Uposażenie ziemskie lokacyjnego Krakowa a uposażenie wójtowskie

Abstrakt

THE LAND ENDOWMENT OF KRAKOW AND OF THE KRAKOW WOJTS FOLLOWING THE CHARTERING OF THE CITY OF KRAKOW

Land endowment was one of the obligatory elements of the program introduced in any city or town formally established under German law. In order to reconstruct its pattern, one has to confront written sources with city planning documentation. A matter of primary importance is to identify the units of measurement used by the city planners at the time of the city’s formal settlement. The measurement unit used in Małopolska was the Franconian łan – a unit which also determined the method of land surveying, as it was connected with crop rotation (and three-field crop rotation in particular) and the use of the plough. The need to reduce the number of the plough’s reversals resulted in the tendency to narrow down the width of the fields. The surface of a Franconian łan (12,960 square rods; 1 rod = 15 feet = 1/10 of a „large” chain; three kinds of feet could be used here: the 29.3 cm foot, the 30 cm foot, or the 31.4 cm foot) was usually surveyed as a rectangle of 24 × 540 rods (possibly, other proportions could be used, as long as the product was identical). The agricultural land endowment of Kraków was described in the chartering document (1257) although the exact size of that land was not provided – the document merely said that it would stretch from the village of Rybitwy in the east (identifi ed with the settlement near St Nicolas’ Church) to the village of Krowodrza in the west. On the other hand, the chartering document mentioned the size of Kraków wójts’ land endowment (30 Franconian łans) without providing any information about its location. An interesting feature is the regular layout of fields which we can fi nd in the archival plans (and which is partly still reflected in the city’s modern spatial layout). The fields stretched along the north – south direction, starting in the area indicated in the chartering document in the east, whereas the western part included not only Krowodrza, but also the villages adjoining it from the west: Łobzów (including the village of Nowa Wieś, formerly a part of Łobzów), Bronowice Małe and Bronowice Wielkie. This land endowment – stretching from the former village of Rybitwy to Krowodrza – can be inscribed in a modular rectangle of 900 × 1296 rods, i.e. covering the surface of 90 Franconian łans. If we decide to shift its border further to the west to include Bronowice Małe and Bronowice Wielkie, the size of the rectangle would be 1800 × 1296 rods, i.e. 180 łans (Fig. 1). In comparison with the land endowments of other cities in the Małopolska region, Kraków’s land endowment (especially in the latter case) would appear quite considerable, but far from being exceptional. Krowodrza was a part of Kraków’s land endowment. Modular analysis leads us to the conclusion that the borders of this village were inscribed into a rectangle of 540 × 480 rods = 20 łans. The location of the 30 łans endowment granted to the wójts is controversial. If we accept the hypothesis proposed by Jacek Laberschek who believes that the wójts’ lands covered the villages of Łobzów, Nowa Wieś, Czarna Wieś, Czarna Ulica and Podbrzezie, what we fi nd out is that the size of this area was smaller than 30 łans: we would have to add parts of the younger villages – Bronowice Wielkie and Bronowice Małe located in the north – south section. This complex can be inscribed into a modular rectangle of 600 × 648 rods = 30 łans. If we still decide to adhere to Laberschek’s hypothesis (including the „correction”, i.e. the area covered by Bronowice Małe and Bronowice Wielkie), the location of these 30 łans of the wójts’ endowment seems much more likely to have been situated within the city’s land endowment. Archival plans of Kraków (Figs. 2–5), as well as the modern road network reveal the shape of the historic complex of fields running along the north – south direction, situated in the north part of the city. The south border of this complex was the line today represented by the Szlak and Lubomirskiego Streets, and the north border is reflected in the modern borderline separating Kraków from the village of Zielonki (formerly the north border of the village of Prądnik Czerwony). Here, we can draw a modular rectangle of 360 × 1,080 rods = 30 łans (Fig. 1). The arguments which seem to prove this hypothesis include: the perfectly clear and visible borders of this unit (preserved as the borders of the rural communes which were later established here); exceptionally good conditions for agricultural development; the spectacular length of the fi elds which minimized the number of the plough’s reversals; connections with the Prądnik Valley and thus, probably, with the mills owned by the wójts; and the tradition of being a prestigious area, continued throughout the late Middle Ages and in the Modern Era by the fact that the manor farms of all the most eminent burgher families were situated here. The direct relation of the wójts’ land endowment with the complex of fields belonging to the city on the power of the chartering privilege was nothing extraordinary at that time; parallel situations can be found in Biecz (Fig. 6), and among the towns which were chartered at a later stage – in Dębowiec, Grybów, Myślenice (Fig. 7), and Skawina. Sometimes the wójts’ land endowments were mapped as elements adjacent to the city’s endowment, which would be analogous to Laberschek’s hypothesis (cf. Wieliczka, Tarnów, Figs. 9 and 10). Considering the usual sizes of wójts’ land endowment in the Małopolska region which varied from 1 to 8 łans, the 30 łans of land granted to the wójts of Kraków was an unprecedented case. We must also bear in mind that apart from the unprecedentedly large size of the farmland, the wójts’ endowment included other properties as well: two stately houses – one located within the city’s urban layout (the tower associated with wójt Henryk situated on the double settlement plot at the back of a block of houses built along one of the sides of the market square, oriented towards Bracka Street), and the other outside the city proper (the wójts’ motte – Gródek – adjacent to the border of the settlement urban layout created at the time of the Great Charter). Analogies with the latter kind could include the fortified residence of the wójts of Bochnia (formally established in 1253); the manor house in Krościenko – allegedly a residence of the town’s wójts; the castle in Skawina adjacent to the outer line of the town’s fortifi cations (the structure has not been preserved); and the Renaissance manor house of the Jordan family in Myślenice which could have been built at the site of the former wójts’ residence (again, the building does not survive). In all of these plans we can see a direct correlation between the alleged wójts’ residence and the wójts’ land endowment, whereas in Kraków there is no correlation of this kind. Unless we assume that the tower built during the reign of King Casimir the Great in 1367 in the village of Łobzów was a continuation of the tradition of an older (third!) wójts’ residence and the land endowment of Kraków wójts was, after all, located within the area proposed by Laberschek, including the correction concerning the Bronowice area which was added later on. The two (or even three?) stately residences and the unprecedentedly large land endowment emphasized the exceptional status of the Kraków wójts, and at the same time the powerful position of the city itself, with its spectacular, regular settlement urban layout (the greatest in Europe) which made it suitable to assume the position of a capital of the Kingdom of Poland.