Town Walls of Wieluń

Wieluń is one of 25 towns given defensive walls in the reign of Casimir the Great. Together with the castles of the Polish Jura it formed a belt of fortifications guarding the Kingdom of Poland's south-western border, from Kraków to Ostrzeszów. What survives today is the Kraków Gate – which has served as the town hall tower since the 19th century – and the remains of four towers, among the few medieval traces left in a town devastated by bombing on 1 September 1939.

History: stone instead of earthworks

Wieluń is recorded as a town (civitas) in 1283. Stone walls began to go up after a town fire in 1335, gradually replacing older earth-and-timber defences. The circuit was about 1,200–1,300 m long and enclosed an old town of 12 hectares, laid out as an irregular oval made of straight sections. The walls, built of local sandstone and topped with brick crenellations, were 6–6.5 m high. At first they had no towers, and only two gates led into town: the Kalisz Gate and the Kraków Gate; in the 16th century the Maximilian Gate was added on the road to Opole. Sections of the walls with a tower were placed on the heritage register as early as 1948.

The Kraków Gate and the town hall

The Kraków Gate was built in the 14th century at the start of the road to Kraków and towards the village of Ruda – hence its other name, the Ruda Gate. Two octagonal storeys rise above a square base, the upper one narrower than the lower. Damaged during the Swedish invasion and the Great Northern War, the gate slowly fell into ruin. It was saved when the old town hall was demolished and the new one was built right onto it, turning the gate into the town hall tower. The building, designed by Henryk Marconi and Piotr Wetzlich, was completed in 1842. In September 1939 a bomb pierced the roof but caught in the rafters and did little damage; during the occupation the tower held a German police jail, and in 1940 a clock from the destroyed parish church was fitted to it.

What to see

• The Kraków Gate with the town hall – the only surviving town gate.
• The Męczarnia Tower ("Torment Tower") on ul. Podwale, near the town hall and the Kraków Gate, rebuilt and linked to a stretch of wall.
• The ruins of the Prochownia (Powder) Tower near the town hall.
• The Skarbczyk (Treasury) Tower on ul. Narutowicza, near the Wieluń Regional Museum.
• The Swawola Tower in the green belt on ul. Palestrancka.

Tripto tip

The remains of the walls can be seen from outside free of charge; a walk from the town hall along ul. Podwale to the Skarbczyk and Swawola towers takes about an hour. The Wieluń Regional Museum next to the Skarbczyk Tower tells the rest of the town's story – check current opening hours before you go. Near the town hall, remember that the town was bombed by the Luftwaffe at 4:40 on 1 September 1939, before dawn on the first day of the Second World War.