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Uwagi o plenerowych rekonstrukcjach pradziejowych i średniowiecznych przepraw mostowych w Europie Środkowej. Mosty drewniane

100%

Wilke G.

Studia Lednickie

2020

vol. 19

15-58

The article presents remarks on outdoor reconstructions of primeval and medieval bridge crossings in Central Europe on the example of the selected constructions with a wooden structure. The presented bridges were the subject of archaeological research on terrestrialised lake and river reservoirs or the subject of underwater prospection. Destruction or interruption of the existence of many bridge crossings were caused by great changes in the aquatic environment and hydrographic grid on almost all the greater and smaller rivers of the European Plain. Many bridges were irrevocably destroyed as a result of natural disasters and numerous military operations. The relics of the destroyed bridges were usually discovered in the form of the concentrated pile structures of the former load bearing structures and the debris of the constructions from the above-water elements. Repeatedly in the concentration of these structures multi-phase bridges were hidden, which were always constructed in the same place, and many times rebuilt and repaired. In this case, both chronological and structural classifications of the pile structures were essential for the outdoor reconstruction. Over the past decades these reconstructions could be conducted due to dendrochronological analysis; however, on many bridge crossings, mainly young timber with a small number of annual growth rings was utilised, and it was sometimes impossible to determine the type of bridge constructions as well as the number of phases of their existence. Firstly the article presents the production of primeval bridges, by showing the bridge leading to the gate of the defensive settlement of the Lusatian culture from the 8th century BC (747-722 and 738-737 BC) in Biskupin on Kujawy in Poland. The next construction considered is a Celtic bridge from Cornaux-Les Sauges in Switzerland, which erstwhile connected the banks of the river Zihl. It was discovered during the so-called two water corrections in the Swiss Jura Mountains, which included three lakes: Lac de Neuchâtel, Lac de Bienne and Lac de Morat, together with the rivers flowing among them. Lowering of the water level by several metres and widening of the river bed and canals not only led to the transfiguration of the local landscape but also to the discovery of many new archaeological sites, among others 15 bridge crossings, from Neolithic to Roman constructions. The relics of the bridge from Cornaux-Les Sauges, from 120-115 BC, are displayed in Laténium, in an archaeological park in Hauterive on the shore of Lake Neuchâtel, in the form of the reconstructed section of this construction in the background of the small part of the river. It was diffi cult to create an artificial river current for the original 90-metre length of the bridge. In the further part of the article outdoor reconstructions of medieval bridges are presented. One of the examples of such old artefacts is a full-size 100m long bridge in Gross Raden (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), built in a simple pile-yoke construction, from two piles and two diagonal braces. It existed here from the end of the 9th till the beginning of the 11th century. Originally this bridge connected the island gord with the opposite shore of the lake, where a fortified craft settlement was located. The second shorter bridge of 10 m was located on a fosse which separated the craft settlement from the remaining part of a peninsula. Next, a much smaller bridge was built in the reconstruction of the gord in Kalisz-Zawodzie, built in the 9th century and utilised till the beginning of the 13th century. A minor bridge also built in a simple pile-yoke construction with two piles and two diagonal braces, over the fosse, led in a mild arch to the gate of the gord. A bridge crossing between Rapperswil and Hurden in Switzerland, in the smaller part of the Zurich lake called Obersee, is the biggest medieval bridge reconstruction in Central Europe. The bridge, erected in the years 1358-1360, originally had an impressive length of 1450m. In the first phase of its functioning it had a simple double pile load bearing structure, replaced with a three-pile construction in the beginning of the 19th century. A dyke built nearby in 1878, ended its existence after over 500 years. In 2001 a replica of this bridge, shortened however by almost 600 metres, was created, and intended exclusively for pedestrians and cyclists. Discussion on outdoor reconstructions of bridges should also include a large-size construction of the bridge-like port pier in Haithabu, a great Viking centre which existed in this place from the 8th till the middle of the 11th century, and which was located near Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein Land. Its construction dated 885/886, is entirely based on archaeological sources which come from caisson surveys conducted at the bottom of the river Schlei. Its load bearing structure constituted oaken piles, of which 5-6 put transversally to the longitudinal axis of the pier, created multi-pile yokes analogically to the bridge constructions. In the process of the drainage of the expansive complex of meadows of the drained lake near Ravning Enge in Denmark, the relics of a bridge with the original length of 760 m and 5m width were discovered. The construction consisted of fourpile, row yokes supported by two diagonal struts. The bridge was erected at the turn of 979/980. In the area of the two abutments of this crossing, fragments of four spans, covered in part by the bridge deck, were reconstructed. Despite the absence of the water level, these parts of the bridge can be clearly presented against the background of the expansive meadows. The occasional replica of the part of Władysław Jagiełło bridge in Czerwińsk from 1410, built before the Battle of Grunwald with the Teutonic Order for the crossing of the Polish troops across the Vistula river, is also worth mentioning. Due to the impossibility to build a full-size reconstruction across the navigable Vistula river, this part was placed at the river bank and its old structure was reconstructed on flat-bottomed boats, where two parts of the bridge deck were placed. The final part of the article includes the remarks concerning the potential reconstruction possibilities of interesting bridge structures in Poland and the Czech Republic, whose relics were discovered during long-time excavation works. They include two bridges on Ostrów Lednicki, of a total length of 600 metres, built at the turn of the 10th and 11th century to the island gord, the residence of the first Piasts. These bridges with a beam, three- and four-pile load bearing structure, which are evidence of the independent technical thought of Slavs, without any similar analogies in the then non-Slavic countries, undoubtedly deserve a fragmentary or maybe even full outdoor reconstruction. It would constitute one of the dominating exposition highlights in the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica. In the Czech Republic, the Museum of the Great Moravia in Mikulčice faces a similar challenge. Between several parts of this great settlement from the 9th century, where the relics of the 12 late churches of Great Moravia were discovered and are exposed, 3 bridge crossings with a row yoke construction were also documented in archaeological research. Reconstruction of these bridges, or at least of one of them, would undoubtedly enrich the cultural landscape of this great archaeological reserve.

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1 Studia Lednickie

1 Wilke G.

1 2020

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Uwagi o plenerowych rekonstrukcjach pradziejowych i średniowiecznych przepraw mostowych w Europie Środkowej. Mosty drewniane