The Szczebrzeska Gate is located to the east of bastion 3 in the line of the bastion curtain wall linking it to bastion 2. It houses the largest exhibition space in the Museum of Fortifications and Weaponry.

This is the south gate (between bastion 2 and 3), through which the road to the nearby town Szczebrzeszyn, then the city of Lublin ran. It is not known what the gate originally looked like. It was a two-storey structure and without doubt was the grandest of all the gates. It was most probably designed by Bernardo Morando and on his death it was completed by the builder, Błażej Gocman. In 1770-1772 the gate was given a facade with an undulating attic shape crowned with stone figures of St. Florian and the Archangel Michael and 22 vases by Jan and Jakub Macher. It was then rechristened a third time as “St. Florian’s Gate” (it was previously called the “Lubelska Gate”). In 1821-1824 it was given a new, severe, classical appearance. After the rebuilding, initially lodgings were set up for 7 officers from the Zamość fortress garrison, then a prison (the most lenient in the entire fortress). The gate’s middle casemate was where Walerian Łukasiński – Zamość fortress’ most famous prisoner in the 1820s – was imprisoned. At the end of the 19th century the gate was rebuilt again and turned into an army kitchen.
In the 1920s, after undergoing rebuilding yet again, the gate became a hostel and then a hotel (the Sejmikowy hotel and after World War II the Staromiejski hotel). On 14 December 1924 the Sejmikowy hostel was opened in the Szczebrzeska Gate (it was popularly known as the Sejmikowy hotel). This was a cheap, quite decent hotel with stables and a tearoom (the frontage with a red sign was lit by an arc lamp). In 1927 it had 40 beds. It had 4 rooms (2 zlotys), a dormitory with beds (1 zloty) and sofa beds (30 groszy) and places by the tearoom table (20 groszy a night). In 1926 a total of 15,983 guests stayed here. At the beginning of the 1930s the hostel was officially renamed the Sejmikowy hotel. On 1 June 1948 it was converted back into a hostel. In 1951-1971 it was known as the Staromiejski hotel (9 rooms, including a single and a double, totalling 47 beds) in 1965 it facilitated 13,300 overnight stays, despite not having running water.
After World War II you could still see the Imperial Crown in the keystone of the Gate’s southern arcade - once surmounted by the initial of the Russian Tsar, Alexander I. The structure has now been restored to how it looked after being rebuilt in the 1820s. Part of a drawbridge was also added on the south side. Fragments of the gate’s curtain wall leading to bastion 2 and an identical fragment on the bastion 3 side have also been rebuilt.
The small restored building in the approach to the gate is the Guardhouse. It dates back to the 1820s (it used to be in the ravelin that had been located there – a triangular structure forming part of the external fortifications). The structure has brick and stone facades with arcaded recesses and embrasures for small arms, which used to be part of the 19th century defensive system of the ravelin in front of the Szczebrzeska Gate.

Contributed by
Dr. Jacek Feduszka
Zamość Museum