Off to Trier and Luxembourg

April 20, 2018, 10:30 am

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I'll be off to Trier, Luxembourg, and Strasbourg for the next ten days. There should be some nice Roman villae in the countryside around Trier, and maybe a castle along the Moselle as well. Luxembourg - both city and country - have a lot of historical remains; definitely including castles. Not to mention some grand dukes who became kings of Bohemia (like the famous Blind John) and Holy Roman Emperors (esp. Charles IV). Strasbourg has a famous minster and a pretty old town.

Imperials Baths, Trier
I had been to Trier in 2006; my first tour with the new digital camera. I was still careful about photographing during the first day, until I realised that the memory card - unlike film rolls - indeed had lots of memory and the batteries lasted a good time as well. But I don't have enough photos of the Porta Nigra; and the Barbara Baths had been closed for renovation, so there is a good reason to return. This time I will visit some of the surroundings as well.

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What I Visited - Romans at the Moselle

May 6, 2018, 5:40 am

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I'm back with another bunch of photos, so here is one of the usual introductory posts. There are a lot or Roman remains, particularly villae, around Trier and along the Moselle. The land is now mostly part of Germany, but in Roman times it belonged to the province of Gallia Belgica and was strongly influenced by Roman civilization.

The Porta Nigra at night
I said in the post below that I wanted to revisit the Porta Nigra because I didn't take enough photos of it during my first visit. Well, there is no shortage of photos now. *grin*

Barbara Baths, detail
The Barbara Baths, named after a Mediaeval village that is now a suburb of Trier, are one of several Roman baths in Trier. They had been closed due to repairs in 2006. The remains are now accessible via a walkway above the ruins. They date to the second half of the 2nd century AD

The Wine Ship sculpture in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier
The Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Trier has been expanded, so I revisited that one as well. The wine ship sculpture is one of the most famous finds along the Moselle that is exhibited in the museum. But there are plenty of other sculptures and various artifacts.

Musée Archaéologique Strasbourg, Roman militaria
Another musuem with Roman finds is the Musée Archaéologique in Strasbourg, the ancient Roman Argentoratum. The town goes back to a Roman military camp at the time of Drusus the Elder (12 BC) and developed into one of the centres of the province Germania Superior. Few Roman traces have survived in the town itself, but plenty have been found in the surroundings.

The villa rustica in Mehring
A villa rustica is basically a farm with a rather fancy main building. The one in Mehring dates to the 2nd century AD, but has been altered a few times during the following centuries. The villa has been partly excavated (the rest is hiding beneath modern houses) and the porticus (entrance) with the two corner avant-corpses has been reconstructed.

The villa urbana in Longuich
A villa urbana can be described as a manor. The one in Longuich likely belonged to a retired Roman official. It too, has been partly excavated and some of the main building restored. Remains of the baths can be seen through grilled doors. Its situation in the vineyard terrasses above the Moselle is quite pretty.

The reconstructed villa in Borg
The Roman villa in Borg is one of the largest in the Saar/Moselle district. In this case, it was decided for a complete reconstruction of the main building and the gate house on the old foundations, with murals, furniture and everything. There is even a taberna offering Roman food. Yes, I tried it - no fishy garum, though.

Villa in Borg, detail shot of the main building
The villa in Nennig (below) is famous for its 3rd century mosaic depicting scenes from the arena that once graced the entrance hall. With about 15 x 10 metres, it is the largest in situ mosaic north of the Alps. The mosaic is protected by a building. Some foundations of the villa have been excavated, but part of it lies beneath a church.

The mosaic of the villa in Nennig
Roman remains were not the only thing I visited, of course. Next will be some more castles for my collection.

What I Visited – Castles in the Eifel and Luxembourg

May 6, 2018, 7:59 am

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As promised, here is the introductory post about the castles and fortifications I visited. I decided for the Manderscheid Castles in the Eifel instead of one of the castles directly at the Moselle, because they offer some spectacular ruins and are less tourist infected than fe. Eltz.

Castle Lower Manderscheid (Niedermanderscheid) seen from the upper castle
The double castle of Manderscheid in the Eifel is an impressive structure, particularly the castle of Lower Manderscheid (Niedermanderscheid). It was the only day of my journey that started with rain, but fortunately, the sun came out later and enabled me to enjoy the hiking tour of both castles. On a wet day, the Eiffel slate is rather slippery. (And after two British castles on dreary days, some ruins in the sunshine make for a nice change.)

Lower Manderscheid – A castle of different layers
The castles got involved in the conflicts between the duchy of Luxembourg and the archbishopric of Trier several times. Both castles are separated by a valley which they control. The lower castle dates to the late 12th century; the upper one to the 14th century, but the site plays a role since Ottonian times.

The Bock Fortifications in Luxembourg City
Luxembourg City started out on the foundations of a Roman castellum on the rocks above the river Alzette. One Count Siegfried obtained the land in 963 and built the first castle (likely a timber fortification). Mid-12th century, a town had developed which was protected by a wall. More walls were built as the town grew. During the various Hapsburg, French and whatever dominations of Luxembourg, the fortifications were continually enlarged in the 16th – 18th centuries, including some 15 miles of casemattes.

Castle Vianden, Luxembourg
Castle Vianden is one of the largest castles west of the Rhine that remains intact – or, to be honest, has been restored to its former glory. Again, the castle was built on the site of a Roman fort from the 4th century AD. The castle became one of the mightiest in the area when the Lords of Vianden chose it as their main seat in the 12th century. They remained one of the most powerful noble houses until the 15th century.

The open gallery in Castle Vianden
1417, the castle came into possession of the House Orange-Nassau (King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands belongs to that family). They built a Renaissance palace in the castle. The castle was confiscated during the French Revolution but returned to the Grand Duke of Luxembourg (of the House Nassau), but the time of castles was past and it fell into decline. Since 1977, the castle belongs to the state of Luxembourg and has been restored.

Castle Bourscheid, Luxembourg
Castle Bourscheid is situated on a promontory, but the access is today is from the village above; a two kilometres walk. The castle dates to the late 11th century and is the largest in Luxembourg in terms of surface area. The inner bailey with the keep and palas was built between 1050 -1300, the outer bailey with additional curtain walls, zwinger and towers in the 14th century. Today, only ruins are left.

BTW, don’t miss the post about the Romans at the Moselle below.

Pretty Houses and a Famous Minster – A Virtual Tour through Strasbourg

May 21, 2018, 7:10 am

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Strasbourg is a pretty town and even prettier in sunshine. But since I visited the place on a sunny Sunday in late April, there were more tourists than even in Bruges. It was almost impossible to get photos without people standing in front of the vistas.

The Minster in Strasbourg, westwork
Strasbourg is best known for the famous Minster (Cathedral of Our Lady). Its construction began in the 12th century, but it would take until 1439 to finish the building - and only the north tower was erected to its intended hight of 142 metres. At that time, the Minster of Strasbourg was the tallest building in the known world, surpassing the pyramids of Gizeh.

The Minster, interior
You see what I said about people? On Sundays, the times when tourists can visit the interior are limited due to the religious activities going on in the church, and then they stream in all at once. I had planned to arrive at Saturday early afternoon to avoid this problem, but a strike in France obliged me to spend five hours on trains instead of the two hours I had planned, therefore I arrived in the evening.

The Minster, exterior
Although the construction began at a time when the Romanesque style was still prevalent, the Minster today looks like a purely Gothic building, and a splendind one at that. Particulary the westwork of red sandstone (see above) with its statues and ornaments is stunning.

Palais Rohan, the river side
The Palais Rohan directly behind the minster was commissioned by a cardinal, member of the House Rohan . It was finished in 1742, a fine example of Baroque architecture. Today it houses several musuems, among them the Musée Archaéologique.

The Frauenwerksmuseum
The Musée de l'Œvre Notre Dame dates to the 13th century - with 17th century extensions - and hosts the Museum of the History of Arts. The double-gabled building also is the seat of the cathedral workshop since the Middle Ages (from whence the name 'Work of Our Lady').

The Maison Kammerzell
The House Kammerzell at the place in front of the minster is the finest timbered house in Strasbourg. It was built in 1427 and altered in 1589; the most spendid example of late Gothic secular timber architecture in the former Holy Roman Empire. The facade displays carving of mythological and Biblical figures.

The photo shows the timbered upper floors; the basic storey is made of stone, but there were those ugly stalls that sell tourist kitch in front of it.

The Place Gutenberg
The Gutenberg Place is named after the famous printer who lived in Strasbourg 1434 - 1444. It is framed mostly by Renaissance buildings, among them the former town hall. The Gutenberg statue dates to the 19th century.

St.Thomas' Church
Strasbourg has more than one church, of course. St.Thomas' Church took several centuries to complete (1196 - 1526). The five-naved hall church shows a mix of Romanesque and Gothic elements. It proved much quieter and a lot less tourist-y than the minster.

Mediterranean flair - houses in the Grand Rue
The Grand Rue is the main street of the old town. It already was the main road of the Roman fort at the site. Most of the houses we can admire today were built by artisans and craftsmen in the 16th to 18th centuries.

Half-timbered houses in Petite France
Petite France - Little France - is the name of the quarter which in Mediaeval times housed the workshops and living places of tanners, butchers, fishermen and other smelly and less savoury occupations. Later it became the site of brothels and cheap pubs. The name 'Little France' comes from the French disease (syphilis) which could easily be contacted there.

The Tanners' Street in Petite France
Nowadays the pretty half-timbered houses in the typical style of the Rhineland, dating mostly to the 16th and 17th centuries, have been renovated, and the Petite France has become one of the tourist attractions of Strasbourg. There are a lot of small winstubs (wine houses) and gift shops.

More pretty houses in Petite France
The old town of Strasbourg is located on a isle between two branches of the river Ill shortly before it confluences into the Rhine. The Roman fort was located on the island, later the Mediaeval town developed at the site which is known as Grande Île. The entire 'Grand Island' was granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 1988.

Petite France seen from the boat
With so much water about, boat tours around the Grand Island and the river Ill leading to the European Quarter are offered on a regular schedule. In fact, they are so popular that it is best to book a few hours in advance. On a sunny evening, such a tour is a lovely way to explore the town.

The navigation lock
With the construction of the Barrage Vauban, the Vauban Dam (photos see below) in 1690, the water level changed and made a navigation lock neccesary. Its passage is part of the boat tour.

More pretty houses, this time at the lock
The lock is situated in the French quarter. You can see the boat coming up in the foreground, and some more lovely half-timbered houses in the background.

The Ponts Couverts
Most famous among the many bridges connecting the Grand Island with the rest of the town are the Ponts Couverts, once bridges covered by roofs as shelter for bowmen. They are part of the 13th century town fortifications. The four towers that protected the bridges are still intact, but the roofs of the bridges have been removed in the 18th century.

Ponts Couverts, seen from the boat
A system of sluices and timber screens under the bridges allowed a controlled flooding of parts of the town in case of defense. Later, the Vauban fortifications would take over the main line of defense.

The Barrage Vauban, seen from the boat
The Vauban Dam worked pretty much the same way as the Ponts Couverts; it could be closed by shutters under the archs to rise the water level, which meant that the Petite France would be partly flooded - one would sacrify a poor quater to defend the more important areas around the minster and the Place Kléber.

The Vauban fortifications
The dam is named after the famous French general and military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633 - 1707). His most importat works - more than 150 in all - were constructed during the reign of King Louis XIV and included town or sea fortifications in Luxembourg, Calais, La Rochelle and Arras. Vauban became Marshal of France in 1703, aged 70.

Pretty houses at the Ponts Couverts
The morning sun, the fresh green of spring, and those nice old houses in half-timbered style or coloured roughcast make for lovely photos. I picked just a few out of some 250 I took in Strasbourg for this post.

Chestnut trees in bloom along the Ill
The boat tour includes a turn to the European Quarter, else I would not have bothered to walk out there and look at lots of glass. The passage on the Ill along the chestnut alley is really lovely in spring.

European Parliament
Strasbourg is one of the official seats of the European Parliament. The building dates to 1999 and includes more than a thousand offices, 18 great halls, restaurants, hairdressers and lots of other amenities. During the session weeks, a whole trek of politicians, bureaucrats and administration members travels from Brussels to Strasbourg, including a score of trucks full of files.

European Court of Human Rights
The aluminium complex (1994) of the European Court of Rights is supposed to look like the scales of justice from above. The angle from the river gives an idea of that though it is not perfect. The main court room covers 860 square metres with 260 seats; there are ten more courts and meeting rooms.

Pretty houses behind the Minster
Those typical Rhineland style half-timbered houses, often with pretty decorations, can be found the in the quarter around the minster as well. My hotel was in that street, but impossible to photograph because the street is so narrow.

Urban Wildlife

June 3, 2018, 7:43 am

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Here's a little picture post to tide you over while I'm sorting through all those Luxembourg photos to prepare a city tour post.

Curious hedgehog
I caught that wee chap on the meadow behind our appartment building. He was busy nosing through the grass in search of tasty morsels, and for a brief moment looked up to check what was about. Then he went back to food hunting.

Acrobatic squirrel
I met with the acrobatic squirrel climbing a wall in an artificial ruin in the Park at the Ilm in Weimar. Red squirrels are still common in Germany, and this was a particularly pretty specimen in all its bushy-tailed glory.

Gibraltar of the North - A Virtual Tour through Luxembourg City

June 10, 2018, 8:32 am

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The historical centre of Luxemburg lies on a rocky plateau that is surrounded on three sides by the rivers Alzette and Pétrusse which have carved out a forty metres deep valley. A settlement at the Alzette, today known as Grund, dates to the 11th century. Today, the town has spread along the rivers and to the hills on the other side of the valley, which in turn is spanned by a number of bridges. That particular situation, together with the fortifications that have been built on and into the rocks during several centuries, earned Luxembourg the nickname 'Gibraltar of the North'. The town is part of the UNESCO Cultural Heritage since 1994.

Luxembourg - a city on different levels
Sightseeing in Luxembourg City means a lot of walking uphill and downhill, either on stairs or steep lanes. There are also two elevators which lead from the valley quarters Grund and Pfaffenthal to the Upper City. The payoff are an abundance of great vistas, esp. when the weather is playing nice - sunny with some interesting cloud formations - like I did when I visited the town.

View from Grund and the Alzette to the Haute Ville
During Roman times, two road crossed on the plateau; they were protected by a watch tower and a fortelet. The rise of Mediaeval Luxembourg began with Count Siegfried of the Ardennes (whose grandmother Oda of Saxony was a cousin of Otto the Great). He acquired the lands in a exchange treaty with the the abbey of St.Maximin in Trier in 963 and built the first castle, named Lucilinburhuc, the 'little castle'.

The foundations of the first castle
During the following centuries the city expanded westward to the area where the Cathedral of Our Lady and the Grand Ducal Palace are now situated. Duke John the Blind, of Crécy fame (he fought in that battle despite his blindness, and was killed), built a wall around the upper city in 1340 which would remain until the 19th century. It was the time when the dukes of Luxembourg were also Kings of Bohemia and Holy Roman emperors - quite a rise since Count Siegfried first set his foot on that promontory.

The Bock Fortifications
The duchy and town of Luxembourg were often involved in wars due to its strategically importance, and conquered by several other countries: Burgundy, Spain, France, Austria and Prussia. They all left their additions to the fortifications over the centuries - some of those were made by general Vauban whom I mentioned in my post about Strasbourg during the time of King Louis XIV. (A more detailed post about the history of Luxembourg will follow; I have plenty of photos left.)

Casemates in the Bock Fortifications
The Bock Fortifications were added by the Austrians in 1745 at the site of the first castle. Both the Bock and Pétrusse (dating to the Spanish occupation about 1640) fortifications are run through with a system of casemates partly cut into the bedrock under the town, both serving as refuge and defense with their storage rooms and openings for canons. There once had been 23 kilometres of those, 14 kilometres are left, and part of those can be visited (the entrance is in the Bock Fortifications).

View from 'the Bock' to Grund and the Corniche (right)
The 'Bock Rock' offers some really pretty views to the districts of Grund and Pfaffenthal. The photo above shows the loveliest of the lower quarters, Grund, and - to the right - the Corniche, the balcony-like structure built above a fortification wall that expanded the natural rock defenses. It is called Europe's longest balcony - a popular place with tourists and Luxemburgians alike.

Pretty houses at the Alzette
The settlement of Grund dates to the 11th century. It was the quarter for craftsmen and manufacturers. Today the situation along the river makes for pretty vistas, but the flooding of the Alzette has long been a problem. The main church in Grund was dedicated to St.Peter who obviously protects from floods (not always successfully, though modern flood management has improved the situation).

Neumünster Abbey, seen from the upper town
The best way to see the entire abbey is from above. The orignal 11th century abbey had been destroyed by the French in the 15th century, but was re-established by Benedictine monks in 1600. It was rebuilt again in the 1680ies after another French attack. After the secularisation, the buildings have been used for various purposes, i.a. as hospital and prison. Today the buildings are used for exhibitions and other cultural purposes.

The old bridge across the Alzette
The bridge over the Alzette with the remains of watch towers and walls with arrow slits is part of the town fortifications that were begun by John the Blind (see above) and continued by his grandson Wenceslaus IV 'the Lazy' of Bohemia, King of Germany. Wenceslaus was dethroned in 1400 by the four Rhenish electors (the archbishops of Mainz, Cologne and Trier, and the Count of the Palatinate) because he proved to be useless as king. Well, at least he gave his name to that part of the town fortifications which are called Wenzelsmauer. (Wenceslaus' Wall).

Houses at the Alzette, with the Upper Town in the background
We're leaving Grund (this time by elevator) to take a closer look at the Haute Ville, the Upper Town. Its historical and present centre is the Grand Ducal Palace. The palace is a combination of the old town hall from 1572, built in the style of the Renaissance - interestingly withoug the usual steeped gable - and the weighing house of the town, dating to 1741. There had not been a ducal palace until 1890, because at first the rulers still lived in the castle and then mostly resided in Prague as Kings of Bohemia. When the House Luxembourg died out in the male line in 1437, town and land were ruled by governors of its various conquerors.

The Grand Ducal Palace
The grand ducal family lives in the castle when they are in town; they also have their offices there, as do some members of the main administration. There are also guest rooms and great halls for official events. The grand duke must have been in residence while I was there, because two guards were parading in front of the palace, instead of one.

Grand Ducal Palace, detail
When King William III (House Orange-Nassau), King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg, died in 1890, his daugher Wilhelmina succeeded him as Queen of the Netherlands, but in Luxembourg, female heritage was only possible when there was no male heir; so the duchy passed to the cadet branch, to Adolphe of Nassau-Weilburg. His son had only daughters, so Charlotte became Grand Duchess. She married Felix of the House Bourbon-Parma and had - among other children - a son, Jean, His son Henri is the present Grand Duke of Luxembourg, of House Nassau-Weilburg in the cognatic, and of House Bourbon-Parma in the agnatic line.

A narrow lane in the upper town
The quarter around the palace and the Fishmarket is the oldest, and the fish market was the first market in town. Already the Roman roads crossed here. The place is just a few steps from the first castle, now the Bock Fortifications. You can also see how confined the space on the plateau is, leaving little space between the houses.

A pretty corner at the Fishmarket
All those wars resulted in a lot of damage; few houses date as far back as the Renaissance; a lot are Neoclassical. The main place, Place Guilaume or Knuedler in Luxembourgish, is a grand sight. Unfortunately, there was the annual Octav Celebration in honour of the Holy Virgin going on, and a lot of carousels and booths had been put up on the place - not good for photographing.

St.Michael's Church, interior
St.Michael is the oldest church in Luxembourg City, situated close to the castle. The first building dates to the 10th century, but various damages led to rebuilding and repairs in a more 'modern' style, therefore the present church, dating mostly to the 16th century, is a mix of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque elements.

The cathedral Notre Dame
The cathedral dates to the late Gothic (1621) with an additional choir in the Neogothic style which was added between the World Wars. The towers date to that time as well.

When Luxembourg was declared a neutral state in 1867, part of the fortifications had to be razed (actually, it should have been all of it, but that proved impossible) and oddly, the church towers as well. Therefore, the town lacked a landmark. The towers of the cathedral are today the 'crown of the old town'. Though I could not get inside the church due to the Octav celebrations.

View to the Beck Fortifications and the Pétrusse Valley
We go back to the still impressive fortifications. The Beck Fortifications date to the Spanish occupation around 1644. To the left you can see the Place de la Constitution with the Gëlle Fra (the Golden Lady; left) on the huge pillar, and more booths due to the Octav. To the right you can glimpse the Passerelle, the viaduct bridge across the Pétrusse valley connecting the upper town with the station quarter; it dates to 1860.

The Golden Lady was erected after WW1 in commemorial of the fallen. It was hidden during WW2 and and is now a monument for peace.

Holy Spirit Citadel
The Holy Spirit Citadel is situated near the confluence of the Pétrusse into the Alzette, at the entrance to Grund. It is part of Vauban's work (see above). There had been a nunnery on the site since 1234, then still outside the fortifications. It was later included in the walls John the Blind built. I could not figure out when the nunnery was abandoned - likely at the time the bastions were added - but I found out that the remains of the building were dismantled in the 18th century. They obviously had been used as barracks during Vauban's time.

Towers on the Rham Plateau
The Rham-Plateau opposite the 'Bock Rock' had been included in the city walls during the time of King Wenceslaus in the early 15th century (who may have been a lazy king, but not so bad at commissioning walls). The impressive half-towers date to the time of Vauban who built defenses and barracks there in 1684. The towers had been razed, but were recently restored.

The 'Hollow Dent' Tower
The 'Hollow Dent' is a fortification tower that has been only partly razed, giving it the impression of a Mediaeval ruin. The Luxemburgian middle finger to the razing order. ;-)

Clouds over the European Quarter
The Kirchberg had been a little village until the 1960 when new space was needed for buildings of the EC administration. Those developed into the modern tower buildings of the European Court of Justice, the European Commission, the Court of Auditors and the European Investment Bank with their glass facades.

View from the Judiciary City to Grund and the upper town (left)
I'll leave you with a final view over Luxembourg City from a different angle. I hope you liked the little tour.

The Earldom of Richmond and the Duchy of Brittany - The History of Richmond, Part 2

June 24, 2018, 8:14 am

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The Earldom of Richmond and the Duchy of Brittany were still connected during the rule of Henry III, which led to problems because the duke of Brittany owed allegiance to the king of France, while the Honour of Richmond was a fief held from the king of England. Since the two kings were at cahoots most of the time, the position of the duke of Brittany / earl of Richmond was often precarious. Moreover, the lands belonging to the Honour of Richmond had sometimes been split and given to several nobles (1).

Keep seen from outside
In 1223, the Honour was split between the Earl of Chester and Duke Peter de Dreux of Brittany, acting as regent for his son John (2). Peter forfeited his part for joining the King Louis VIII of France in an attack of the English Poitou and Gascony. But Peter would have prefered Brittany to be independent of the French king, and Henry III needed his support in the war, so the Honour - obviously the complete one - was restored to Peter but a year later. When Louis died, Peter led a rebellion against his son Louis XI and his mother Blanche of Castile, but the revolt eventually failed, and he had to make his peace with the king of France. That, of course, led to the second forfeiture of the earldom of Richmond on 1234.

It would take until 1268 for his son John of Brittany to receive the earldom (3). His son, another John, married Henry's daughter Beatrice and succeeded his father as Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond in 1286. John II had the usual problems of divided allegiances when King Edward I fought in Gascony. He lost Richmond for a time, but was received back into the good grace of the king in 1304 (4).

Scollard's Hall, interior facing west
Both Henry III and Edward I made some minor alterations to Richmond Castle during the times when the honour had fallen to the Crown. Edward renovated Scollard's Hall, extending its adjacent range, and added the vault to the keep.

Scollard's Hall, interior facing east
John's son Arthur succeeded him as Duke of Brittany, but Edward chose to grant Richmond to his second son, another John (1306). It was a first attempt to separate the ties between duchy and earldom - John had been educated in England and proved to be a loyal vassal of Edward I and Edward II. He was captured by Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Byland Moor in 1322 where he led the English host, and only released upon a hefty ransom two years later. While John stood with Edward II through the first crisis of the Lord Ordainers in 1310, he sided with Isabella in 1325 (5). He lost Richmond, of course, but it was restored to him by Edward III upon the abdication of Edward II. Yet John prefered to spend his last years on his French estates. He died childless and was succeeded by his nephew, yet another John. *sigh* John III had already been Duke of Brittany since 1312 and became 5th Earl of Richmond in 1334; he remained a supporter of King Edward III.

Remains of the 12th century house, interior
John died without heirs as well and the claim to the duchy was disputed. The Breton Heritage War became part of the Hundred Years War. Edward supported Jean of Montfort, another son of Arthur II with his second wife Yolande of Dreux, Countess of Montfort (she was the widow of King Alexander III of Scotland). The other contestant was Joanna of Penthièvre, a daughter of one of Arthur's sons from his first marriage. Joanna and her husband Charles of Blois had the support of the French king.

There is something odd going on here: It seems that King Edward granted Jean of Montfort the earldom of Richmond upon the death of John III, but when Jean was captured by the French king during the fight for the duchy of Brittany, the earldom was confiscated and never restored to him even when he escaped from French captivity and fled to England. Why would Edward do such a thing (6)?

Jean's wife Joanna of Flanders continued the fight, and Jean returned with English troops. After several years of war and shifting fortunes of the combattants, the duchy of Brittany was finally given to Jean IV of Brittany, a son of Jean of Montfort and the fierce Joanna of Flanders, in 1365 (7).

Keep, interior of the basement
When Edward III put the Honour of Richmond 'behind the shield of England' in 1342, he granted the earldom to his son John of Gaunt who surrendered it in favour of Jean IV of Brittany in 1372. But it seems Jean forfeited the earldom when the Breton war flared up again. At this time, it was finally disconnected from the duchy of Brittany which eventually lost its independence.

The title went to John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford (earl 1414-1435), a son of King Henry IV. He died childless. The next high ranking noble to hold the title was Edmund Tudor, a half-brother of the unlucky King Henry VI. His son would become the first Tudor king as Henry VII. During the War of the Roses, the earldom of Richmond went to members of whatever family was on the rise, among them the Duke of Gloucester and future King Richard III.

After the war, the Honour of Richmond became a Tudor fief, and the new title of Duke of Richmond was created. Its first holder was Henry FitzRoy, an illegitimate son of the (in)famous Henry VIII.

View from the cockpit garden to the castle
The castle of Richmond was no longer used as fortress by the end of the 14th century. In consequence, repairs were no longer undertaken, and the castle was reported as being partly in ruins in a survey from 1538.

Curtain wall with remains of domestic range
Footnotes
1) An older but detailed history of Richmond can be found in: 'The honour and castle of Richmond', in A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 1, ed. William Page (London, 1914), pp. 1-16. British History online
2) Jure uxoris - the title came from his wife Alix of Thouars, and Jean would inherit it upon maturity, no matter whether Peter was still alive.
3) King Henry had meanwhile given the Honour of Richmond to Pierre of Savoy, an uncle of his wife Eleanor of Provence, who gave him no reason to take it away, so there were a lot of negotiations about recompensation going on.
4) Obviously, the French king was in no position to retaliate by confiscating the Duchy of Brittany in turn, because John continued to rule there.
5) About the Lord Ordainers see the post about Scarborough Castle.
6) All sources agree in the fact, none offers an explanation. If Edward thought that the oath of fealty to the French king due for the duchy of Brittany interfered with loyalty owed him for Richmond, why continued he to support Jean's claim to the duchy?
7) The peace proved short-lived, but that is not part of this essay.

"Palaces adorn its every shore" - The Villa Urbana in Longuich at the Moselle

July 22, 2018, 9:24 am

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Where the blueish stream expands, behold the multitude
Of villae, proudly gabled, leaning against the rocks,
And as the river wanders in a meand'ring course,
Palaces alternately adorn its every shore. (1)

Decimus Magnus Ausonius, Mosella, lines 283-286; translation by me.

The villa urbana in Longuich, east wing
One of those palaces (praetoriae) praised in the poem is the Roman villa near Longuich at the Moselle. The reconstructed east wing shows only a part of the entire villa as Ausonius would have beheld it, but it is still a pretty example of Roman country estate architecture. The villa is situated on a terrace halfway up the vineyard hills framing the Moselle, with a fine view over the valley and river.

Villa in Longuich, east wing and connecting passage
The land around the Moselle (including most of present day's Luxembourg and western Belgium) was the territory of the Treveri, a tribe of the Belgae, a Celtic speaking people of mixed Celtic-German origins. Part of the tribe joined the Gallic revolt against Caesar under their chief Indutiomarus and, after Indutiomarus' death, sided with Ambiorix. Others stood with his pro-Roman son Cingetorix whom Caesar later appointed king. The territory became part of the province of Gallia Belgica after Caesar's conquest of Gaul in 50 BC.

East wing, the outside facing wall
The original oppidum of the Treveri on the Titelberg (now southern Luxembourg) was replaced by Augusta Treverorum aka Trier during the reign of Augustus and made into the new capital of the Province probably about BC 17 (2). A class of wealthy officials who could afford a country estate soon developed, and there was the - increasingly Romanized - local nobility who could afford a posh lifestyle.

East wing with vineyards in the background
The first villa on the site, dating to the early 2nd century AD, was a villa rustica, basically a large style farm with a country house where the owner spent some quality time with his family when not working in Trier. Those farms were usually run by a steward and provided agricultural produced for the towns and military settlements. The Roman estates usually were rather large, but there must have been a lot of smaller farms mostly owned by locals and maybe veterans as well (3).

Another view of the east wing
The villa whose remains we can see today was built in the later 2nd century AD and can be classified as villa urbana, a country estate with a representative main building, the pars urbana, separated from the actual farm buildings by a wall. Those villae were built by retired Roman officials and maybe local nobles with enough money who fancied the Roman luxuries. It is often difficult to tell who the owner of the many remains dotting the Moselle valley was. They didn't leave behind their doorplates.

Remains of columns outside the east wing
The remains of the villa in Longuich were discovered in 1984. The main building, or rather, set of buildings around several inner yards, measured 110x28 metres. The former smaller building had been deconstructed when the new 'palace' was erected. The east wing and the connecting passage are only a part (4) of the entire layout which included a great house and a west wing, all connected by passages. Both wings had pillared avant-corpses - you can see remains of the pillars on the photo above.

Covered passage with foundations of other domestic buildings in the foreground
The actual farm or pars rustica stretched down the hill toward the Moselle where the village of Longuich is now located. Foundations of several farm buildings have been found, but were mostly covered up again. The situation of the villa at a road leading to Trier and not far from the Moselle made it easy to transport the goods to the capital, and traveling would not take much time for the owner, either (it's about 15 minutes by bus).

Garden in one of the inner yards
The east wing contained the baths, and those have been reconstructed. There is no direct access, but I managed to take some photos through the grilles in the doors to the various rooms. So here is a bathing series:

The cold bath
We start with the cold bath or frigidarium. You can see a hint of the bathtub proper in the niche to the left. The room in the foreground was the toilet.

The hot bath with anteroom
The next room is the hot bath, the caldarium. The tub is in the corner to the right; in the foreground is an anteroom which may have been used for massages, rest and such.

The sweating bath with connection to the heating room
Next comes the sweating bath (sudatorium) with the connection to the heating room, the praefurnium. You can see the brick built chute to the left which would have been covered by tiles and which transported the heated air to the hypocaust under the baths.

The sewer pipe outside the east wing
The dirty water was drained to the outside, as you can see here. What remains is only the brick-built encasement (minus the cover) of the pipe which would have been a proper lead pipe. I could not find any information where the sewer finally led; maybe to the fields and vineyards.

Interior of the passage
The baths were decorated with a fine mosaic floor and frescoes. A few traces of those remain and have been placed in the original spots during the reconstruction, but it was impossible to get any clear photo in the dim light, using a zoom to catch an impression of the rooms in the first place.

View out of the passage
The villa was in use until some time in the 4th century. Some of its pillars and stones found their way into the church of Longuich during the Middle Ages, and probably other houses that no longer exist. Roman remains almost always served as quarries.

Pretty view from the porticus of the east wing
Footnotes
1) The original Latin text:
Talia despectant longo per caerula tractu
Pendentes saxis instanti culmine villae
Quas medius dirimit sinuosis flexibus errans
Amnis, et alternas comunt praetoria ripas.
2) The original capital of Gallia Belgica had been Durocortum Remorum = Reims.
3) The latter would have been more common along the the Rhine where the legionary and auxiliary forts were located, not along the Moselle.
4) I'd say about a third, judging from a sketch of the entire front on the leaflet provided by the tourist office.

Literature
Vera Rupp, Heide Birley (ed.): Landleben im römischen Deutschland. Stuttgart, 2012
Andreas Thiel: Die Römer in Deutschland. Stuttgart, 2008

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Hiking in the Harz - Ilse Valley and Ilse's Rock

August 12, 2018, 8:28 am

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The Ilsestein - Ilse's Rock - is more than a granite promontory in the Harz mountains; it is the home of a fairy queen, a secret crystal cave full of wonders. But it is a long time since she last has been seen and invited a visitor to her hidden realm. Too many tourists around on a sunny day for her to bathe in the river, I suspect.

The Ilsestein (Ilse's Rock) hidden in the foliage
Beautiful Princess Ilse was the daughter of the Harz King and very much in love with the young knight of Westenburg, who lived in a castle on the other end of what then was still ine large plateau. But her father looked ill upon their love and smote a cleft into the plateau, forever separating both castles by a deep crevice. Princess Ilse was encased in the rock which she only can leave on certain nights to bathe in the river which bears her name.

The Ilse river
If you see her then, in the silver moonlight, and approach her carefully, she may take you into her cave to admire the sparkling gems and gleaming gold and many hued fairy lights. She will take your rucksack and bring it back full, ordering you not to open it until you're back in your home.

Usually those who did encounter her once upon a time were poor young men, shepherds, coal makers, hirelings and such. But the rucksack became heavier and heavier on their way home and they always succombed to the temptation to have a look. They would find only pine cones and acorns which they cast away in anger. Yet a few acorns remained and turned into gold - still enough for those poor men to buy a small farm and a cow or two.

Path at the Ilsestein
Those who came to her cave out of greed she would punish. A blacksmith's apprentice who found the magic root that opens all doors, entered her realm and filled his pockets with gems, but forgot to take the root back with him when he left, so the heavy granite doors smothered him to death.

Another version of the legend has a jealous witch with an ugly daughteras the one who banished beautiful Ilse inside the rock. The tale doesn't say whether one of Ilse's disappointed suitors eventually took the ugly daughter - likely she remained a spinster in good fairly tale manner.

In some stories Ilse houses a retinue of knights and squires and horses of the hunt in her cave, which connects her with the Wild Hunt that haunts the Harz mountains, but there are no legends about her actually hunting, except one.

Ilse river
In that version Ilse is a princess out hunting with her betrothed in the nearby mountains where she meets with the fairy queen who invites her to visit her magic cave. Ilse spends a year there, listening to the fairy queen telling her all stories and legends of the Harz King, the bitter feud between dwarves and giants, the unhappy love of the king's daughter and a mere knight, and more. But eventually Ilse longed for the sun more bright than any diamond, the verdant forests more green than emeralds and the sky more blue than the finest sapphires in the fairy queen's cave. So the queen let her go, ordering her never to tell anyone where she went.

Another shot of the Ilse river
Yeah, that worked out all right. ;-) Ilse met with her betrothed who, of course, wondered where she had been all that time. At first she remained silent but when he accused her of infidelity, she sat down in his lap and began to speak in her soft, beautiful voice, of the fairy queen and the wonders of her cave, of the tales she heard about the Harz King and his unhappy daughter, of the dwarves and giants and whatever came into her mind, and she talked on and on even when her betrothed fell asleep to her soft murmur.

When the young man awoke the next morning, Ilse was no longer there, but a bright brook ran in the vale, murmurnig merrily over the mossy stones. It was called after the gossipy princess. If ones takes the history of names into account, that legend may be older than the one which connects Ilse's name with the rock formation. Her betrothed became a hermit and built a chapel in the vale.

Cool shades in the valley
I found neither the magic root nor fair Ilse's hidden cave, but a lot of nice motive for photos. Which may have been safer, after all. I'd rather not have spent a few hours in Ilse's magic mountain only to reappear years later. Try to explain that to people nowadays.

My father said he'd seen a witch - the Harz is witch country, after all - but I love him nevertheless. *grin*

The way to the Ilstestein
The most famous of those enchanted visitors was Emperor Heinrich IV who - according to the legends - came to her realm on his flight from the Harzburg which was besieged by the rebel Saxon nobles. He stayed there for three years. Well, it would have been a good hiding place, and Ilse in this version is something of a Wagnerian Venus, but in reality, Heinrich continued south to Eschwege where he gathered his forces to bring down the rebels and retake his Saxon castles.

And more boulders to climb over
We had a break halfway up the promontory; that's my tea cup on the boulder in the photo above. The peak of the cliff is about 150 metres above the valley, and the way up the mountain a fine example of a more difficult Harz path, crossed by tree roots and littered with mossy stones and boulders. The handholds you can see in some places are necessary because a misstep would send you down a 150 metres shortcut to the valley.

The cross on the cliff
But that terrain didn't prevent the emperor Otto III from building a castle on top of the promontory. Nothing but a few half-buried foundations are left today; most of those on the cliff proper where we didn't go because the way is even more difficult than the one to the main plateau. You can see the Ilsestein cliff on the photo above. The castle was about 10x50 metres; not a large one, yet almost impregnable.

If there is a connection between Heinrich IV and the Ilsestein, it is the possibility that he may have stayed briefly at the castle during his flight; it seems the unnamed lord who held it was loyal to him.

The way down wasn't any better
The Ottonian and Salian emperors (you can sort them out in this list) had their ancestral homelands in and around the Harz, and loved the hunt in its verdant forests rich in game. They originally had a castle in the valley, dating to the late 10th century. Otto III gave it to Bishop Arnulf of Halberstadt in 998, who established a Benedictine monastery there (the monastery was consecrated in 1007). But Otto wanted to continue his hunts in the area and therefore built a small castle on the Ilsestein. Since the castle overlooked the valley all the way to the present town of Ilsenburg, it also served to protect the monastery and was the seat of the monastery's reeve.

Ilsenburg Monastery
Not much is known about the history of the castle, but there obviously was some tension between the monastery and the lord who held the castle during the time of Heinrich IV, which implies that whoever held the castle was no longer also reeve of the monastery. A burnt layer in the few excavated remains proves that violent action took place in the castle some time around 1080 - the time of Heinrich's wars with the Saxon nobles. It would fit the historical context: Heinrich not only had problems with rebellious barons and lords, but also with the pope, which brought most ecclesiastic dignitaries to the side of his enemies. The lord of the castle, which had been rebuilt after the damage of 1080, sided with Heinrich who ignored all complaints about harrassments of the castle garrison against the monastery.

The 'castrum Ilsinestein' is last mentioned in 1105 when it was destroyed by the bishop of Magdeburg and the landgrave Ludwig the Leaper of Thuringia during the power vaccum after Heinrich IV was forced to abdicate in favour of his son, another Heinrich. Ludwig's involvement implies that the castle garrison was rather unpopular in the area, and not only with the monastery.

View of the forests around the Ilsestein
The castle remained forgotten for centuries until some ruins were found during excavations in 1957.

The cross on the summit of the Ilsestein was erected by Count Anton of Stolberg-Wernigerode in 1814, to commemorate his friends who died during the German Campaign of 1813 (the so-called Befreiungskriege or Freedom Wars) against Napoleon.

The Paternoster Cliff near Ilse's Rock
We decided to continue the way on the plateau to the right of the Ilsestein for another mile through that lovely forest, to visit another rock formation, the Paternoster Cliff. That one, too, offers some splendid views over the Ilse Valley and the surrounding mountains, and of course, there is a legend connected with it as well.

The Romanesque abbey in Drübeck which we visited on the same tour
It is a rather sad one. A bunch of evil, non specified robber barons had attacked the nearby abbey in Drübeck. Some of the nuns managed to escape and fled to the Ilsestein where a monk lived - probably in the ruins of the castle, good hermit style. The group continued their flight, but the robber barons came ever closer. In the end, they saw only one way out: the nuns and the monk knelt down at a cliff and said a last prayer, then they jumped into the valley and to their death, to escape the evil lusts of the robbers. Since Medieaval nuns and monks prayed in Latin, the cliff was called for the first words of the Lord's Prayer, 'Pater noster qui es in coelis ...'.

View from the Paternoster Cliff
The main cliff is to the right of the smaller one, the 'praying monk', but it is not safe to climb it.

The Paternoster Cliff is another granite formation. The bedrock parts are connected by a criss-cross system of joints, and that is the point where erosion strikes first. A layer of decayed rock, different in chemical components from the bedrock, develops. That layer is called saprolite and eventually peels off the bedrock like the peel of an onion. Over time, this process gives the bedrock that typical look of a bunch of cushions, or wool sacks. The process is therefore called woolsack weathering or speroidal weathering. A fine example shows the photo below, also taken on the Ilsestein plateau.

A granite boulder with spheroidal weathering
The famous German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) visited the Harz several times, the first time in winter 1777, and then again in 1783 and 1784. Goethe was not only a poet and chief representant of the Weimar Classicism, but also a natural philosopher and statesman. He visited the Harz in those functions, as mineralogist and as minister for mining at the court of Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar. But he must have been deeply impressed by the splendid nature of the Harz mountains; they found their way into some of his poems (Harzreise im Winter) and the famous Walpurgis-Night scenes in his tragic play Faust. Goethe started the interest in Harz travels.

Another view from the cliff
Another German poet and essayist, Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), visited the Harz in 1821. Several of his works were banned by the German authorities due to their liberal political content, though his description of his Harz visit (Die Harzreise, published 1824) was only mildly censored despite some satirical undertones. His Jewish descent also caused him problems which didn't improve even after he accepted baptism. Heine finally went to live in France in 1831.

The Ilse river near the town of Ilseburg
Heine must have been pretty impressed by the Ilse Valley and the legends about the princess Ilse. He writes in some detail about the lovely Ilse, arrayed her white gown and sparkling diamonds, dancing over the stones as merry brook; adds a poem about her and Emperor Heinrich IV, and finally describes how he himself climbed up to the cross on the summit, where he seemed to hear faint music from Ilse's cave, and the trees began to dance around him. Heine grasped the cross until the vertigo passed. I think I'll be excused that I didn't follow him out there, but remained on the plateau.

Drinking Water for Central Germany - The Rappbode Reservoir in the Harz

September 3, 2018, 5:14 am

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During one of our Harz tours we crossed the dam of the Rappbode reservoir and stopped, so that I could take a few photos. But there are no legends about princesses in caves this time, and the lake is sadly lacking in monsters as well; it's too modern for that.

Rappbode Reservoir
The Rappbode reservoir had been built 1952-1959 as one of the prestige projects of the GDR. It is part of a system of six reservoirs, retention bassins and forebay bassins regulating the Bode estuary (the Warme Bode, Kalte Bode and Rappbode rivers) between the towns of Rübeland and Wendefurth. The catchment area of the Rappbode Reservoir is 269 square kilometres, that of the Wendefurth retention bassion 309 square kilometres; the whole system has a catchment area of 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 square miles).

Zoom to the other shore
The Bode valleys are very deep and narrow. Melting snow and rain in spring have led to more than one severe flood; the last one in 1926, causing great damage to the villages in the valleys. The first idea to regulate the floods by a reservoir dates to the mid-19th century. Those plans presented one large bassin that would have flooded part of the upper Bode valley and destroyed some of the famous rock formations. Later plans involved a system of bassins, not much different from the modern system, but lack of money - mostly due to the two World Wars - put the effort off several times.

The dam
The Rappbode dam has a base of 800 metres and a height of 106 metres, making it the highest reservoir dam in Germany. Its crown is 415 metres long. The content of the lake at maximum filling are 109 million cubic metres; the water surface is about 390 hectares.

On the dam wall
The main function of the reservoir is the production of drinking water for central Germany - 250,000 cubic metres a day. The reservoir also serves as flood protection and provides raw water for industry and agriculture. Both the Rappbode reservoir and the Wendefurth retention bassin generate electricity by a pumped storage hydroelectricity plant and turbines. The lake also offers fishing of eel, pike, carp, trout, perch and more.

The Wendefurth retention reservoir
The Rappbode reservoir dams the Rappbode, while the Warme Bode and Kalte Bode enter into the Wendefurth retention bassin beneath the Rappbode reservoir; the Bode river later confluences into the Saale. The Wendefurth lake is the only bassin of the system that does not produce drinking water; therefore water sports like sailing and swimming are allowed.

Wendefurth lake, wide view
A zip line across the Rappbode lake has been set up reccently, as well as one of the longest swing bridges in the world (483 metres). Those had not been installed when we last visited, but it's just as well since there were less tourists around, and I would not walk across a swing bridge a hundred metres above the lake anyway.

Hiking in the Harz - Bode Canyon and Rosstrappe Cliff

September 9, 2018, 9:45 am

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The Harz has some beautiful and even spectacular landscapes, from tree-covered mountains and semi-Alpine meadows to charming little valleys with sparkling rivers, from windswept peaks and cliffs to canyons with waterfalls and rivers whose brown waters gush over boulders in vivid currents, from caves and abandoned mines to natural lakes and reservoirs lying in silent beauty. Not without reason has most of the Harz been declared a natural preserve.

View from the Rosstrappe Cliff into the Bode canyon
I've been hiking there a lot - often together with my father - but only posted a small part of my photos so far. So there will be a series of Harz posts, among others, in the next months.

In the Bode canyon
This time I'll cover another combination of river valley and cliffs framing it, like the Ilsestein and Ilse Valley: the Rosstrappe Cliff and the Bode Canyon which are even more spectacular, though there are not so many legends connected with them.

Bode river
The Bode canyon is sometimes called the 'German Gand Canyon', but there are quite some differences. For one, it's a lot smaller. The canyon proper is only the part of the Bode between Treseburg and Thale; some 17 kilometres. The ravine is 140 metres deep around Treseburg and 280 metres at Thale, the river is between 7 and 25 metres wide; the downhill gradient of the river in the gorge is 100 metres. Second, the Bode canyon is much younger: 450,000 years compared to the 5 - 6 million years the Grand Canyon took in developing.

Rapids and whirlpools
The river is allowed to run unchanged in the canyon. There are parts with rapids and whirlpools, sometimes the river runs so close to the rocks that only a small part remains for hiking along it, in other parts the valley widens and the river runs more gently. The riverbed is littered with rocks in some places, in others the tree branches touch the water. A lovely and almost primeval scenery for hiking.

Sometimes the river flows more calmly
Nowadays the Rappbode reservoir system influences the water regime in the valley. Extremes reach from an outflow of 350 m/s during spring floods to the river falling almost dry. Fortunately, a plan from 1891 to impound the Bode river in the canyon by a 150 metres high dam came to nothing. Instead, the valley became a natural reserve already in 1937, ecompassing 474 hectares.

Bridge across the Bode in the Hirschgrund
There is a tavern in the middle of the valley, with a nice beer waiting for a thirsty wanderer. I took the shot of the bridge from its terrace.

The microclimate in the Bode canyon varies a lot within a small area. Patches that are either sunny, shaded, dry or wet offer a lot of different vegetation and biotopes. The temperature is 1.5°C lower than the surrounding area, and there is a 150 millimetres higher precipitation. On a hot day, the valley is a slightly cooler place for a hike.

The Bode canyon
I've already given some information about the Bode river system in the post about the Rappbode reservoir. The river is 169 kilometres long; its two main headwaters, the Kalte Bode and Warme Bode (wich is indeed 2°C warmer than her 'cold' sister) rise in the Brocken Field beneath the Brocken summit at about 860 metres. They confluence shortly before they reach one of the forebay bassins of the Rappbode reservoir system, and leave the Wendefurth retention bassin to continue north-east through the canyon. After passing Thale, the Bode river runs through the Harz foothills and the town of Quedlinburg, and confluences into the Saale river near Nienburg.

Way along the river
The Bode cuts through some interesting rock formations in the ravine. There is the so-called Ramberg granite with quartz veins which rose to the surface about 300 million years ago. It dominates the highest rocks formations of the cliffs. Since the granite has a high share of feldspar, its colour is rather light; it looks like red sandstone in the sunlight. Other rocks are metamorphic hornfels and slate which developed in the contact zone of the granite. Those are much darker in colour. The oldest rocks - some 400 million years - are Devonian diabase and graywacke; those can mostly be seen in the bottom of the ravine.

Diabase rock formation in the valley
As usual, erosion has led to a lot of stones and boulders breaking off the cliffs which now litter the ground, their edges smoothed by rain and the floodwaters of the river. It was a game of 'pick your path' in a few spots.

Boulders on the way, again
One can climb up to the Rosstrappe Cliff, but one can also take the return hike along the river and drive up the mountain. We picked that option; a winding path covering a rise of 400 metres sounded a bit too much work for a hot day (not to mention we'd have to ascend again to get to the car).

There is a restaurant on the plateau behind the cliff, but while the Rosstrappe is a popular destination, it is not so overpriced and overcrowded by tourists as the nearby Witches' Dance Floor (Hexentanzplatz).

Way to the Rosstrappe Cliff
The Rosstrappe is one of the most impressive rock formations north of the Alpes. The southern cliff reaches out into the Bode valley, a 200 metres granite wall that rises almost vertically from the bedrock. The views from the cliff to the Witches' Dance Floor, the Harz footlhills and the Brocken, as well as down into the valley are spectacular.

On the Rosstrappe
Near the Rosstrappe cliff are the remains of the refuge fort Winzenburg, a rampart of rocks and earth, surrounding an area of 25 hectares, which had been in use from the Younger Neolithicum to the Iron Age. The wall offered protection for men and cattle, and likely was a a sacred area during some periods. Not much is visible today. A lookout tower had been built in 1860, but it is no longer in use and not safe.

Other cliffs seen from the Rosstrappe
Besides the ragged granite formations we also get some fine examples of spheroidal weathering (for an explanation see the post about Ilse's Rock, linked above) on the other side of the ravine.

Rock formation with spheroidal wheathering
The Witches' Dance Floor plays a role in the legends connected with the Harz witches. They used to gather there before they flew off to the Brocken on Walpurgis Night. Its origins - according to legend and local websites - go back to a Saxon cult place where the old Germanic goddesses were worshipped on the night to May 1st. When the Christian Franks conquered the Saxons, those celebrations were forbidden, but still conducted in secret; hence the name became connected with witches.

View to the cliffs below the Witches' Dance Floor
No Harz hike without at least one legend. This one tells about the beautiful king's daughter, Brunhilde, and her suitor, the giant Bodo. But Brunhilde did not want to marry Bodo and sent him away every time. Yet he would not give in - today we'd call him a stalker. One day, Brunhilde was out riding on her white horse when she beheld the giant coming after her. She spurred the horse into a gallop and they raced along the cliff, Bodo in hot pursuit. But then she found herself at the edge of the abyss, with the sound of Bodo's steed coming closer. She urged her mount to jump the ravine, and luckily reached the other side. Only her golden crown fell into the river below. Where the horse landed, it left behind a hoofprint in the rock.

The rock from where the princess jumped
The giant Bodo jumped after her, but his horse failed and he fell into the gorge. He was changed into a black dog as punishment for his evil lust, and he still guards Brunhilde's golden crown in the valley of the river that bears his name.

The hoofprint
The Rosstrappe proper (Ross is an old German word for 'horse' and Trapp[e] means 'step') which gave the entire cliff its name is a pear shaped hollow in the rock; 70 cm long, 55 cm wide and 13 cm deep. Some theories assume that it could be an old, man-made sacrifical bowl of Germanic origin since the plateau had been settled for 5,000 years, but there is no final proof; it could as well be a natural feature. But it's considered lucky to throw a coin into it. Most of them are 'European' cent pieces.

Another view into the Bode canyon
I'll leave you with two more photos of the Bode and Rosstrappe, just because I have so many pretty ones I can't decide which to use for the blog.

The Bode river, seen from the bridge
And here is a final shot of the spectacular cliffs framing the canyon. One wonders how the trees manage to cling to the granite - that's another difference to the Grand Canyon in the US.

Another view from the Rosstrappe
I got another hiking tour from that summer a few years ago, which will cover the Devil's Wall, another rock formation near the towns of Thale and Quedlinburg (where we stayed for several nights).

A Few Days on Rügen

September 28, 2018, 9:47 am

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I'll be away for a few days, traveling to the island of Rügen near Stralsund for some hiking in the beautiful nature and enjoying the pretty 19th century spa architecture of Binz.

The new bridge from Stralsund to Rügen
I hope the weather forecast got it wrong; there's supposed to be a lot of cold wind and quite some rain. But those famous chalk cliffs would look so much nicer in sunshine. Better have a word with St.Peter about that. :-)

Rügen Impressions - Jasmund and Königsstuhl, Kap Arkona

October 7, 2018, 8:14 am

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Rügen is a fine place for hiking and I did a good deal of that. Of course, I also visited the best known sights of the Königsstuhl (King's Chair) and Kap Arkona, the latter on a very stormy day. There are still tourists around this time of the year, but not as many as in summer. Here is the first post about some of the places I've seen.

Chalk cliffs on the Jasmund peninisula, seen fromt the water
When you look at the shape of Rügen (see map) you'll notice that the mainland has 'caught' two other islands which are connected by small spits. The eastern peninsula is the Jasmund with its beech forests and chalk cliffs, the northern one is Wittow, a wind blasted land with few trees, but good ground for agriculture. The inland waters still connected with the sea are called Bodden, the largest is the Great Bodden of Jasmund. The spits are the 'Schmale Heide' in the south and the 'Schaabe' in the north, both with wonderful sand beaches.

The famous Königsstuhl (King's Chair)
The Jasmund peninsula is a chalk plate that has been banked when the Baltic Sea rose, forming the famous row of chalk cliffs (more information about the development of the Baltic Sea can be found here). The chalk itself developed during the Late Cretaceous era 50-100 million years ago when Pangaea broke up and the area - far into present day Germany - was flooded. The development of the spits by shifting sands happened about 3-4,000 years ago.

Viktoria's View (left) and Königsstuhl (right)
The part of the Jasmund between Sassnitz and Lohme has been created a National Park due to its beautiful beech forests and chalk cliffs. A good way to explore the cliffs is a ship tour from Binz or Sassnitz and from the landside. You can best see their scope from the water, but the walk along the cliffs offers the most pretty vistas. There are stairs and ladders leading down to the beach, but due to the ongoing autumn storms they are often in bad repair and closed off for safety.

View from the Königsstuhl to the Viktoria's View
The forest and cliffs attraced tourists already in the 19th century. The cliff called Viktoria's View is named after the Princess Royal Victoria Louisa, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She married the future German emperor Friedrich III in 1858 (he only became emperor in 1888 and died soon thereafter, succeeded by his son Wilhelm II) - another of the many British-German connections. Viktoria visited Rügen in 1865.

On the Königsstuhl
The most famous cliff, the 118 metres high Königsstuhl - King's Chair - is named after an old legend which tells that the man would become King of Rügen who first climbed the cliff from the beach and took his seat on a chair which had been put on the cliff. The legend is already documented in the 16th century, but Rügen had long since been a principality and the prince inherited according to primogeniture.

View from Viktoria's View to the Königsstuhl
You get a great view of the Königsstuhl by being brave and stepping out onto the little skywalk above the Viktoria's View. Fortunately, it was a day with less wind and the skywalk open, and I did feel brave enough. Barely. But the photos I got were worth taking some deep breaths and not thinking about the hundred metres drop.

On the Viktoria's View cliff
Next I took a nice walk through the beech forest to a pretty little lake, the Herthasee (Hertha's Lake). That one, too, is connected with an old legend which goes back to Cornelius Tacitus' book Germania (~ AD 98). He describes the worship of a fertility goddess Nerthus / Hertha who drives around the land on a waggon drawn by cows, which is then washed in a secret lake. Everyone involved in the ceremony was killed afterwards. The Herthasee is one of the locations that claims to have been the lake where Nerthus bathed. It looks mystic enough, but there is no proof for it having been a religious site.

Hertha's Lake
The German goddess somehow gave her name to the ringwall near the lake as well, though that one is clearly a fortification from the time when Slavic tribes settled on Rügen since the 6th century, succeeding and maybe driving off the Germanic Rugii who had migrated into the island in the 2nd century AD and later continued south to the Danube, where they are mentioned among the allies of King Attila in 451. The old name of the remains of the fortification was 'Borgwall' which simply means 'castle wall'.

Hertha's Wall
The most important of those Slavic tribes were the Rani or Rujani who first appear in the chronicle of Widukind of Corvey, where they are mentioned to have participated in a battle against other Slavic tribes as allies of Gero, the margrave of the eastern march, in 955. We will meet them again later in this post. The ringwall on the Jasmund is likely a bit older, dating to the 8th century. It was not part of the net of fortresses of the Rani on Rügen.

Inside Hertha's Wall, now overgrown with beeches
We continue to the Wittow peninsula where another famous chalk cliff can be found; the Kap Arkona. It is situated near the village of Putgarten from where you can either walk or take a little electric train. There is no parking lot at the cape (neither is one near the Königsstuhl, for that matter).

Kap Arkona
The day I went there a storm was raging and the lighthouse closed - probably no one would take responsibility for people flying over the rail of the platform. But one could still get close to the cliff - after several people climbed a barrier and didn't get blown some 40 metres down into the sea, I dared to follow. *grin*

Lighthouses on Kap Arkona; the old one to the right
Kap Arkona is known for its twin lighthouses. The rectangular one is the older, built 1827 by the well-known architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. It is quite pretty with its neo-classical brick facade, but with only 19 metres, it proved too low. So a new one was erected in 1901; that one is 36 metres high and still in use.

The way down the cliff
There is a way down to the beach, but with the high waves crashing ashore, it looked a rather wet spot, so I went down but half of the way. I later found out there are better views of the Kap Arkona cliff on the other side anyway.

Storm around the cape
The Baltic Sea is non-tidal, so it's always there. :-) The ever changing mix of dark clouds and rays of sunshine made for some nice photos. I like the one above, though it doesn't really show the power of those breakers. It also doesn't come with the wind in you hair and the fragrant smell of seaweed and saltwater. It was a lovely day despite the storm.

View towards Kap Arkona
This one was taken on the way to the village of Vitt and gives a good view of the cape. You can see the sand washed into the water below the cliff. The Wittow peninsula is a windy land even on calm days, and during storms, the breakers will eat the material out of the cliffs and wash it westward to add to the spit called Bug. If not a shipping lane between Rügen and the island of Hiddensee (the little sea horse to the left on the map linked above) would be kept free, that spit would long since have connected both.

Marine navigation tower, with Jaromar's Castle to the right
There is a third tower near the cape, the marine navigation tower dating to WW2. Today it is used as exhibition and workspace for artists. To its right is another Slavic ringwall, usually called Jaromar's Castle. It once had been much larger, but the storms have washed part of it into the sea. The way on top of the remaining wall has been closed due to the danger of more bits breaking off.

Wall of Jaromar's Castle
Jaromar's Castle was one of three main fortresses of the Rani on Rügen; the other two were the Rugard near Bergen (not much is left of that one; I've been there) and Charenza near Gartz. The castle on Kap Arkona - which may also have sheltered the main temple - was conquered by the Danes under King Valdemar I and Bishop Absalon of Roskilde in Juni 1168. The other castles surrendered and the prince and his entourage accepted baptism (and delivered most of the temple treasure to bishop Absalon). The prince became a vassal of King Valdemar. In the years to follow, Rügen and the adjacent mainland was created the principality of Rügen under Danish rule; it was Christianised and a monastery founded in Bergen. After the wars of the Rügen Succession, the island fell to the duchy of Pomerania in 1355.

Old house in the village of Vitt
The charming little fishing village of Vitt, about a mile east of the cape, lies hidden in a cleft, surrounded by ash and elder, sheltered from the prevailing winds and almost invisible from the plateau. The village retains its old, reed-thatched and whitewashed houses and has developed into a tourist spot. The place is no longer inhabited by fishermen and their families; instead there are restaurants and stands that sell knick-knacks. The houses are lovely, the commercialism less so.

The harbour of Vitt
But the little harbour is a pretty place. One can see Kap Arkona from the beach, and listen to the song of the waves. Once the fishermen went out for herring, but it has become so rare that fishing no longer pays off.

The next storm is coming
The next Rügen-themed post will be abut Binz and the Granitz area, the 'Schmale Heide' spit, and a pretty Romanesque church in Bergen.

The Flint Fields at Mukran / Rugia

October 28, 2018, 8:27 am

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The formation of the island of Rugia began about 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. The area was a shallow sea in which the accumulation of exoskeletons of dead microorganisms over several million years developed a 400 metres thick layer of very fine limestone. In between the chalk, layers of flint formed. Flint is a sedimentary cryptocristalline form of quartz. Its mode of formation is still discussed; the most widely accepted hypothesis is that gelationous material, like the spicules of siliceous sponges, filled cavities in the sediment (holes bored by molluscs, for example) and later became silicified.

Coastal line of the 'Schmale Heide' spit
We have seen examples of the chalk cliffs of Rugia in this post. Those are the result of the earth movements during the last three Ice Ages when glaciers from Scandinavia pushed across the area of what today is the Baltic Sea. Those glaciers moved large amounts of debris which accumulated in moraines at their fringes. The pressure upon the ground, in this case the chalk, was so great that it bulged in the places not covered by ice, especially during the last Ice Age. Those bulges would become the core islets of Rugia (see map linked in the post).

Northern end point of the flint fields
When the glaciers receeded, the Baltic Sea filled with meltwater (its detailed geological history can be found here) and wind and waves led to a process of erosion that formed the steep chalk cliffs and the sandy spits connecting the islets. As the chalk cliffs with their layers of flint stone eroded, the chalk dissolved in the water, but the flint was only moved during severe storms because the pebbles were heavier than the sand which formed the core of the spits.

Flint fields at Mukran
Such great storms happened several times some 3,500-4000 years ago.The result were walls of flint (with some crystalline drifts of northern origin mixed in) that accumulated in the area where the Schmale Heide spit connects with the Jasmund peninsula. Originally, there were 14 flint walls of 1-4 metres height, running parallel to the coastal line. At the time they built up, those flint walls were the coastal line (and the Jasmund Botten a bay). The sea level was about 1.5 metres higher than today; it has sunk due to the ongoing rise of the land.

Flint surrounded by juniper and heather
The flint fields are about 300 metres wide and 2.5 kilometres long. The fields and the surrounding juniper heath have been turned into a natural preserve in 1935. The flint fields had been free of vegetation until the afforestation of the Schmale Heide with pines in 1840. What was meant to stabilise the sandy spit (and worked quite well on the other spit, the Schaabe in the north of Rugia) caused problems for the flint fields which were soon overgrown with juniper and heath. Nowadays, they are kept free again, but around the fields the juniper, holly and other shrubs as well as some heath remain, creating an interesting ecosystem.

Flint fields
It is a nice hike to the flint fields, but unfortunately, I caught a really rainy day. The walk through the pine forest and juniper heath was still fine, but photographing turned out to be difficult without getting the camera wet, so I took only a few pics and didn't walk along the entire length of the fields. Well, compared to the midges that are said to abound in summer, the rain may have been the lesser evil.

It's That Time of the Year Again

October 31, 2018, 7:29 am

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November arrives and with it the annual National Novel Writing Month. I've set up my progress bar on the sidebar again. Hopefully, it will fill up in sync with the required wordcount every day or even go up beyond it.

A sailing ship in the bay of Prora / Rugia
My motivation is still on holiday somewhere in the Carribean. It better show up tonight, or I'll send an armed search troop, and it won't like that. *grin*

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I did it Again

November 25, 2018, 8:01 am

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The fifth win in a row: National Novel Writing Month 2018. It was rather hard this time, but I kept going for the minimum of 1,667 words every day (on good days it was more) and it paid off.

Of course, I will continue writing until the end of November, but not forcing the daily minimum; just a few hundred more words every remaining day.

Merry Christmas

December 23, 2018, 6:16 am

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I wish my readers a merry and quiet Christmas holiday.

Impressions from Rugia - The Seaside Resort Binz

December 30, 2018, 10:07 am

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Binz is the prettiest of the seaside resort towns at the beaches of Rugia. It started out as fishing and farming village in the Middle Ages (its first mention on a tax collection chart dates to 1318). 'Byntze' belonged to the Principality of Rugia which later became part of the Duchy of Pomerania. After the Thirty Years war, the island came to Sweden until 1815, when it was integrated into the Prussian province of Pomerania.

The beach at Binz
In the early 19th century, Rugia was governed by Wilhelm Malte Prince of Putbus (1783-1854), first in service of the Swedish government and later as Prussian governor-general and president of the regional council. He achieved a lot of building work on the island (more about him in the next post).

The promenade in Binz
Wilhelm Malte liked having guests and he obviously like swimming as well. Since about 1830, he and his guests bathed in the Baltic Sea; the beginning of a veritable fashion that peaked in the 1870ies. At that time, Binz became a popular seaside resort. Pretty lodging houses were built, the pier, the spa house, the promenade .... But Binz still remained a charming town without large hotels, and I really hope they will never allow for those ugly concrete monstrosities to be built there.

One of the many pretty houses in Binz
Fortunately, the town has been restored to its 19th century splendour after the German reunification. The houses with their lovely carved wooden balconies and decorations, usually painted white or in pastel colours, have become an attraction of Binz (and other seaside resorts on Rugia).

Walking in the surf
I love the Baltic Sea ever since we used to spend the summer holidays there during my childhood (usually in Timmendorf which was nice, but did not have the typical resort architecture like Binz). So the town was different, but walking along the beach felt very much like coming home.

The pier of Binz
The first pier at Binz was built in 1902. At the time, most guests still arrived by ship and had to be transfered - together with all those big trunks - to smaller boats out at sea. The pier allowed the ships to dock directly. The first one was made of timber and 560 metres long. It was destroyed by a storm tide only two years later and immediately rebuilt. But in 1912, a severe accident happened when the pier broke down as the guests of a steamship disembarked; 17 people died in the water.

On the pier, looking towards the town
When the Rugia Causeway was built in 1937, allowing cars and trains to directly cross to the island from Stralsund, the need for a pier decreased. The existing pier was neglected and collapsed in 1942. It was not restored until after the reunification. The new pier, built in 1994, is 370 metres long and 3 metres wide. It serves mostly as jetty for cruise vessels, like the one I took to visit the chalk cliffs.

The Spa House (Kurhaus)
The first spa house in Binz had been built in 1890. It was a timber construction that burned down a few years later. A new one, this time of stone, was erected in 1907. It survived WW2 intact and served as quarter for Russian and later German soldiers. In 1960, it was returned to its original purpose as spa house for tourists in the GDR. The building was renovated after the reunification and today houses a high class hotel and restaurant.

Hooded beach chairs (Strandkörbe)
Now let's get to something very typically German: the hooded beach chair aka Strandkorb. You can find those all over the beaches of the Baltic and North Sea at the German coast. The special chair was invented by the basket maker Wilhelm Bertelsmann in 1882. One of his customers suffered from rheumatism but still wanted to enjoy the healthy sea air. Bertelsmann constructed a special two seated hooded windbreak - with adjustable hood, extendable footrests, sun awning and sidefolding tables - made of wood, wicker and canvas. The chair was a great success and soon in demand by other tourists.

A glimpse of Prora (on the spit north of Binz), from the ship
Prora is one of those huge Nazi building projects, intended as beach resort. The whole concrete structure, consisting of eight housing blocks, stretched to a length of 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles). It should have provided space for 20.000 beds, offering affordable holiday package tours by the Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) project. But work on the coloss halted with the beginning of WW2 in 1939. After the war, parts of the building were used as Soviet and East German military base, others dismantled. Today, about 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) of the structure remain, listed as heritage. They are being brought to modern standards and turned into rather expensive appartments, a youth hostel and other uses.

Sunset at the Lake Schmachte in Binz
The Lake Schmachte, a lake at the landside of Binz which is the nesting site for a number of birds. It shores are a protected area, to the little pier is pretty much the only place where you can get close.

The beach at Binz after sunset
I'll leave you with another shot of the beach at Binz, this time after sunset, and a gull posing for the camera.

Juvenile herring gull
I also wish everyone a Happy New Year!

History of Rugia: Prince Wilhelm Malte of Putbus

February 3, 2019, 6:46 am

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I've already mentioned Prince Wilhelm Malte I of Putbus (1783 - 1854) in my prior post. He was the scion of the Slavic noble family of Putbus (the lords of Putbus trace their lineage to the 12th century) whose members had intermarried with the Swedish nobility since Rugia belonged to Sweden in the aftermath of the Thirty Years War (1648). His father was the Swedish Marshal of Court Malte Friedrich of Putbus. His mother was Sophie Wilhelmine von der Schulenburg, a German noble family who - going back to the 13th century - would rise to important positions under the kings of Prussia. Malte's grandfather Moritz Ulrich of Putbus already renovated the family palace and built a hunting lodge in the forests of the Granitz; his grandson would expand on those and found the town of Putbus around the palace.

The Neo-Gothic hunting lodge Granitz
Malte, whose father died when he was three years old, studied at the universities of Greifswald (which is not far from Rugia) and Göttingen. In July 1800, he joined the Stockholm Life Hussars, two years later he was created chamberlain, and in May 1807, he was elevated to the rank of Prince by King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden.

Malte must have been a skilled diplomat because he managed to rise under different kings. Swedish officers arrested King Gustav Adolf in a coup d'état in 1809, and forced him to adopt the French Marshal Charles John Bernadotte as heir; he acted a regent and became king in 1818. I don't know if Malte of Putbus was involved in that coup.

A few years later, Napoleon occupied Swedish-Pomerania and Rugia on his way to Russia (January 1812), which understandably angered Bernadotte - to the point that he opened up negotiations with Russia instead. He also nominated Malte of Putbus Governor-general of Swedish-Pomerania.

Hunting lodge Granitz in the afternoon sun
After the Congress of Vienna, Rugia fell to Prussia. King Friedrich Wilhelm III confirmed Malte's rank as Prince and his position as Governor-general, and bestowed the hereditary honour of a Lord Marshal (Erblandmarchall) upon him in 1817. This gave Malte of Putbus the right to preside over the regional council. King Friedrich Wilhlem entrusted Malte of Putbus with diplomatic missions, for example the representation of Prussia at the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838 - there you got your English connection again. *grin*

Hunting lodge Granitz
Malte of Putbus took a keen interest in the economic and cultural development of Rugia. He founded a school for boys, established chalk factories, sugar mills and a shipbuilding wharf, and he distributed his land to farmers under hereditary leases. He founded the town of Putbus around the family palace, and added a fine ensemble of Neo-Classicist buildings, earning Putbus the name of 'white town'. I had no time to visit Putbus, only drove through the town and glimpsed some of the pretty buildings.

Seen from a different angle
Malte's grandfather first had built a hunting lodge on the Tempelberg in the Granitz forest; a building in half-timbered style. His grandson wanted something more comfortable and definitely more spectacular. He built a lodge that looks part Medieaval castle, complete with a keep from where you can look far over the land, part Renaissance palace. The construction took several years, since work was only done in summer, and would cost 100,000 thaler - it was finally finished in 1846. Malte of Putbus received several famous visitor there, including King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and the Chancellor Otto of Bismarck.

Not really Mediaeval towers
The family was disowned after WW2 - Rugia being in East Germany - but never regained their possessions after the reunification. The hunting lodge has been renovated and is now a museum. But I admit that none of the exhibitions currently on display was of sufficient interest to me to pay the high entrance fee.

Between Polish Kings and Teutonic Knights - A History of Mediaeval Gdańsk / Danzig

February 23, 2019, 5:54 am

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I only spent a few hours in Gdańsk (Danzig in German; also used in English books about the historical Gdańsk), sufficient for a walk through the historical part of the town with its interesting and important buildings, but not enough time to visit the interior of the Crane and the Town Hall. But I got enough photos to illustrate a few posts.

Danzig, Town Hall of the 'Town of the Law'
'Town of the Law (Rechtstadt) refers to the part of Danzig that got town rights in 1224; not to be confused with the - much younger - Old Town.

There had been settlements by Baltic and Slavic tribes (and probably some Goths as well) at the site where the Motława confluences into the Vistula (Weichsel in 'German) since Prehistoric times; the Amber Road went all the way from the Vistula delta to the Mediterranean. Amber has been found in Egypt tombs.

Danzig, the harbour at the Motława river with the Crane Gate in the background
The first attempts to Christianise the people in the area that came to be known as Pomeralia were made by the bishop Adalbert of Prague in 997. Danzig was mentioned as 'urbs' (town) in a chronicle of the time. In 1185, Duke Sobiesław of the Samborides - the only ducal family of Greater Poland not belonging to the network of Piast dukes - founded the monastery of Oliwa near Danzig. At the time, the number of German settlers and merchants looking for new homes in the Slavic lands in the east increased, often encouraged by local rulers.

Sobiesław's grandson, Duke Swantopolk II of Pomeralia-Gdańsk granted the town the rights under Lübeck law in 1224. Swantopolk created an independent duchy by kicking the Danish overlord (King Valdemar II) out and ambushing the High Duke of Poland, Leszek, on his way to the assembly of the Piast dukes, which led to Leszek's death. But the Samborides died out in the male line (1994), and Pomeralia became part of Poland again under King Przemysł II in 1295. He granted Danzig which by the time had developed into a city with both German and Polish inhabitants, the Magdeburg Rights. He also put a Polish garrison in the castle (situated in near the Great Mill in what is now the Old Town).

Małbork Castle (Marienburg) near Gdańsk, the main seat of the Teutonic Knights
The German margraves of Brandenburg and the Teutonic Knights both had interests in the area as well, a fact that would lead to an explosive mix when Przemysł married Margaret of Brandenburg shortly before he was crowned king in 1295. A botched kidnapping attempt led to his death but a few months later. It is still disputed who was responsible, the ducal family of Brandenburg or disgruntled Polish nobles, or maybe an alliance of both.

Since Margaret was descended from the Pomeralian nobility on the maternal side, the Margrave of Brandenburg laid claim to the heritage. Przemysł's successors meanwhile had a lot of problems and internecine strifes. In the end, the governor of Danzig under King Władysław I called for the aid of the Teutonic Knights against the forces of the Margrave of Brandenburg in Danzig. The knights relieved the Polish garrison in the castle and drove der margrave's men out of the town. The citizens welcomed the interference of the Teutonic Order at first, but when they made no attempt to return the authority to the royal administration (for one reason because the king refused to pay them for their services), the inhabitants of Danzig rose against the Order. The rebellion was brutally crushed, a - still disputed - number of both German and Polish inhabitants killed and part of the town destroyed.

Marienburg, the High Castle
The Teutonic Knights then conquered the rest of Pomeralia and, to be on the legal side, bought the Margave of Brandenburg's claim off with 10,000 gold marks (Treaty of Soldin). Poland had lost direct access to the Baltic Sea.

The Grand Master Heinrich of Plötzke wanted to prevent a unified Polish kingdom, no matter that he once had been a fried of King Władysław. With the crusades in the Holy Land having ended, the order transfered their main seat from Venice to Małbork castle near Danzig, so the strengthening of territorial claims in the north-east is understandable.

But the Teutonic Knights had misjudged the feelings of the Pomeralian local nobility who continued to give their allegiance to the King of Poland, not the Order. After their legal attempts to regain Pomeralia before the ecclesiastical court of the Pope failed, war broke out in 1326. It ended with the Peace of Kalisz 1343. King Casimir III of Poland had no choice but to relinquish his rights to Pomeralia and the towns within, including Danzig, and gift them to the Teutonic Knights as 'perpetual alms'. Though he kept the title of Duke of Pomerania and thus a theoretical claim of souzerainty.

Danzig, gabled houses in the Długa Lane
The Teutonic Knights enforced the Kulm Law (a variant of the Magdeburg Rights used in all lands of the Order). In 1361, Danzig became member of the Hanseatic League.

In 1370, the last of the Piast kings of Poland, Casimir III the Great died. His sister Elizabeth was married to Charles of Hungary, who was a member of the Capetian house of Anjou (his father had married a Hungarian princess). Their son Louis would eventually become King of Poland. But he had only girl children: Maria who succeeded him in Hungary, and Hedwig / Jadwiga who became 'king of Poland' in 1384. At the same time, the still pagan Great Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila, saw his chance. Supported by a number of Polish nobles, he accepted baptism, the name Władysław II Jagiełło (in English also spelled Ladislaus), and the hand of young Hedwig (1373 - 1399).

His nephew Vytautas allied himself with the Teutonic Knights in order to strengthen his position in Lithuania, but eventually realised that he was casting out the devil with Beelzebub and joined with Jagiełło instead. Both established the personal union of Poland and Lithuania under the overlordship of the Polish king (Union of Vilnius in 1401).

The Teutonic Knights suddenly faced a formidable alliance of enemies. The enusing war culminated in the Battle of Tannenberg (also known as Battle of Grunwald) on July 15, 1410. The united Polish-Lithuanian forces won the battle, but failed to conquer Małbork Castle (Marienburg), the main stronghold of the Teutonic Knights. Thus the Teutonic Knights were weakened, but not defeated. Though they did not lose any lands, they had to pay heavy reparations in consequence of the Peace of Thorn. To meet those, the Knights confiscated goods and increased taxes.

Marienburg, Palace of the Grand Master
The burghers of Danzig refused to pay those taxes. The Order closed the harbour and executed several patricians, among them the town major, for high treason. Nevertheless, a precarious peace was established once again - no party was interested in a destruction of the town.

In 1440, Danzig joined the Prussian Confederation, a coalition of several cities and a number of nobles against the machinations of the Teutonic Order. The Confederation offered King Casimir IV Jagiełło for Prussia to become a fief of the Kingdom of Poland in 1454, thus gaining his support in the war with the Order. During the war, the castle in Danzig was destroyed - likely not only to deny the Order a foothold, but also to prevent the king of Poland to put a garrison in the castle. Danzig wanted to remain as independent as possible.

The war ended in 1466 (Second Peace of Thorn), western Prussia with Danzig became part of Poland which finally gained a sea port again; eastern Prussia remained with the Teutonic Order as Duchy of Prussia. Most sorely felt by the Teutonic Knights was probably the loss of the Marienburg which fell to the Polish Crown. The Order moved its main seat to Kaliningrad (Königsberg). Danzig - which basically had financed the war for the king - kept most of its privileges, like minting rights, diet meetings, and the administrative use of the German language.

Danzig, St.Mary Church, west tower
Danzig's importance increased with the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 and the subsequent loss of the Black Sea harbours. Corn from south-eastern Europe had to be transported on the Vistula via Danzig to the trade centres in England, Scandinavia and the Netherlands.

An attempt by the Teutonic Knights to regain the town in 1520 was thwarted when the king of Poland sent a relief force. Danzig and Royal Pomerania became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest countries in 16th-17th century Europe. It was officially established in 1569 (Union of Lublin). In 1577, another Polish king of the Jagiellonian dynasty who got the job iure uxoris, Stephen Báthory, refused to acknowledge the privileges of 1466, whereof the city refused homage. Stephen laid siege to the town, but unsuccessfully, and in the end had to renew the privileges.

At that time, Danzig held the staple rights and that involved a lot of money. By the early 17th century, the town was the most importand transshipment point for corn in Europe. It was the time of bloom for Danzig; its pretty Renaissance buildings date to the 16th century.

Danzig, remains of the town fortifications (foreground) and the harbour front
The next post will be a virtual tour through the town.

Literature
Nora Berend, Przemysław Urbańczyk and Przemysław Wiszewski: Central Europe in the High Middle Ages. Bohemia, Hungary and Poland c. 900 - c. 1300; Cambridge Mediaeval Textbooks, 2013
Eduard Mühle: Die Piasten. Polen im Mittelalter, München 2011
Jürgen Sarnowsky: Der Deutsche Orden, München 2007
William Urban: The Teutonic Knights. A Military History, 2003; reprint by Frontline Publ. 2018