Fort Legionow was built between 1852 and 1854 on the southern foreland of the Warsaw Citadel. Initially, the fort had the shape of a three-storey artillery turret, surrounded by a fortified ditch with three cofferdams and a gallery in the counterscarp. Its task was to guard the citadel from the side of the New Town and also to defend the seasonal bridge over the Vistula River.
In the years between 1866 and 1874 the fort was modernized. A battery emplacement in the shape of the letter “L” was built between the bastion and the River Vistula, equipped with two emergency brick shelters and also a brick battery which was meant to control the Vistula River bed. The fort survived during the Warsaw Uprising despite the ongoing fierce fighting over the Polish Security Printing Works and after 1945 it was used by the military.
Since 1999, the fort has been privately owned by a well-known family of Warsaw restaurateurs, Agnieszka and Marcin Kreglicki. Three buildings have survived in Warsaw arranged around the Citadel. Fort Legionow is the only structure in the Warsaw Citadel of a “mountainous” nature, with a complex underground system.
References:The Château de Foix dominates the town of Foix. An important tourist site, it is known as a centre of the Cathars. Built on an older 7th-century fortification, the castle is known from 987. In 1002, it was mentioned in the will of Roger I, Count of Carcassonne, who bequeathed the fortress to his youngest child, Bernard. In effect, the family ruling over the region were installed here which allowed them to control access to the upper Ariège valley and to keep surveillance from this strategic point over the lower land, protected behind impregnable walls.
In 1034, the castle became capital of the County of Foix and played a decisive role in medieval military history. During the two following centuries, the castle was home to Counts with shining personalities who became the soul of the Occitan resistance during the crusade against the Albigensians.