Josefov Fortress

Josefov was built between 1780 and 1787 on the orders of Joseph II as a fortress town to block the route from Prussian Silesia, on a bastioned plan of the French school, and it was built from nothing: a grid town for a garrison of twelve thousand inside a ring of brick ramparts, ravelins and water defences, with the whole undermined by a system of countermine galleries running to about forty-five kilometres on several levels. It was never attacked. The fortifications were decommissioned in 1888 and the town has been shrinking ever since, so what remains is a large, half-empty grid of Josephine barracks and officers' houses inside intact earthworks - a whole eighteenth-century military town preserved by irrelevance. Sections of the tunnels are open on guided walks by candle or torch, which is the main visit. There is a military museum and an annual re-enactment festival.

The main sights

• A purpose-built fortress town - a grid for twelve thousand inside brick ramparts.
• Forty-five kilometres of galleries - countermine tunnels on several levels beneath.
• A garrison town half-empty - Josephine barracks and houses preserved by disuse.
• Never attacked - the fortress saw no siege in its working life.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Good to know

Tunnel walks are guided, seasonal, cold and dark - proper shoes and a light are needed. Much of the town is empty and run-down. Some fortification areas are unrestored and closed.

Nearby

Jaromer adjoins it; Kuks and its baroque hospital are north-east.

Key facts