Modlin Fortress Grain Storage

Majestic ruin of the Modlin Fortress grain storage facility in Poland. The left wing, bombed and burned in 1939, is missing. Some portions of the walls, along with a massive foundation (not visible on the photo) still remain and while heavily overgrown with bushes can provide a great vantage point from which converging Vistula and Narew rivers are perfectly visible.
In fact, Narew river flows just behind the granary, the walls seem to rise straight from the water, while Vistula river is maybe 100 meters in front of the main entrance. Both rivers are not really “regulated” here and they both run beautifully wild.
The building proved to be a relatively easy target for the German bombers in 1939. It was huge and aligned so perfectly in a place where the two rivers converged that the smart pilots almost “flew by the wire”. At that time it was used as a storage for the army engineers' material time so it made an inviting target.
It was said that the architect Jan Jakub Gaya made the main gate (or antrance) too beautiful, making it look like “arc de triomphe” for the hated tsar Nicolas I Romanov who, in 1844, was both the Emperor of Russia and the King of Poland (and the Grand Duke of Finland for that matter).
Today we can only be thankful to Gaya since what he had designed, despite heavy damage and merciless passage of time, is still a majestic and beautiful construction, a true sight to behold.
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