Old and New Fortress in Komarno

" The fortification system of Komrno was the greatest and the strongest fortification building of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy and was built for the army of two hundred thousand soldiers.The fortification system consists of the following objects:

A - The old fortress /from the half of the 16th century/
B - The new fortress /from the half of the 17th century/
C - The bridgehead of the river Vh /from the beginning of the 19th century/
D - The Danube bridgehead /from the beginning of the 19th century/
E - The Palatine line /1839 - 1847/
F - The Vaag line /1865 - 1870/
G - Fort Sandberg /1851 - 1871/
H - Fort Igmand /1871 - 1877/

The first fortress appeared on the important strategic place near a confluence of the Danube and the Vh, the importance of which for the first time was probably appraised by Romans, who had built the fortifications along the Danube - Limes Romanus. The fortress was built on the place where the medieval castle had been built before. The oldest record of the existance of that one is dated by the year 1218. The further document of the year 1245 mentions the Komrno fortress, or the using of the castle for the defensive purposes in connection with the Tatar invasion. In the second half of the 15th century, in the period of governing of Matej Korvin the castle acquired the appearence of the magnificent impressive palace of the Renaissance period.

During the period of Turkish wars in the 16th century the rebuilding of medieval castle into the bastion fortress was realized by Italian fortification builders /Pietro Ferrabosco/. It was executed on the mandate of the emperor Ferdinand the 1st. This so-called Old fortress was enlarged by the construction of so-called New fortress during the governing of the emperor Leopold I. in the 17th century. Both fortresses together with pushed out St. Nicholas bridgehead and St. Peter bridgehead created the undivided fortification system resisting aggressive Turkish wars.

In the beginning of the 19th century under the influence of Napoleonic wars the fortification system of Komrno began to rebuild again - the fortifications were enlarged and they began to build the ramparts and redoubts from the Danube till the Vh, 2,5 km far to the west from the central fortress /the Old fortress and the New one together, also called the Citadel/. Later the fortifications were improved, rebuilt out of firm building materials and in this way the exterior defensive circle arised, consisting of two bastion lines - Palatine and Vh - and also of four pushed out forts of so-called Vh bridgehead on the other side of the Vh and the Danube bridgehead, the Fort Sandberg and the Igmand fortress on the other side of the Danube, actually on the territory of Hungary. The Palatine line is the specimen of the typical fortification of so-called new Prussian type. It consists of five forts with a ground-plane of pentagon, mutually connected by ramparts and water ditches.

The Vh line consists of six fortificate objects and one of them, the fort number VI, plays the main defensive role. Both lines with their pushed out fortresses represent the pink of perfection in the building of the bastion fortresses of a new Prussian type.

The technology of building, from the point of view of its construction and used materials was the same during the whole building. Because of great demands on material the combine technology was used. The essential building material is stone - white limestone in combination with burnt bricks. These are supplemented by rose-coloured marble used for cornices, platbands of doors and windows or in some cases for making a stone socle. The base of the walls is made of quarry stone /or mixed masonry/, that on the external side of the fronts is covered with one or two layers of bricks or with one layer of freestones worked up in the direction to the fronts /so-called Cyclopean laying/ in line or polygonal form. Brick fronts always have stone socle and are strengthened with freestones. The perfect laying of bricks also in the case of the arched bulkheads of the windows and portals rendered possible to make expressive the crevices, which due to their design creatively completed the front look. Because of this they have no plaster or were plastered with very fine ochre-coloured coat, on which the crevice was made expressive with an additional drowing. The fronts are completed with rose-coloured marble cornice, provided with a dripstone. All the bricklayers, masons and another craftsman works were carried out on a high qualitative level."

by Ludovt Grafel