Josefov Fortress

Josefov Fortress (Czech: Pevnost Josefov, German: Josefstadt or Josephstadt) is a large historic defence complex of 18th-century military architecture in Jaroměř in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic.

After the coronation of Emperor Joseph II, new fortifications began to be built for the defence of the northern border of the Empire.

[2] The Emperor Joseph II himself had the Josefov Fortress built around the area of Plesy, near the town of Jaroměř.

Designed by the French architect Claude Benoît Duhamel de Querlonde and fortified by octagonal-shaped, bastion-like brick walls extending over 289 hectares, the fortress is a system of fortifications in the form of an amphitheatre with extensive three-storey deep underground corridors formed in cretaceous rocks, and running through a labyrinth of 45 kilometers, the likes of which cannot be found anywhere else in Europe.

It was designed by Heinrich Hatzinger, Julius D’Andreis and Franz Joseph Fohmann.

Aerial view of Josefov Fortress
Map of Josefstadt with the plan for the future fortress (around 1780). The text indicates that the construction deviates from the plan.