Volume 16 (2025)/1

Miasto i rzeka w epoce przedprzemysłowej

Radosław Kubus

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 11-14

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ARTICLES

Znaczenie rzeki Dźwiny dla chrystianizacji i rozwoju Rygi w XIII w.

Maja Gąssowska

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 17-30

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.003.20491

Riga was founded in 1201, and its official establishment by Albert, the third Bishop of Livonia, was due to the requirements of canon law, which mandated that a bishopric’s seat be located in a city. The previous seat of the diocese, Üxküll, situated on a small island in the Dvina River approximately 30 km from its mouth into the Gulf of Riga, did not meet this condition. In its initial phase, Riga was primarily a port, serving not only merchant ships with goods. Above all, it served pilgrims (crusaders) who arrived after the opening of navigation in the Baltic Sea following Easter for a year-long stay, hoping to benefit from plenary indulgence for participating in battles against pagans. Throughout the thirteenth century, Riga was the most important departure point for military expeditions against pagans and potential apostates. Sometimes, the city became the target of attacks by the indigenous population, especially dangerous in winter, when the Dvina was crossed by the Lithuanians and Semigallians. The river also facilitated (not always peaceful) contacts with the Rus’ Principality of Polotsk.

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Wacław Kulczykowski

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 31-46

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.006.20494

The Kumiela Canal is the oldest long, open, earthen aqueduct built on the territory of the Teutonic state which is mentioned in sources. Constructed in the first half of the thirteenth century, it was fed by the Kumiela River, flowing out of the heart of the Elbląg Upland. The purpose of this four‑kilometre‑long artificial watercourse was to bring water to the developing city of Elbląg: for household, hygiene, defence and fire‑fighting needs of the city’s inhabitants. The canal supplied water to the city’s waterworks and baths; its water also powered the mills located in the suburbs and filled the castle moat. The important role of the canal was evidenced by ordinances issued by city officials to keep its water clean.
This article aims to present the significance of the Kumiela Canal for the inhabitants of medieval Elbląg in the light of information from, among other sources, the city’s account books. The issue of two other, lesser‑known watercourses flowing in the vicinity of medieval Elbląg, namely the Hoppenbeke and the Hundebeke, is also addressed. There is no doubt that water was, and still is, an elementary example of a common good, and that its provision and care for its purity was a manifestation of the rulers’ concern for the life, health and comfort of the inhabitants, as well as an important contribution to the development of the city.

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Piotr Oliński

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 47-55

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.013.20501

The memory of extreme meteorological events is quite durable. Historically, we know of its persistence through successive written accounts, which are vehicles of memory. This article analyses the persistence of the memory of the flood of 1463, when the Nogat burst its banks between Elbląg and Malbork. The first mention of this flood comes from the chronicle of Johannes Lindau, secretary of the Gdańsk city council, written during the Thirteen Years’ War. Such mentions were also frequent in later Elbląg chronicles. Particularly important are the accounts in the chronicles of Szymon Grunau from the early sixteenth century and Christoph Falk from around the middle of the same century. Falk’s description is particularly accurate, and the identified causes of the flood appear very plausible. This seems to evidence the persistence of the memory of this flood beyond the written sources for the next four generations.

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Rafał Kubicki

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 56-77

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.006.20493

The Teutonic Order, as well as the bishops and cathedral chapters in their territories, thanks to their water rights, could control the construction of and regulations on grain mills not only in rural areas but also in towns. The same was true for industrial mills (fulling mills, tanneries, sawmills, forges, oil mills, and grinderies). In many cases, these issues were additionally regulated in the town founding privileges, where provisions were made reserving the right for the Teutonic Order or the bishop to allocate a place for mill construction within the town. Such provisions were recorded in the founding privileges of 26 out of a total of 93 towns established in the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia (including Gdańsk Pomerania). The Teutonic Order reserved the right to build a mill in the case of town founding privileges in 23 towns and exercised it in 18 of them. The bishops of Warmia reserved a place for a mill in two towns, and the Warmia cathedral chapter in one. In total, there were about 60 different industrial mills operating in the towns of the State of the Teutonic Order. Their existence was noted in 37 towns, with some of them possibly operating at different times in the same location but as different industrial establishments. In the case of several centres, industrial mills were also established outside the towns, although undoubtedly they operated for the needs of the craftsmen functioning within them.
A special case is the area of the later Old Town of Gdańsk (Ger. Altstadt). Thanks to the construction of the Radunia Canal by the Teutonic Order, it became possible to place numerous industrial mills there, initially working for the needs of the castle and later also for the Main Town (Ger. Rechtstadt) and the Old Town of Gdańsk. In the mentioned area, the following were built: a copper mill (1355), an oil mill (1367), two grinderies (1373), a tannery, and a fulling mill (1374). Additionally, there was a sawmill operating on the outskirts of the castle (before 1367), and before the Main Town of Gdańsk, there was another fulling mill (1397). All these facilities were powered by water flowing through several branches of the aforementioned Radunia Canal.
In addition to independently managing the facilities located in the outskirts of castles (fulling mills, sawmills), a solution often employed by the Teutonic Order was to grant the right to build industrial facilities (copper mills, tanneries, oil mills) to townspeople or guild organisations. In return, they paid an annual rent expressed in money and performed commissioned work for the castle. The control of the Teutonic Order over the regulations concerning industrial mills in towns prevailed almost until the end of its rule in Gdańsk Pomerania, although competition from industrial mills operating on the estates of the Cistercians from Oliwa (tannery and sawmill) was visible from the end of the fourteenth century. Additionally, in 1453, the council of the Main Town built a tannery without the consent of the Order, which immediately triggered a reaction from the local commander of the Teutonic Order.

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Marcin Grulkowski

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 79-106

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.017.21312

One of the elements of port infrastructure in the late Middle Ages and in modern times were cranes. The most important device of this kind in Gdańsk was the Great Crane. From the sixteenth century it was used primarily for setting masts on ships and lifting cargoes of wine. There were also other harbour cranes in Gdańsk in modern times. The so‑called Rear Crane (Hinter‑Krahn) was built outside the city fortifications opposite the Unicorn Bastion (Eichhorn‑Bastion). In 1619, the so‑called Small Crane / Iron Crane (Eisen‑Krahn) was built at the Iron Weigh House (Eisen‑Waage); used for lifting millstones and iron parts, it was relocated from the wharf at the Old Castle (Altes Schloss, Zamczysko). A fourth crane was built at the Lead Court (Bleihof, Ołowianka). The article outlines the organisation of a municipal enterprise for the operation of the Great Crane. It was headed by the crane master (Kranmeister) and included also wine writers (Weinschreiber) and a wine carrier (Weinschröter). The article further presents an analysis of expenses and income related to the operation of port cranes in Gdańsk between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.

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Julia Możdżeń

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 107-130

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.008.20496

This article analyses the preserved sources of a normative nature concerning Toruń’s rivers – the artificial stream bed of Struga, called the Bacha, dug in the second half of the thirteenth century, and the natural river courses: the Postolsk and the Vistula. The overwhelming majority of the surviving sources in this category (city statutes (Willküren, Pol. wilkierze) and municipal ordinances) concern the Struga, which was the focus of attention. The study points out the varying valuation of river waters in medieval and early modern Toruń. The waters of the Struga were protected by municipal legislation as life‑giving and important for the health of the inhabitants of the suburbs and the city. The river’s function as an integrating factor for the inhabitants of the suburbs, especially Mokre, is evident.
The article examines for the first time the role of Mokre’s inhabitants in maintaining the Struga Toruńska riverbed; it is also the first analysis of the legal regulations concerning this watercourse in the context of its socio‑economic role. In the light of the preserved source material, it can be concluded that it was mainly the inhabitants of Mokre and the owners of the plots there (fields, meadows, gardens, vineyards, etc.) who were delegated to carry out the maintenance work around the Struga riverbed. They were obliged to cut the reed beds and grass, and to remove mulch and remnants of fallen foliage from the banks in order to provide good quality water for the town. In the event of an attack, the Bacha and the Postolsk performed a protective function – they fed the moats, facilitating the defence of the town walls. On a daily basis, the waters of these streams provided good conditions for fish farming, the operation of mills, wells, baths and the development of various crafts. The Vistula, on the other hand, was rarely mentioned in municipal legislation. It was as an untamed and destructive element, which more than once devastated the city, but at the same time facilitated rapid transport and communication. Its swift current was considered a purifier, and hence rubbish and food waste was disposed of in the river.

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Rafał Eysymontt

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 131-152

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.001.20489

Brzeg was one of the capitals of Piast Silesia and one of the four most important medieval centres in the province. The history of the town and its historical cartography provide a wealth of information on the mills, the river harbour and the bridge crossing. The choice of the location of the town was related to the shape of the riverbed, which made it easy to build a bridge.
The example of Wrocław, with its wide Oder riverbed divided into many narrow branches, is significant. The Oder was not only an opportunity for the city, but also a threat due to floods. Wrocław had to be protected by numerous embankments, which conditioned the creation of communication routes as early as in the Middle Ages, but which were only best recorded by cartography from the end of the eighteenth century.
Milicz was situated on the northern border of Silesia, whose boundary was the Barycz River. Historical cartography shows the extraordinary importance of the river and the surrounding ponds (temporarily filled with water) for the town’s shape. The course of the river, as historical cartography confirms, is also important in cases where we would not expect it, such as Wiązów, situated on the Oława River. The town was built on a riverside escarpment, and the steepness of its slope directly influenced the shape of the town’s designated plots, as well as the form of the partially preserved bastion from the modern period.
The enormous effort made by cartographers to produce maps and plans illustrating these environmental elements and their changes perfectly confirms the importance of this natural factor of urbanisation. In the face of the new ecological challenges, this issue still seems relevant.

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Marek Słoń

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 153-163

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.011.20499

A river crossing a town or flowing in its immediate vicinity constituted an important boundary. In the case of large rivers, it was a physical barrier, requiring infrastructure to cross it (crossing, ford, bridge) and at the same time determining the different development of settlements on both sides. Often, even in the case of smaller watercourses, it simultaneously marked the boundary between two territories. These could even be separate political entities, but also state and ecclesiastical administrative units, municipalities or their tax districts. The second part of the article is devoted to the river as a boundary between parish districts within the urban settlement system. A comprehensive overview of this issue for the Gniezno metropolis in the pre‑Tridentine period is provided, including a typology of the solutions encountered, their origins and effects.

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Sławomir Gawlas

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 164-202

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.002.20490

For centuries, the Vistula River played a key communication and economic role in the Commonwealth, as reflected in numerous studies devoted to the history of Vistula navigation. Although interest in this subject had been growing since the beginning of the twentieth century, it clearly waned in the 1970s, giving way to research on the political system of the Commonwealth. Due to the wide range of issues related to the Vistula navigation, the present article focuses only on selected aspects. First, the technical side is discussed, including the regulation of the Vistula and its capacity, determined, among other things, by the seasonality of navigation. Vistula transport was associated with high risks and losses. An important factor influencing its efficient operation was the development in the late Middle Ages of flat‑bottomed vessels characteristic of the Vistula for the transport of grain and other raw materials, such as timber. It is to timber floating that more space has been devoted, highlighting the paucity of research on timber ports and timber depots. The characteristics of the occupational groups involved in the operation of the Vistula navigation, the construction of river ships and the work of fishermen and ferry carriers also remain understudied. The final issue addressed in the article is the socio‑economic consequences of the close links between the entire Vistula basin and Gdańsk. The author presents the main assumptions of various models of the Polish economy in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, developed by scholars such as Andrzej Wyczański, Witold Kula and Jerzy Topolski, none of which fully explains the complexity of this issue. Nevertheless, each of these models emphasised the economic importance of the Vistula rafting. Recent research on the manorial economy and river trade points to the need for more in‑depth analyses, taking into account source issues, searching for new indicators and verifying older numerical estimates. However, this challenge is hampered by the increased level of research competence required to carry out such extensive analyses.

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Michał Słomski

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 203-224

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.010.20498

This article aims to point out the relationship between the Vistula, Poland’s largest river, and Praga, Skaryszew and (to some extent) Golędzinów, which, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were towns in the vicinity of Warsaw. The focus of the analysis is primarily on the opportunities and constraints arising from their location on the Vistula.
Their location in the relatively narrowest part of the river near Warsaw enabled the operation of ferries and the construction of a bridge in the second half of the sixteenth century. The crossings and the bridge influenced the spatial development of Praga and Skaryszew, and the roads leading to the places where the river was crossed became the most important streets of both towns. On the banks in Skaryszew, in the first half of the seventeenth century, there were numerous granaries, influencing the space of the town. In Praga, one important structure connected with the Vistula was a salt warehouse. Considering Skaryszew, information has been preserved about the washing of the bank by the waters of the river; there is also information about floods, which, according to witnesses’ accounts, inundated the entire inhabited area on the right bank. It is known that the chapter of Płock, as the owner of Skaryszew, took steps to finance the repair and strengthening of the embankments and banks. The influence of the Vistula and the use of the riverside infrastructure left a strong mark on the fate of these urban centres, although they would probably not have been established if it had not been for the rising position of Warsaw: from the second half of the sixteenth century it became one of the most important centres of the Commonwealth.

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Alicja Dobrosielska

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 225-244

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.012.20500

In this article, the author undertakes, for the first time, an extensive analysis of the relationship between the town of Olsztyn and the River Łyna in a historical and spatial context. The subjects of the research include the choice of the river as a key element of the foundation of the town, its role as a marker of the town boundaries and land, and its importance for the shaping of spatial development of this urban centre. The original name of Olsztyn was Allenstein, confirmed by sources from 1348; it can be translated as “Łyna Castle” or “Łyna Stronghold”. Giving the new urban centre a name derived from the river testifies to the vital importance of the Łyna for its functioning. The bend of the river was a natural defence barrier from the south and west, and additional defences in the form of a system of moats, which involved modification of the riverbed, strengthened the town’s defences from the north‑east. In the Olsztyn foundation charter of 31 October 1353, the Łyna is mentioned several times as a boundary of the town’s land, especially in the south and west. The river divided the town into a right‑bank and a left‑bank part. There were two bridges crossing the Łyna in the town, which appear on the oldest surviving map of the Olsztyn borough from the seventeenth century. Apart from those, there was a bridge leading into the town from the north, over the moat, which had a brick foundation, and the castle had its own drawbridge over the river. Essentially, Olsztyn and the Łyna formed a system of interconnections and interdependencies in which the river played a key role in the defensive, spatial and economic aspects of the town.

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Mateusz Niemiec

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 245-256

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.009.20497

The Leather Bridge was a floating bridge connecting Kazimierz and Podgórze. Built after 1775, it served as a key crossing on the border between the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Habsburg monarchy until it was dismantled in 1802. Despite its unusual construction and makeshift appearance, it was not criticised by observers of the time, although it clearly contrasted with the architecture of Kraków. Its exact location was determined by an analysis of historical cartographic plans, indicating that it stood about 120 metres east of the contemporary Piłsudski Bridge. The structure consisted of two independent parts floating on wooden beams; the parts were connected by a removable passage. Although we have no iconographic documentation of the Leather Bridge, its description survives in written sources, including the works of Sebastian Sierakowski and police and cartographic documentation from the late eighteenth century.

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Zofia Maciakowska

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 257-282

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.007.20495

The Radunia Canal, 13.5 km long, was built by the Teutonic Order before 1338; its final section, from the suburban settlement of Szkoty, was reconstructed before 1356. The canal supplied water from the Radunia River to Gdańsk for the planned industrial facilities, irrigation of the Teutonic Order’s moats, and for the needs of the city’s inhabitants, for whom it was the main source of drinking water. These objectives could only be achieved with an undisturbed flow of water in the riverbed, which was affected by both natural and human causes. Much of the problem was caused by streams flowing into the canal, periodically carrying not only significant amounts of water but also sand, earth and rubbish. They could clog the channel and impede the flow of water, ultimately breaking the embankments between which the canal ran for a considerable length. The spring ice slide also posed a similar danger. Each time the dikes were breached, in addition to depriving the town of water for the time needed to repair them, considerable material damage was caused.
Overcoming these dangers required the introduction of systematic measures to maintain adequate water flow in the canal. The most important was the annual cleaning of its channel and the repair of the embankments strained by the rains and the rodents digging their corridors in them. In the suburban area, 13 villages in the Gdańsk Highlands were assigned to this work; in the city, it was the responsibility of the residents of the suburbs through which the canal ran, as well as the Old Town council and the owners of the plots of land adjacent to it. An ordinance of 1652, which may have been based on the rules introduced by the Teutonic Order, precisely defined the procedure for carrying out the work. The clearing of the canal took place around St John’s Day (24 June) and lasted between two and three weeks. This time was called the Schüttelzeit or Schützzeit. The beginning was marked by the closing of the sluice on the canal before Pruszcz Gdański and the diversion of water into the Radunia riverbed. Once the water had gone, work began to remove the sand, silt and rubbish lying on the bottom and to repair the shuttering of the riverbed and embankments.
It was not only natural conditions that were to blame for the need for regular cleaning of the canal. To a large extent, the inhabitants of the suburban villages, suburbs and the city itself were responsible for this, as they built various structures in and above the water that impeded its flow and the descent of ice (bridges, footbridges, toilets); they also dumped various types of rubbish into the canal (mulch, straw, waste and handicraft waste) and discharged their domestic sewage (carrying many solids) into it. The biggest culprits were distillers, tanners and butchers. The townspeople whose responsibility it was to take part in cleaning the canal also contributed to its state: they did their work poorly, inconsistently or not at all, as the surviving protocols of inspections of its technical condition show. Neither orders to demolish unauthorised buildings, nor prohibitions on their construction, nor prohibitions on throwing rubbish into the water or the financial penalties for noncompliance changed this state of affairs. Private interests were placed above the common good. Around the middle of the nineteenth century, the condition of the canal and the quality of water in it continued to be disastrous.

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Szymon Kazusek

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 283-324

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.015.20503

Rafting was a key element of trade in the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth, and navigable rivers were an important communication network in Poland until the Second World War. Rafting trade depended primarily on the navigation conditions on the rivers. This article analyses water levels and ice phenomena on the Nogat River and wind resources in the area of Cypel Mątowski in the years 1800–1828. The study determines the most favourable conditions for inland navigation, and presents calculations of the length of the shipping season and the winter break. The article includes a number of charts and tables presenting the phenomena under discussion.

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Iwona Janicka

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 325-341

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.004.20492

In the nineteenth century, Vilnius experienced intensive demographic and spatial development. Between 1796 and 1909, its population increased by more than 1,100 per cent, while the administrative area expanded about 4–5 times. Unfortunately, in spite of urbanisation, the city lagged behind in terms of sanitation. It was not until 1903 that a decision was taken to build a sewage system and waterworks. The plans were prepared by Edward Szymański and Oskar Smreker. Due to a lack of funds for the project, they were repeatedly revised. The final revisions were made in 1908 by Gabriel Kasper Sokołowski and Edward Szenfeld. In 1912, the mayor of Vilnius, Michał Węsławski, obtained a loan from a London bank for the implementation of the project in the amount of £449,160, or Rb 4,244,562, with the payment spread over 62 years. Work on the sewage system started later that year, but was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. By then, only 27 km of the network had been constructed and 420 houses had been connected to the system. Construction works did not resume until 1924. By then, some of the funds borrowed abroad had “disappeared” into Russian banks. By 1928, out of 130 km of the planned network, only 43 km had been completed and 896 properties had been connected. The protracted works, their poor planning and the difficulties they caused, became the subject of widespread public criticism, which was expressed in a special issue of the daily newspaper Kurjer Krajowy in 1913.

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VARIA

Nieślubne dzieci w Wersalu w świetle Mémoires Saint‑Simona

Katarzyna Kuras

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 345-359

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.016.20504

This article considers the position of illegitimate children at Versailles in the light of the Mémoires of Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint‑Simon. He attached great importance to this issue, as he saw the legitimisation of bastards and the growing acceptance of their presence at Versailles and in society as one of the symptoms of the crisis of the “old” world, of which he was a representative. Saint‑Simon blamed this state of affairs on King Louis XIV, who – leading a complicated life of marriage and extramarital affairs – did his best to legitimise his illegitimate offspring, ensured that they had access to prestigious honours and privileges, and took care to improve their position by, among other things, negotiating favourable marriages with princes of the blood. Saint‑Simon held his contemporaries responsible for granting bastards special status, which, as he saw it, blurred the boundaries between the pure and the impure, and between what was sanctified by religion and what was deserving of concealment.

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SOURCES

Wiadomości Fabiana Horna o powodziach na Żuławach do końca XVII w.

Wiesław Długokęcki

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 363-396

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.25.018.21313

Chronological lists of information on floods play an important role in the framework of research on climate and natural disasters. Such a list for Żuławy for the years 1428–1690 was compiled by Fabian Horn (d. 3 July 1692), a councillor (from 1670) and mayor of Elbląg. His list contains not only information known from earlier works (Schütz, Henneberger, Waisselius) and sources (Sigismund Meienreis, Gottfried Zamehl), but also original notes, beginning in 1661, including facts about the causes of the floods and their effects. The notes were probably based on direct observations (considering that Horn held the offices of municipal treasurer for external affairs and land judge in the 1670s) as well as (written?) information he received as mayor. From the point of view of the study of the history of climate and natural disasters, the source material presented is of regional interest and is quite monothematic. However, it can be useful for comparative studies of regions similar to Żuławy (in the Netherlands and northern Germany) and those located on the border of climatic zones (continental and oceanic). Moreover, it brings information on the functioning of the flood control and drainage system in Żuławy.

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REVIEWS

Agnieszka Słaby, Macierzyństwo. Studium z historii mentalności szlachty Rzeczpospolitej czasów saskich (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Pedagogicznego, 2023), ss. 753

Iwona Janicka

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Volume 16 (2025)/1, 2025, pp. 399-404

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