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Educational (Tour) The Jihlava Fort www.visitjihlava.eu
„Kočka (cat)“ – a masive fortification bastion
The Jihlava Fort Jihlava‘s municipal fortification is outstanding not only thanks to the unusual extent of the fortification installations and other elements of the Fort and the town’s defense structures, but also due to the town’s significance as a military base situated on the borderline between Bohemia and Moravia on an important trading route named “Haberská“. In essence, the development of the Jihlava Fort (i.e., mainly the main fortification belt) can be divided into eight main periods that present the key milestones in the town’s history:
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The first fortification was built around the emerging town already shortly after its founding in the 13th century. The town had accumulated enormous volumes – by the standards of the day - of precious metals and coins, as the town had its own mint and large warehouses, thanks to dynamically developing business. Since the new town, had been endowed with the status of a royal mining town, it was becoming an important economic center with major military potential, thanks to its strategic position between Bohemia and Moravia. The significant role of the Jihlava Fort is corroborated by the fact that the Bohemia king himself would personally oversee the development, proper maintenance, and state of repair of the town’s massive fortification elements.
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In the 14th century, the fortification underwent structural changes that involved primarily strengthening of the fortification walls by means of angular, semi-circular, and circular bastions. It is known that there used to be five municipal gates at the time. In addition to their military role, they also functioned as important elements of security assurance – Jihlava was often endangered by robbers or hostile knights (the most famous ambush by enemy knights in 1402 is depicted on a painting at the presbytery of the Matky Boží (Mother of God) Church – it is the oldest painting of the town and its extensive fortification system in Bohemia and Moravia.
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During the Hussite era, war events instigated further perfecting of the Fort by means of new elements that indicated the town’s future system of bastions. Subsequently, the system underwent stress tests during multiple sieges. In fact, at times of war, the population from the vicinity of Jihlava
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would seek safety and shelter in Jihlava and prominent institutions would hide there their treasures (e.g., the monks from Sedlec Monastery hid their treasures and archives in Jihlava, when fleeing before the Hussites, as the monks of Želiv Monastery did).
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The post-revolutionary period in the 15th century was, due to the war with Jiří Poděbradský, one of the hardest periods for the Jihlava Fort. It is assumed that probably most of the stone fortification elements preserved to date, built onto older-date foundations, had been lain and gradually perfected during that very period, e.g., former angular towers were replaced by round ones.
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The 16th century was, essentially, a transition period between classical stone fortification and bastion-based fortification systems. The latter involved primarily strengthening of the town’s gates, towers and bastions, and building or extending the anterior in front of the gates.
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The beginning of the 16th century witnessed the most dramatic development of municipal fortifications. This phenomenon went hand in hand with the development of offensive-combat technology that quickly superseded available defense technology. As defending the town by means of stone fortification walls had become obsolete, a system of bastions was built in front of the stonewalls in the form of massive earthen mounds. The Thirty Years’ War revealed some of Fort’s weak points. Major defense measures were taken in 1639, when the town was threatened by a Swedish attack – the ramparts were widened and perfected by means of palisades. In 1645, the Swedes conquered Jihlava and started extensive improvements on the town’s fortification system immediately. After repairing and perfecting the old stone fortification walls, they widened existing earthen mounds and built new ones in the form of pentagonal bastions. The Jihlava Fort underwent the most extensive transformation during a relatively short period in the years 1646–1647. Therefore, the Swedes have to be regarded as the real builders of the Jihlava Fort in its most developed form. They would even boast, “Jihlava is not a mere town anymore but an invincible fort.“ Subsequent events proved that they had overestimated the strength of the fort. Namely, war events towards the end of the Thirty Years’ War had catastrophic consequences for Jihlava, reducing it to a besieged town enclosed by fortification walls. Since restoration and maintenance of the fort would be unaffordable, the land took over the town’s maintenance. Thereupon, Jihlava Fort ceased to be a functional component in the town’s organism and remained a mere support point and part of its military system.
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Although Jihlava remained a fort, its military important continued to diminish. The fortification walls, mounds, and bastions fell into disrepair, began to fall apart, and the debris would clog up the moat, which consequently became narrower and shallower. Eventually, the importance of the town’s military preparedness lost its meaning. The last remnants of the town’s military readiness as a fort ceased to make sense in 1751, when a permanent garrison of regular troops was established in Jihlava, thus beginning to write a completely new chapter in the Jihlava’s military history. Various military facilities were built in the town and its vicinity changing Jihlava from an invincible for that even the most astute commanders of the Middle Ages were unable to conquer into a town of military warehouses. In 1755, the Fort was formally abolished.
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Natural devastation of the fortification system accelerated from the end of the 18th century due to more aggressive liquidation measures. In 1783, it was decided to demolish and remove the earthen mounds. The moat was filled up around the gates and the bridgeheads at the main municipal gates were transformed. In order to facilitate transportation in the town, the main parts of the fortification system, including the gates proper: Špitálská, Brtnická, Brněnská, and Křížová. During the second half of the 19th century, many sections of the fortification walls were torn down to make room for street extensions and new streets. In the 20th century, whole large sections of the fortification walls were demolished and removed. The remainders of the fortification walls, i.e., the main witnesses of the town’s history as a fort and of its importance in the military and political sense, as well as the architectural skills of the people centuries ago, were for a long time maintained mainly for safety reasons, so that the remaining structures would not endanger the town’s inhabitants. Proper and conscientious attention has been paid to the conservation of the walls only after 1950, when Jihlava was declared municipal heritage site. Roughly two thirds of the old stonewalls have been preserved more or less completely to this day, including a section of the moat and rudiments of the earthen mounds. Of the formerly five municipal gates, only one is still existing – the Matky Boží Gate – which has become one of Jihlava’s symbols. The bailey has been landscaped as a park and rudiments of the medieval moat can be found in Věžní Street.
Bibliography: Hoffmann, F.: A Bohemian Town in the Middle Ages, Prague 1992. Hoffmann, F.: The Jihlava Fort.
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Municipal Gates In the Middle Ages, there were three large gates for access to the town: Špitálská in the north in the direction of Prague, Brtnická in the south from Vienna and Znojmo, and Matky Boží in the west from Pelhřimov and Tábor. There were also two smaller gates: Křížová in the north in the direction of Polná, and Česká in the east in the direction of Velké Meziříčí and Brno.
1 The Matky Boží Gate This typical symbol of the town is the only one of the town’s formerly five medieval gates that has been preserved to this date. It was built during the initial development of the town and its fortification system in the mid1200’s. After a major fire in 1551, the 4th and 5th level were added in 1564, bringing the gate to its current height of 24 m. In 1853, the gate was renovated and a clock was installed. The anterior of the gate was demolished in 1862. At the present, the gate is open to the public as a lookout tower. In front of the Matky Boží Gate
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2 Fortification walls, Bailey and Attack on Jihlava 1402 The fortification system is best preserved in the SW between Matky Boží and Brtnická Gates. In the upper section of the fortification walls stands a Minorite Monastery, whose role in this critical spot was particularly meaningful in 1402 during the famous attack on Jihlava by knights from the surrounding countryside, which is depicted on a mural inside the church.
Fortificarion walls – entrance Attack on Jihlava in 1402, Johann Heinrich Marzy, watercolor, around 1800
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3 The Brtnická Gate This gate used to stand in Znojemská Street and guarded access to the town from the south. In 1579, its façade was adorned with graffiti envelopes and figural scenes, a passage with distinguished rolled vaults, and a portal with embossed biblical quotations, dated 1579. In 1581, a clock was added on the tower. During the Thirty Years’ War, the gate was immured. The Swedes flooded the whole valley in front of the gate, making the town inaccessible from that side. The gate was demolished gradually in the years 1828–45. Brtnická Gate, 1647 Plan of the town with the names of the municipal gates, 1648
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4 The Česká (Brněnská) Gate This gate used to stand in Brněnská Street, approximately on the site of current house no. 31. It was one of Jihlava’s smaller gates (gates (width 2,5 fathoms, i.e., approx. 6,5 m). It guarded access to the town from Velké Meziříčí and Brno. It was not used permanently – during several intervals lasting multiple decades, it was immured. From the 18th century, after the completion of a new imperial road to Brno, it was called Brněnská. It was demolished in 1844.
View of Jihlava from the east, watercolor and acryl on paper, 1840 Town of Jihlava from the east today
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5 Fortification of Eastern Bailey and Křížová Gate The steep slope to the river in the valley was kept bare in the section from Česká to Křížová Gate to ensure perfect oversight for the defense forces. The fortification walls were adjusted to the slope’s topography with the aim to provide natural protection, so that the fortification wall system could be kept simple, i.e., without a moat or mound. Moreover, there was no need to build a tower there, as several small bastions in the wall around the bailey were sufficient. The Křížová Gate stood in Křížová Street at the intersection of the fortification walls and a country road. It was one of the smaller Jihlava gates. At times of unrest, it was frequently immured. At the beginning of the 17th cent., a massive fortification bastion was built there with the usual accessories, known as “Kočka“ (cat). It was the first Jihlava gates to be demolished – in 1832.
View of Jihlava from the east. Vista from the 18th cent. from D. J. I. Hoffer’s collection. Author unknown. Historical Underground
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6 Historical Underground (part of the Fort) The Jihlava Fort included a system of underground corridors that reached a total length of about 25km and three levels of 2–14m in depth. The corridors are 0,8–2,5 m wide and 1,2–3,5 m high. Although the original purpose was storage of beer and wine, the underground could be used for military purposes, too. Especially the shafts through which it was possible to get from the center of the town to the outskirts and to Heulos, as those could be used during a siege for maintaining contact with locations elsewhere or even for counterattacks. The Swedes knew best how to make use of these opportunities. In fact, the network of interconnected cellars under the individual houses was probably their work, as it was their plan to exploit the underground for tactical purposes
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7 The Špitálská Gate In Komenského (formerly Špitálská) Street, next to Matky Boží Street, the main business street of Jihlava, used to stand the largest and most complex gate named Špitálská, in the space between Komenského no. 31–33 and 30–32. It underwent radical changes in the 16th and 17th centuries and fitted with several additions, e.g., a clock on its tower, a portcullis, and an alarm bell. In front of the gate used to be a tollhouse and a drawbridge over the moat. It was this gate that the Swedes used for pulling into the town on March 13, 1645. During their occupation, the gate was reconstructed, so that by 1647 it had three towers and extensive bridgehead with a drawbridge and a large barbican. In front of the gate, a large earthen mound formed like a bastion was built. Its edges are apparent still today, somewhat illogically, in the bend of the lower section of Komenského Street. In 1849, the gate was completely demolished.
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Picturesque Bastion in Divadelní Lane
It is the preserved bastion of the four original ones in this section of the fortification walls. This section between the bastions in front of Prašná Tower and Špitálská Gate, which was built at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, is unprotected by natural topography, except for two angular .protrusions of the new moat. This part was developed towards the end of the 1800’s in connection with the construction of schools. The rest of the moat was filled with earthen as late as 1951–52.
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In front of the Špitálská Gate, mid-1500’s Bastion in today’s Divadelní Street
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9 Rudiments of the Moat and Bailey During the second half of the 1800’s, sections of the fortification walls were removed to make room for new streets that the town needed to extend from the inner town outwards, e.g., Husova, Palackého, and Benešova Streets. Subsequently, whole large sections of the fortification belt were demolished. Thus, the main fortification wall between the Matky Boží Gate and the former Saská Tower, which used to form the end of today’s Benešova Street, had to be torn down, leaving only parts of the moat and the outer mound of the bailey, where we find a children’s playground today. Rudiments of the moat with bailey, Matky Boží Gate in the background
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Educational Tour The Jihlava Fort
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Gallery around the fortification wall, 1560
Issued by the City of Jihlava in 2013 Authors: Jana Petrůjová, Jana Škrdlová Photographs: Collection and Photographic archive of the Museum Vysočiny in Jihlava (cover title page, pages 1–7, 10–11, 12) , the Moravian Land Archive in Brno – Government District Archive Jihlava (pages 6–7), Eva Bystrianská (pages 5, 7, 11), Vladimír Kunc (page 9), City Archive Brno (vista, pages 8–9) Charcoal drawing: (cover title page, pages 3, 4, 6, 10-11): academic painter Gustav Krum Graphic layout by Eva Bystrianská Translation: Jitka Píbilová Printed by: Antonín Prchal PROTISK – Velké Meziříčí Printing: 200 pcs.