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Krosno Parva Cracovia - We'd like to present a new approach to the early history of Krosno. This medieval town on the banks of the Wislok has for a long time attracted the attention of researchers in the past. It shared the fate of many other Polish towns which were deprived of many of their invaluable municipal records by a turbulent history. Until recently we still thought that not much could be added to what we knew already about Krosno's story. But it turned out that archaelogy came to the aid of history.
In 1999-2000 a group of archaeologists from Krosno conducted a large scale excavation project in the town's marketplace, covering 20% of its surface area. Not many cities in Central Europe can boast of work carried out with such panache, and such spectacular results achieved. Nowhere else have such invaluable discoveries been made of medieval and early modern building complexes. The excavation covering such a large area brought to light the remains of brickwork buildings which had been well-nigh forgotten or not very well charted in the historical records, vestiges of the medieval municipal infrastructure, and tens of thousands of movable artifacts. All of this puts the story of Krosno, especially its origins and the peak of its prosperity, in a new light. Many of the items we found are unique and testify to Krosno's high rank among the most affluent boroughs in medieval Poland.
The Story of Krosno
Situated in the Carpathians on the River Wislok, Krosno has a history that goes back over 600 years. The facts concerning the origins of medieval settlement here, and of Krosno itself, have still not fully come to light. The Jaslo and Sanok Depression, an area of lowland through the Carpathians, was inhabited by a Slavonic people (most probably a Ledzianie or Ledanian tribe) until the close of the 10th century. After 981 the Old Slavonic tribal territories were divided up between Poland and Ruthenia. From now on the Valley of the Wislok became the boundary between the Eastern and Western Slavs. One of the causes contributing to the instability of life in this region was the constant fighting between Poland and Ruthenia, while from the mid-13th century another grave danger loomed: the Tartars. After the great Tartar invasion of 1259-60 which brought considerable damage to southern Lesser Poland, Duke Leszek the Black launched a restoration project, entrusting part of these lands to the rich Diocese of Lubusz (now Lebus, on the German bank of the Oder). The oldest known document which mentions Krosno is associated with the Ruthenian mission conducted by that diocese in 1282. The etymology of the name "Krosno" is not quite clear. Does it come from the Polish word "krosno", a weaver's loom, or from "krosty", bumps, or uneven land, or perhaps from the German "Kross", dry land? Perhaps the last of these is the most likely, as there is a place called Krossen on the River Alster in Saxony, and in the medieval documents the name of the Polish town was spelled Crossen?
Table of contents
Introduction
The story Of Krosno
The archaeology of Krosno's marketplace
The bailiff's house
The water supply and sewage system
Commercial objects
The renaissance town hall
Archaeologist's look back at the marketplace
Bibliography
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Features
- Hardcover
- 153 pages
- 90 color photographs
- Polish - English Text
- Size 7.5 x 8.5" - 19.5cm x 25cm
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