Vul. Hrabovskoho, 11 – former Great Maximillian Tower No. 2 ID: 39

The Great Maximillian Tower No. 2 is a double-level casemate artillery tower with a cellar and a flat terrace, built of unplastered red brick. Constructed as a regular heptadecagon with a circular internal courtyard by an unknown architect on Kalicha Hill. The tower's chief function was control of the city in case of an uprising, and defense of the Citadel's eastern wing. Beginning in early July 1941, the Nazi troops dislocated a concentration camp for prisoners of war in the Citadel, the so-called Stalag 328. According to testimony from Soviet prisoners of war, Tower No. 2 held the interrogation room and the death row cell. Beginning in 1980 the tower and the territory was used as storehouses by the Electron company. Currently (2009), the tower is being used as a hotel "Citadel Inn".

Story

Around 1853: construction of the Maximillian Tower No. 2 started around 1850. Architect unknown. Construction project was approved by the Central Committee for Defense Construction in Vienna. 150 000 Austrian guilders were allocated for construction of the entire building complex. According to the inscription on the tower's portal, it was constructed in 1853.

Beginning in the 1870s, the use of new rifled artillery in combat created a threat for contemporary city fortifications, as well as for all guard camps or poligonal system-type fortifications. Because of this, construction began of dispersed forts, moved out into the foreground. The next step after this was construction of new fortifications in a 4 kilometer radius around Lviv, which began in 1875. These no longer exist today. Tent-type coverings were added to the Maximillian Tower No. 1, as well as to other towers, due to the fact that the Citadel switched to close-range defense and artillery was moved to external forts.

Transferred into the property of "Halytska Tsytadel" Ltd. by a decision of the City Executive Committee of November 17, 2003.

As of 2008, the building is being rebuilt as a hotel.

In 2009 after a long-lasting reconstruction, hotel "Citadel-Inn" was opened in the premises of the former tower. This adaptation raised a continuing discussion, including public hearings and Internet publications.

In 2012 the ensemble of the Citadel buildings – location of the Stalag-328 concentration camp was registered an architectural landmark of national significance (#№ 130026).

Architecture

The tower was planned as a regular 17-gon with a circular inner courtyard. A dry ditch and an earth bulwark with a supporting wall presents the external defensive system, which makes access to the fort difficult and shields the first, living level of the building from enemy fire. The bottom of the ditch is paved with sandstone plates. A drawbridge was built over the ditch, which, when drawn up, covered the entrance gate and the battlement above it. The bridge could be drawn up by means of a chain mechanism located in the rooms of the first and second floors. The tower consists of two levels, as well as a cellar and an attic. Construction of the levels was planned as a system of corridors with enfilades connecting some of the first level rooms. The windows of the circular corridors on both levels overlook the internal courtyard. The staircase, which is semicircular from above, extends into the internal courtyard. The balanced stairs between the levels consist of a single flight. The façade that holds the portal of the main entrance has a niche, concluding with an arc. The vestibule by the entrance section, as well as the partitions between the cellar, the first and second levels exhibit quadrangular apertures that form a vertical shaft for passing cannons and ammunition. The terrace of the tower formerly held a mechanism for this purpose. On the level of the terrace, the aperture of the vertical shaft is framed by whitestone with grooves to allow installation of a metallic double-pitch rooflet.

People

The Architect is unknown. Construction was approved by the Central Committee for Defense Construction in Vienna. According to an 1853 map of the Lviv Citadel retrieved from the Military Archive in Vienna, chief engineer of the project was I. Wondraszka. (Kriegsarchiv Wien)

Sources