Husitská bašta / Hussite bastion - Žatec (North-West Bohemia) - Gothic Architecture on Waymarking.com

Depicted late-Gothic zwinger tower (or bastion) called Husitská bašta is the only survived defensive tower of medieval fortification system of Royal Town of Žatec.

From the middle of the 13th century, the town of Žatec was fortified with massive Gothic walls with four gates, which allowed entry into the Royal Town of Žatec. Two of them were not only gates but also advaced defensive towers. Apart from these two gate-towers, the town was equipped by several defensive towers in the zwinger line (2nd) of fortification, this is the only one that has survived to the present day. The walls hindered the further development of the city and so they were gradually demolished during the 19th century.

The Hussite bastion is one of the few buildings in Žatec that remained almost unchanged until the modern age. It is therefore a valuable witness to the construction and development of the medieval town fortification system. The tower became a frequent subject of painters and photographers in the early 20th century. They captured the bastion as a poorly maintained residential building, which partially collapsed in the middle of the twentieth century. However, due to its historical and architectural value, it was eventually repaired. Only after this event did it receive professional documentation. The tower is a half-cylindrical building with key loopholes on the ground floor and modern angled windows on the second and third floors.

At present, there is an exposition of the Museum of Homolupules, built by the civic association of the Temple of Hops and Beer in Žatec in 2000, promoting in a humorous form the value of the Žatec hop-growing region.

This category is focused only to original Gothic architecture, not to pseudo-Gothic, neo-Gothic or Gothic Revival. You can not find this kind of architecture outside of "Old World", moreover this architecture appeared in ca XIIth century (early Gothic) and the last buildings are from cca XVIth (late Gothic) century...