Town Walls in Chełmno

Gothic Chełmno has one of the best-preserved stretches of medieval town fortifications not only in Poland but in Europe. In a circuit roughly 2 kilometres long, walls, a dozen-plus bastions and gates still stand — all within a single walk.

Construction and demolitions

The brick walls were raised from the mid-13th to the mid-14th century, on the site of earlier timber-and-earth defences. The fortifications included more than 20 bastions — 17 survive intact and 6 in fragments — and 7 gates at the outlets of the main streets; on the low-lying eastern side the town was protected by a moat. In the second half of the 19th century, to improve traffic, two wall sections and 5 gates were pulled down.

A gate with a chapel

The Grudziądz Gate, built at the end of the 13th century and enlarged with a barbican in the 14th, holds a passage with a semicircular arch. Around 1620 the chapel called Na Bramce was added on top, linked to the cult of Our Lady of Chełmno and crowned with a Mannerist gable from a Dutch-Gdańsk workshop. By the convent stands the Merseburg Gate — probably the oldest, bricked up as early as the 14th century and converted into a chapel.

Knights in the bastion

The Maiden Bastion on 3 Maja Avenue has been, since 1999, the home of the Chełmno Knightly Retinue; inside you will see arms, replicas of medieval weapons and banners. The brotherhood takes part in the Battle of Grunwald re-enactment and organises the Golden Lizard tournament, entered by more than 120 knights from 15 brotherhoods.

Practicalities

The easiest way is to walk the circuit along the ring avenues of the old ramparts; the route offers views of the Vistula. Nearby: the convent complex, the town hall and the churches of Chełmno's old town.