Warsaw Barbican

The barbican was erected in 1540 in place of an older gate to protect Nowomiejska Street.

It was designed by Jan Baptist the Venetian, an Italian Renaissance architect who lived and worked in the Mazowsze region of 16th century Poland and was instrumental in the redesign of the 14th-century city walls, which by that time had fallen into disrepair.

Almost immediately after its inception, the 4-tower barbican became an anachronism serving virtually no practical purpose.

In the 19th century, its remains were incorporated into newly built apartment buildings (kamienica).

In its reconstruction, bricks were used from historic buildings demolished in the cities of Nysa and Wrocław; most of the barbican was rebuilt, save for two exterior gates and the oldest tower on the side of the Old Town.

Warsaw Barbican, seen from outside the Warsaw Old Town city walls .
The barbican seen from within the Warsaw Old Town city walls
The barbican in a late-18th-century watercolor by Zygmunt Vogel .
The barbican and adjoining buildings, damaged in World War II .