Alarm Bastion

The Alarm Bastion replaced earlier 16th-century fortifications. Its history therefore began before the major Prussian rebuilding and extends beyond Frederick II’s reign. Austrian works around the turn of the 18th century added new defences to the former Lower Castle. The half-bastion known as the Tumski Entrenchment connected to the New and Alarm Bastions to defend this area.

After the fortress returned to Prussian rule, the Alarm Bastion was enlarged during the works of 1763-1774. The same phase also brought changes to the Eagle Bastion and other defences. The Alarm Bastion once had a garrison of two officers and 33 soldiers, armed with three twelve-pounder guns. It forms part of the lower defensive tier alongside the Low and View Bastions. Above them stands the separate inner enclosure with the Donjon; both tiers belong to an extensive defensive system shaped by the hill’s terrain.