Description of the attraction
The fortress barracks complex is a powerful defensive structure that increased the defensive capacity of the Russian Gate; it was built in the southern part of the Old Town in eight years (1780 - 1788) by the architect Stanislav Zavadsky under the command of the city fortress commandant Jan de Witte. But a few decades after the completion of the construction, the initial defensive significance of the city barracks lost its relevance, as the western borders of the Russian Empire were rapidly expanding. The new meaning of the existence of the barracks building was more creative - since 1816, a military hospital was located within its walls, which existed here until the Soviets came to power. Over these hundred years, the complex was somewhat modernized: they built utility rooms, strengthened the central facade, and replaced the tiled roof with an iron one.
Until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a bakery was located in the building of the former barracks, which supplied the residents of the city and its outskirts with the essential product. With the war, destruction and decay came to the barracks buildings, caused by the bombing of the enemy. Peacetime marked the beginning of a new turn in the fate of the barracks building, which by that time already had the status of an architectural monument - at first a makhorka factory was located within its walls, and then a tobacco factory, which existed on these squares until 95 of the last century.
The imposing complex of barracks buildings looks especially impressive from the other side of the canyon - from the pedestrian bridge over the Smotrych River or from the Intercession Church in the arboretum. From the side of the river, the structure looks like a fortress thanks to its powerful props and loophole windows. These barracks were the place of service of the Russian writer and poet K. Batyushkov, the Decembrist and hero of Borodino V. Raevsky, the scientist-lexicographer V. Dahl, the writer M. Bulgakov.
