DOI issue:
Nr. 1
DOI article:Artykuły
DOI article:Wasik, Bogusz: Zamek, koś¬ciół i mury miejskie w Kowalewie Pomorskim - kwestia XIV-wiecznych warsztatów budowlanych
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71009#0087
Zamek, kościół i mury miejskie w Kowalewie Pomorskim
85
Castle, Church and Defensive Wall in Kowalewo
Pomorskie - The Question
of Fourteenth-Century Construction Workshops
Kowalewo Pomorskie is a small town located in the
Chełmno Region, within the former boundaries of
the monastic state in Prussia. In the first half of the
13th century, a fortified town that the Teutonic Order
took over from Bishop Christian is said to have been
located here. In the 1270s, a commandry was formed
on the site and the first attempts to locate the town
were made, the town, however, destroyed in the
1280s. The location of the earth and wooden Teutonic
seat remains unknown, as the archaeolo-gical and
architectural investigation proved that contrary to all
the assumptions it had not been placed where a brick
castle was later raised. At the turn of the 13th and 14th
centuries, two major construction projects were
launched in Kowalewo, which over several decades
led to the formation of a compact castle and town.
Out of the facilities then created the best preserved
one is St Nicolas's Parish Church. It was an aisleless
structure, initially with no towers, with walls ar-
ticulated with blind windows and with decorative
Gothic gables from the east and west. The formal
and stylistic analysis of the walls of this building
demonstrated a thorough conceptual change at the
height of around 2m. Below that level, all the
window openings and blind windows displayed
a consistent moulding of the three quarters of the
round profile, while above this line architecture was
enlivened with alternated moulding: three quarters for
the round profile in blind windows, and the lance
profile for the windows, while the western side of the
church was distinguished with a much simpler gable
wall than that from the east and lack of moulding.
The change of the concept can be most likely
attributed to the fact that a different workshop was
employed. The first was conservative, while the
second applied much more creative and sophisti-
cated artistic means in order to enliven the building.
The analysis of the material acquired from the area
of the demolished convent house allows to point to
a substantial richness of detail, analogical to that
applied in the church. Additionally, the preserved
pillar is richly articulated with blind windows. This
allows for a conclusion that both workshops may
have worked on the castle's constructions, and
certainly the latter of those erecting the church must
have been employed. Moreover, the parish church in
nearby Chełmonia can be most likely attributed to
them. This church has a lot of formal elements in
common with both the Kowalewo Parish Church and
the pillar of the castle's dansker.
Throughout the first quarter ofthe 14th century, in
the course of one of the project's stages, the castle's
area was extended southwards by erecting the third
castle's bailey. The town was also expanded: original-
ly encompassing an oval area surrounding the market
square, it was inscribed within a much more regular
outline of the defence walls. The baileys of the
southern approach and of the town were coupled,
applying an analogical construction technique,
namely a characteristic and rare brickwork with some
compensating layers of full brick laid in rolls or flat.
The discussed fortifications most likely constituted an
element of one compact and purposefully designed
defence system, being a work of a single construction
workshop.
Kowalewo Pomorskie constitutes an interesting
example of a quite typical relatively small town in
monastic Prussia in which a sizeable number of
building projects were ongoing at the time. The
construction sites supplied with bricks from one
brickyard formed part of one master project for
whose implementation the same building workshops
were contracted at subsequent phases. The con-
clusions reached in the course of Kowalewo's
architecture analyses can undoubtedly be also
applied to other similar centres in Prussia.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska
85
Castle, Church and Defensive Wall in Kowalewo
Pomorskie - The Question
of Fourteenth-Century Construction Workshops
Kowalewo Pomorskie is a small town located in the
Chełmno Region, within the former boundaries of
the monastic state in Prussia. In the first half of the
13th century, a fortified town that the Teutonic Order
took over from Bishop Christian is said to have been
located here. In the 1270s, a commandry was formed
on the site and the first attempts to locate the town
were made, the town, however, destroyed in the
1280s. The location of the earth and wooden Teutonic
seat remains unknown, as the archaeolo-gical and
architectural investigation proved that contrary to all
the assumptions it had not been placed where a brick
castle was later raised. At the turn of the 13th and 14th
centuries, two major construction projects were
launched in Kowalewo, which over several decades
led to the formation of a compact castle and town.
Out of the facilities then created the best preserved
one is St Nicolas's Parish Church. It was an aisleless
structure, initially with no towers, with walls ar-
ticulated with blind windows and with decorative
Gothic gables from the east and west. The formal
and stylistic analysis of the walls of this building
demonstrated a thorough conceptual change at the
height of around 2m. Below that level, all the
window openings and blind windows displayed
a consistent moulding of the three quarters of the
round profile, while above this line architecture was
enlivened with alternated moulding: three quarters for
the round profile in blind windows, and the lance
profile for the windows, while the western side of the
church was distinguished with a much simpler gable
wall than that from the east and lack of moulding.
The change of the concept can be most likely
attributed to the fact that a different workshop was
employed. The first was conservative, while the
second applied much more creative and sophisti-
cated artistic means in order to enliven the building.
The analysis of the material acquired from the area
of the demolished convent house allows to point to
a substantial richness of detail, analogical to that
applied in the church. Additionally, the preserved
pillar is richly articulated with blind windows. This
allows for a conclusion that both workshops may
have worked on the castle's constructions, and
certainly the latter of those erecting the church must
have been employed. Moreover, the parish church in
nearby Chełmonia can be most likely attributed to
them. This church has a lot of formal elements in
common with both the Kowalewo Parish Church and
the pillar of the castle's dansker.
Throughout the first quarter ofthe 14th century, in
the course of one of the project's stages, the castle's
area was extended southwards by erecting the third
castle's bailey. The town was also expanded: original-
ly encompassing an oval area surrounding the market
square, it was inscribed within a much more regular
outline of the defence walls. The baileys of the
southern approach and of the town were coupled,
applying an analogical construction technique,
namely a characteristic and rare brickwork with some
compensating layers of full brick laid in rolls or flat.
The discussed fortifications most likely constituted an
element of one compact and purposefully designed
defence system, being a work of a single construction
workshop.
Kowalewo Pomorskie constitutes an interesting
example of a quite typical relatively small town in
monastic Prussia in which a sizeable number of
building projects were ongoing at the time. The
construction sites supplied with bricks from one
brickyard formed part of one master project for
whose implementation the same building workshops
were contracted at subsequent phases. The con-
clusions reached in the course of Kowalewo's
architecture analyses can undoubtedly be also
applied to other similar centres in Prussia.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska