Sunday 27 March 2016

Fortress Silberberg - Twierdza Srebrnogorska

Another Facebook find.


This mammoth fortress is on the border between Silesia (modern day Poland) and Moravia (The Czech Republic).


Built on the orders of Frederick the Great of Prussia, between 1765 and 1777 to control the Eulengebirge Pass, the principal architect was Ludwig Wilhelm Regelera.

The fortress has the massive donjon, four separate forts and seven other works and measures 3 km across

The fortress had a garrison of 4000 men and 264 pieces of artillery

This photo looks pre-WWII, before the wartime damage





Fort Ostrog, bottom right in the plan
Christopher Duffy in "The Fortress in the Age of Vauban and Frederick the Great" page 144 describes the fortress as "a most curious complex of detached forts sprawled crab-like over the surrounding hilltops."

Various improvement works were carried out in the 1800's but the fortress fell into disuse in the 20th century Some restoration work has been undertaken more recently. The fortress was never taken.

The photos I took from Google Images and are uncredited, but I would like to thank the photographers.

5 comments:

  1. That's a remarkable place - thanks for sharing this.

    This is going to be a dumb question, I fear, but your mention of Duffy's "Age of Vauban" is within 24 hours of my seeing a copy of the same book for sale on eBay and wondering about it. I have his "Fortress Warfare 1494-1660", and also "Fire & Stone", which covers the period after 1660, though it was published earlier. Is the "Age of Vauban" book (described as "Vol.2" in eBay) just Fire & Stone re-edited, or is it a separate publication?

    (I said it was a dumb question...)

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    1. A separate publication. "Fire & Stone" is rather like the Haynes Manual of fortresses. "Age of Vauban" is definitely the history and strategic usage of fortresses. I find the two books to be complementary. Hope this is useful.

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    2. Understood - thanks for this.

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  2. That second picture says all that needs saying about why it was built there. Superb.

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  3. Scharnhorst apparently said that "Silberberg was a fool with his nose against the wall". Quoted in Duffy, somewhere.

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