Fortress Hill: from stronghold to fortress

Before the bastions were built, Fortress Hill held a Bohemian stronghold guarding the road from Silesia to Bohemia. A masonry castle replaced it during the 13th and 14th centuries; part of its irregular outline survives in the layout of the later fortifications. In 1349 Arnošt of Pardubice brought Augustinian canons to Kłodzko and founded a monastery and collegiate church on the southwestern slope. Monastic life developed alongside the princely residence.

After the Austrians captured Kłodzko in 1622, the castle, burned during the Thirty Years’ War, was gradually converted into a military fortress. Barracks and artillery defences took the place of earlier buildings. Some outer fortifications were dismantled from 1869, but this did not end the fortress’s military use, which continued until 1945. In 1960 the fortress was entered in the heritage register and part of it opened to visitors. It has belonged to the municipality of Kłodzko since 2007.