Issue 1(57)/2019

doi:10.37190/arc (doi:10.5277/arc)

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Articles

Artur Kwaśniewski - Why research – how to research. Comments on the methodology of contemporary historical and architectural studies and on their application in the adaptation of historic buildings

doi:10.5277/arc190101

The article presents the issue of the quality of architectural history research in Poland. According to the author, two types of research can be distinguished. “Cognitive” reaserch work is conducted as part of the activities of academic centers and is usually evaluated by the scientific community, the “business” one is conducted as part of a commercial assignment related to conservation and adaptation and usually without any scientific verification. Postulating the need for standardization of architectural history research, the author formulates, as a model, the instructions that are valid in the Czech Republic and respected by architectural historians and conservators. He proposes his own standard of content and layout of the research report and methodical analysis of historic values. In the article, the author indicates the key meaning of the term “context”. If historical contexts are not understood (social, functional, landscape etc.), than it is not possible to understand the genesis and sense of the building and its real value.

Keywords:

    architectural-history-research

    methodology

    heritage-protection

Maria Legut-Pintal, Paweł Rajski - Similar or dissimilar – remarks on formal analysis of defensive structures based on digital terrain models. Example of earthworks strongholds and castles from Silesia, Poland

doi:10.5277/arc190102

This paper is a result of the project “From a stronghold to a castle – new methods and research perspectives”, whose main goal was the creation of documentation (altitude plans, shaded digital terrain models, profiles) for archaeological sites with preserved terrain form. Basing on the digital terrain model (DTM) from airborne scanning data, documentation for ca. 200 archaeological sites (mostly early medieval strongholds, castles and early modern fortification) was created. The documentation consist of nearly 1400 visualisations. Basing on this material, some attempts of formal analyses were made. It was possible to observe groups of “similar” sites. The project has inspired a discussion about the possibilities of building a model of a typical form of defensive structures in the early and high medieval period and to ask questions about the cause of observed similarities and differences. Despite limitations of the method and the poor level of archaeological recognition of many objects, it seems that correlations between the form and profile of fortifications and their chronology is clearly visible.

Keywords:

    lidar

    castles

    strongholds

    silesia

    earthworks

Anna Chodkowska, Małgorzata Chorowska - Virtual reconstruction of the medieval castle in Prudnik

doi:10.5277/arc190103

The purpose of the article was to show the source and research basics, upon which the virtual reconstruction of Prudnik’s castle, from the turn of Middle Ages and early modern age, was based. The design can be used as a base for a model, which presents the full scope of the castle’s buildings, from which only the tower still exists. To restore the architectural, spatial form, the authors used primarily the oldest, known iconographic source – Friedrich Bernhard Wernher’s drawing, showing the castle from the north-eastern side. Restoration of the image was also possible due to excavation research, which took place on the site of the no longer existing buildings. In addition, the preserved tower helped to estimate the vertical dimension of the object. The history and location of the castle in Prudnik was also covered in the article.

Keywords:

    castle

    tower

    defensive-walls

    gate-complexs

    virtual-reconstruction

Paweł Cembrzyński - The contribution to studies on functions of castles in medieval mining towns in Central Europe

doi:10.5277/arc190104

Medieval mining towns in Central Europe were related with castles, both inside and outside of them. The aim of this article is to explain the relation between those castles and mining and how they differed from castles in towns not associated with mining. The article discusses the location, form and functions of selected castles from mining centres of different sizes. Castles located within the walls of towns, such as in Kutná Hora, Wieliczka or Bochnia served as the seat of administration, warehouses and craftsmen’s workshops. The castle in Kremnica and the castle in Banská Štiavnica, located outside the centre, functioned in a similar way. They spatial function was diversified and adapted also to the activities of the mining company. The link with mining is more difficult to prove in the case of castles located at some distance from the town. First of all, it is suggested by the spatial relationship with deposits. It seems that castles such as Edelštein in Zlaté Hory, castles near Banská Štiavnica, Rokitno near Złotoryja or Rabsztyn Castle near Olkusz were intended to protect and control mining areas. Moreover, they probably had numerous functions not directly related to mining.

Keywords:

    mining-town

    castle

    middle-ages

Przemysław Nocuń - Castle in Chudów until the end of the 16th century – development and transformation of a private Upper Silesian seat in the light of current research

doi:10.5277/arc190105

The article presents the main results of research of the noble’s seat in Chudów near Gliwice (Upper Silesia), that was conducted since 2001 (mainly in connection with the partial reconstruction of the early-modern castle and the adaptation of its tower for museum purposes). Archival queries, architectural observations, and – in particular – archaeological works, carried out in parallel, have resulted with the discovery of remains of – preceding the stone and brick castle – previously unknown 15th-century seat of the Chudowski family (formally placed in the horizon of late mediaeval residences of motte type). The text presents conclusions about its plan, structure and bases for chronology of construction, functioning and destruction of this object. The article also discusses the results of research in the topic of the origins of the stone and brick castle, associated with the activities of Jan Gierałtowski. It presents earlier concepts of the plan and chronology of it and verifies them basing on the results of recent archaeological works. A detailed analysis was also made of the castle tower, whose state of preservation made it possible to determine its original form (from the time when it was built around the middle of the 16th century) and its function. The data presented in the text allowed showing the development of the private residence in Chudów from its origins in the mid-15th century – when it functioned as a wooden tower surrounded by a palisade – until the end of the 16th century – when the early-modern castle (surrounded by a moat) was completed composed of a stone and brick tower and three buildings constructed around a small central courtyard.

Keywords:

    castle

    motte

    tower

    manor-house

    chudów

Marek Świdrak - The unexecuted 17th century architectural design for remodeling of the Gryf castle (Greiffenstein) by Valentin von Saebisch

doi:10.5277/arc190106

The article discusses the hitherto unknown design for remodelling of the Gryf castle drawn by Valentin von Saebisch. Even though the drawing is undated, it is clear that it was made prior to the Thirty Years’ War which makes it an invaluable source for research on the Gryf castle. The drawing has a double character – it contains a condition survey of the property and a design of remodelling of the residence. Using the condition survey, the article discards some of the hitherto hypotheses about the shape of the castle and provides new, credible information on the matter. Moreover, the paper delves into a comparison between the proposed design and the wider panorama of contemporary Silesian residential architecture, Schaffgotsch’s patronage and work of Valentin von Saebisch.

Keywords:

    early-modern-architecture

    residentional-architecture

    fortifications

    valentin-von-saebisch

    sketch

    architectural-design

Wioletta Nowaczyk - From village to town. Sobótka as an example of the medieval market town layout in Silesia

doi:10.5277/arc190107

The article deals with the layout of one of the earlier village locations in Silesia. Sobótka was a settlement in endowment of the monastery of the Order of St Augustine. Examination of current results of historical, architectural and archaeological research enables reconstruction of its layout. Analysis of locations of the oldest buildings, available maps and illustrative materials is one of the crucial methods. A plan of Sobótka presented in the work reflects its arrangement in the 1st quarter of the 13th century. Landscape was one of the factors which influenced its layout.     To determine the original plots, the author used old units of measurement. In the Middle Ages, the village had the shape of a trapezoid. A special parcelling model was applied there. Settlement plots were a cord (rope) (47.1 m) wide and 2 cords long. The obtained scheme indicates a single location campaign and helps us to understand arrangements of settlements of that period. The village belongs to locations of an older type with an elongated market place. The town charter obtained by Sobótka in 1399 did not influence significantly its layout and development direction.

Keywords:

    sobótka

    layout

    middle-ages

    measure-units

    lotting-out

Tomasz A. Kastek - The beginnings of city fortifications in Lower Silesia in the light of the latest research

doi:10.5277/arc190108

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.

Keywords:

    wrocław

    rampart

    moat

    location

    middle-ages

Grzegorz Biczak, Mateusz Rabiega, Paweł Rębisz - St Mary’s church in Nowy Kościół (Neukirch) in relation to sacral architecture from the 1st half of 13th century

doi:10.5277/arc190109

The subject of the article is St Mary’s church in Nowy Kościół (Neukirch, Lower Silesian Voivodeship). The text presents the recent state of the building with comparison to earlier surveys, including rediscovered iconographic material from the years of 1935–1937, which was inaccessible to the post-war researchers. This material gave much new information about the appearance of the church and allowed to reconsider previous research findings as well as conduct a broader than ever analysis of the context that attempted to connect the architecture of the building with the centres of late Romanesque architecture acting at that time. The conclusions of these analyses have been presented in the article. The preserved architectural detail was also inventoried and compared to the state of preservation presented in the pre-war photographs. An inquiry into the available written sources and historiography about circumstances of establishing the church allowed specifing the time of the church construction.

Keywords:

    nowy-kościół

    village-parish-church

    middle-ages

    portal