page_title: History of Gdańsk
section_title: Foundation in early Polish state
hierarchical_section_title: History of Gdańsk / History / Foundation in early Polish state
caption_attribution_description: Español: Gran Molino, Gdansk, PoloniaEnglish: Great Mill, Gdansk, Poland This is a photo of a monument in Poland identified by the ID 635793
context_page_description: Gdańsk is one of the oldest cities in Poland. Founded by the Polish ruler Mieszko I in the 10th century, the city was for a long time part of Piast state either directly or as a fief. In 1308 the city became part of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights until 1454. Thereafter it became part of Poland again, although with increasing autonomy. A vital naval city for Polish grain trade it attracted people from all over the European continent. The city was taken over by Prussia during the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 and subsequently lost its importance as a trading port. Briefly becoming a free city during Napoleonic wars, it was again Prussian after Napoleon's defeat, and later became part of the newly created German Empire.
  After World War I the Free City of Danzig was created, a city-state under the supervision of the League of Nations. The German attack on the Polish military depot at Westerplatte marks the start of World War II and the city was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939. Local Jews were systematically murdered in the Holocaust while Poles and Kashubians also faced persecution.
context_section_description: Most likely Mieszko I of Poland founded the town in the 980s, thereby connecting the Polish state ruled by the Piast dynasty with the trade routes of the Baltic Sea. The earliest traces of medieval settlement were discovered in an area now occupied by the town hall of the Main Town, on top of archaeological remains from the Roman Iron Age. The oldest constructions of this settlement were built, according to dendrochronology, with timber from trees cut in 930. The immediate western vicinity of the town hall has, however, so far not been surveyed, thus it can not be excluded that the settlement extended further to the west. Dendrodates exclusively refer to the 10th century, no constructions from the 11th century were found. The very beginning of Gdańsk is related to the fall of Truso in the second half of the 10th century - the Viking Age Emporium situated on eastern side of the Vistula delta. Only after this town declined, it was eclipsed as a trade centre by nearby Gdańsk.
  In the area south of the current St. Nicholas church, settlement started some years later. The oldest constructions there were dated by finds of pottery to either the second half of the 10th century or the turn of the 10th to the 11th century. The first written record thought to refer to Gdańsk is the vita of Saint Adalbert: Written in 999, it describes how in 997 Saint Adalbert of Prague baptized the inhabitants of urbs Gyddannyzc, "which separated the great realm of the duke from the sea." No further written sources exist for the 10th and 11th centuries.
  In the area of the current Great Mill the oldest settlement layers were dated by finds of pottery to the 11th century or the turn of the 12th. Though the area between St. Nicholas Church and the Great Mill has not yet been sufficiently surveyed, it has been suggested by Paner that in the course of the 11th century the settlement just south of St. Nicholas was expanded to the northwest to reach the vicinity of the Great Mill and, possibly, the area around St. Catherine church. In the northern vicinity of St. Nicholas, in the area of the current market hall, settlement then started probably in the 12th century. As of 2004, archaeologists have not been able to find traces of fortifications around the before mentioned settlement(s).
  Slightly east of the Great Mill, at the banks of the Motława river, a stronghold was built in the 1060s. This stronghold encompassed roughly the area now enclosed by the Rycerska and Sukiennicza streets, and in the 11th century was located at the confluence of the Motława and Vistula rivers. The stronghold consisted of a fort and a suburbium covering 2.7 ha which may have held 2,200 to 2,500 inhabitants. Timber from trees cut between 1054 and 1063 was used for buildings of the first phase of the stronghold's construction, timber from trees cut around 1090 was used to construct the buildings of the subsequent phase. A first rampart enclosing the stronghold was built with timber from trees cut in the 1060s. Starting in 1112, according to dendrodates, the stronghold was first leveled and subsequently transformed. This corresponds with written sources mentioning the subduction of Pomerelia by Piast Polish king Boleslaw III Wrymouth between 1112 and 1116. 
  The youngest examined layers from which dendrodates could be derived point at around 1135.
  Starting in the mid-12th and throughout the 13th centuries, the settlement west of the stronghold greatly expanded northwards to comprise the wider area around present-day Rajska and Podbielanska streets in the Old Town. In the southern part of the settlement, in the area now occupied by the market hall, a Romanesque St. Nicholas church was built in the second half of the 12th century, which according to Paner "was probably the second masonry church in Gdansk, after the stronghold's church" and was replaced by another Romanesque St. Nicholas church built in 1223-1241 by the Dominicans, who owned the area since 1227. In 1168, the Cistercians built a monastery in nearby Oliva (northwest of the town) which is inside the modern city limits. A 
caption: Great Mill of Gdańsk.
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