Battery B-44-5

Battery B-44-5, formerly B3 Tonie, is an earthen artillery battery from about 1904, part of the third ring of Kraków Fortress. It lies in the north-western part of Kraków, on the land of the former village of Tonie, right next to ul. Łokietka.

Why it was built

The battery was meant to work with the nearby Fort 44 Tonie, on whose hill it stood. Its task was to control with fire the area of Modlniczka, Tomaszowice, Szyce and Giebułtów, especially the Olkusz road. It was classified as a permanent long-range battery; ten such batteries were built in the fortress. According to the 1914 plan, its armament was to be four 15 cm M. 61 guns.

How it is built

Almost the whole battery is earthen: the moat, the front rampart, the gorge rampart, the traverses and the gun emplacements. The only masonry elements are three small ammunition shelters set into the traverses, with concrete lintels over the entrances. A few dozen metres higher up a small infantry redoubt was raised.

Rebuilding in 1914

After the outbreak of the First World War, rifle trenches were dug in the rampart and moat, and a belt of wire obstacles was laid in the foreground. The battery became an infantry strongpoint, and the guns were moved to a new field battery in its rear.

Practical information

• Location: next to ul. Łokietka, about 700 m from the junction of that street with ul. Gaik and Na Zielonki.
• The ramparts, moat and shelter entrances are clearly legible; the sources give no rules of access to the site.