Fort 52½ "Skotniki"
Fortress Kraków
Two almost identical armoured forts, marked N (north) and S (south), from 1897-1898, 150-200 metres apart on either side of Kozienicka Street. They locked the only convenient access to the city through the surrounding marshes, from the direction of Tyniec and Skawina. Fort N is open to visitors and houses the Centre for Documentation of Deportations, Expulsions and Resettlements in Kraków. Fort S is leased by the Pełna Życia Foundation, which has undertaken its revitalisation; it is one of the few forts in which the original armoured domes have survived.
History
On both sides of Kozienicka Street in Skotniki stand two almost identical armoured forts, marked with the letters N (from the German Nord, north) and S (Süd, south). The Austrians built them in 1897-1898 in the eighth defensive sector of Kraków Fortress. They closed off the only convenient approach to the city through the surrounding marshes, from the direction of Tyniec and Skawina, and were also meant to defend the road to Oświęcim. Today they are separated by the street and stand 150-200 metres apart, but they once formed practically a single defensive work, surrounded by a common rampart and barbed-wire entanglements. Each fort had two guns in two armoured turrets. Neither of them saw action in the First World War.
The two forts went on to have different fates. Fort N lost its gun turrets and observation dome and was heavily rebuilt for the needs of the Polish People's Army and Civil Defence. Today it is open to visitors and houses the Documentation Centre of Deportations, Expulsions and Resettlements, run by Kraków's pedagogical university. It comprises a museum, a research institute and a library with an archive, and its tasks include collecting witness accounts and documents about forced migrations. The exhibition remembers people driven from their homes by the crimes of Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union.
Fort S has kept its two armoured gun turrets and observation dome - it is one of the few forts with its original armoured domes. The Pełna Życia Foundation has set up a hippotherapy centre there with an educational and cultural section, and has laid out nature trails showing the richness of the local flora and fauna.
Did you know?
The first mention of Skotniki itself dates from 1257, when it was a ducal village. Its name indicates a service village whose inhabitants grazed cattle.