Barbican of Kraków

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Barbican in Kraków

Barbican gate toward city walls and Florian Tower

The Barbican of Kraków (Polish: Barbakan Krakowski) is a fortified outpost or gateway – a barbican – one of the few remaining relics of the complex network of fortifications and defensive barriers encircling the city of Kraków, Poland. It currently serves as a tourist attraction and a location of many multidisciplinary exhibitions.

Based on Arabic rather than European defensive architecture, this masterpiece of medieval military engineering with its circular fortress was added to the city's fortifications in the late 15th century.

Barbakan is one of the very few surviving structures of its kind in Europe, built around 1498. It is a moated cylindrical brick structure with an inner courtyard and seven turrets. Its 3-metre thick walls have 130 embrasures. Barbakan was originally linked to the city walls through the Florian Gate by a covered passage-way. On its eastern wall is a tablet commemorating the feat of the Kraków burgher, Marcin Oracewicz who, during the Confederation of Bar, defended the town against the Russians and shot the enemy colonel, Panin.