The beginnings of city fortifications in Lower Silesia in the light of the latest research

Tomasz A. Kastek

doi:10.5277/arc190108

Abstract

The article presents the problems of the oldest, 13th-century, earth fortifications discovered in Wrocław, Głogów and Namysłów, the form of an earth-sand-fascine rampart with a moat. The article introduces the subject of earth fortifications, poorly identified in the area, and the existence of which one can or should associate with the oldest municipal locations. The author of the article’s years of archaeological and study researches of, during which remains of earth ramparts of left-bank Wrocław were discovered, show the existence of analogous structures in other cities. The construction of the discovered earth ramparts and moats, as well as their stratigraphy in relation to the later brick defensive circumferences indicate that they were structures which constituted the boundary of the newly located town in the first stage of operation. In the next stage of their development, there was a wooden palisade, a fence, which served as the first town fortifications. There were cities in which there was never a brick defense circuit besides the city gates, such as in Świerzawa or Kiev.