Kraków Municipal Buildings Authority).
Did you know?
According to legend, the name of the village of Mogiła ("burial mound") is linked to Wanda, daughter of Krak, who did not want to marry the German Rytygier and is said to have drowned herself in the Vistula. A mound was raised near the spot where her body was found.