Florian's Gate in Krakow (Poland)

The first written mentions of the Florian's Tower are found in the City Books of Krakow from 1307. In them we also find the Wistula Gate, mentioned in 1310, the Slawkow Gate in 1311 and the Tailors' Gate in 1313. In 1312, the Nicholas Gate was also built. The Florian Gate was the main gate of the city and it played an important role in its defense system. From the middle of the 14th century, towers were built near the city wall, which further increased the defensive capabilities of the city gates. Pasamoniks and Stalii towers were built next to the Florian Gate. At the beginning of the 14th century, a short rampart was built in front of the Florian Gate. Later, additional defensive walls were built, existing moats were deepened and new ones were dug. The biggest investment was the powerful Barbican, built at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. Duplication of some fortifications and thickening of the walls was caused by the advent of firearms. The foundations of the barbican and the gatehouse are made of limestone, the lower part of the walls is made of sandstone, the upper part of the walls is made of red bricks. The barbican has four rows of embrasures through which small arms can be fired. The cannons were placed on the sites in front of the fortifications. The barbican was a very important part of the city's defense throughout its existence. He greatly contributed to the fact, that in 1587 the city was not captured by the attacking Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg, and in 1655 by the soldiers of the Swedish King Gustav's armies. After these wars, the fortifications of Kraków began to disintegrate, the Austrians started their liquidation work in 1806. Thanks to Senators F. Radwanski and J. Librowski of the Free City of Kraków, the Florian Gate with its three neighboring towers and the walls between them, the city's arsenal and the Barbican were preserved.

The model of the Florian Gate in this publication can be combined with the model of the Barbican in the 951 GPM mini-series to get an overall picture of this part of the fortifications, that still stands in Krakow today. If the model of the Florian Gate is quite simple and suitable even for advanced beginners, then the Barbican is much more complicated, but, when working under the supervision of a more experienced colleague, it also "bites" modellers with such experience.