Fort VI of the Warsaw Fortress

Fort VI "Okęcie" is one of the forts of the outer ring of the Warsaw Fortress, built in the 1880s. Its construction aimed to defend the highway leading to Kraków, and it was designed as a pentagon with two fronts. The fort was surrounded by a dry moat, defended by caponiers. Over time, the moat's water ring filled up, which affected the fort's condition and led to the degradation of the rear barracks. Later, the fort was modernized with the addition of concrete caponiers, including a unique counterscarp caponier in Warsaw. After 1909, the fort underwent a decommissioning process, and its caponiers were blown up. During World War II, in 1939, a war cemetery was established near the fort, and in 1944, a camp for Soviet prisoners of war was set up here. After the war, the fort was used by the Polish Army. Tragically, in 1980, an Ił-62 plane crashed on the fort's grounds, resulting in the deaths of 87 people, including the famous singer Anna Jantar and an amateur boxing team from the USA. A monument commemorating the victims was erected at the crash site, and the street leading to the fort was named after Captain Lipowczan, the commander of the crashed plane. Currently, the fort is privately owned and used for economic purposes, while its architecture and history are protected by its entry in the register of historical monuments. The fort has also been featured in film productions, such as "Czarny serial: Kopernik" and "Historie lotnicze: 26 sekund. Tragedia Kopernika."