Freyenstein Archaeological Park
The Freyenstein Archaeological Park is located in the Freyenstein district of the Brandenburg municipality of Wittstock / Dosse in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district in Germany .
The park is located right next to today's Freyenstein settlement; the entrance is via the visitor center in the New Castle with a small museum that mainly shows medieval finds.
History of the settlement
At the beginning of the 13th century , German settlers built a town on behalf of the Havelberg bishop , which was first mentioned in 1263 as "Vrigstene". Around 25 hectares were walled around , roads laid out and paved. On the edge there was a small aristocratic castle. However, the location of the city in the border area with Mecklenburg made it an object of contention again and again. Several times there was devastating destruction. Therefore, the place was abandoned around 1287 and rebuilt in the immediate vicinity on a small branch of the Dosse on an adjacent lowland. The buildings of the abandoned city were demolished, the cellars filled and the city area used as arable land again. The reconstruction did not take place as usual on their previous area. The old town of Freyenstein disappeared from the landscape. Only the remains of the city fortifications and the field name Old Town reminded of the city's desolation . Today they provide a unique insight into a Brandenburg city of the 13th century.
Archaeological research has been carried out in the desert since the 1980s . Using a geophysical measuring method, it was possible to reconstruct the layout of the city. In the summer of 2007, the Freyenstein Archaeological Park opened its doors on the area of the old town of Freyenstein.
meaning
Due to the reconstruction at a different location, the context of the old settlement remained almost undisturbed. These situations are rare in Central Europe. A reconstruction in the same place would have led to a new settlement layer on top of the older one, but this often also injured the settlement layer below it. In contrast to the 14th century , which was plagued by the plague and other crises , settlement tasks were rare in the 13th century, a time of settlement growth. This is one of the reasons why Freyenstein is a very significant desert for archeology. It is counted among the central archaeological sites in the Prignitz .
The not yet completed reconstruction of the cityscape of the old town of Freyenstein shows a grid-shaped floor plan and a market square. It seems to have been designed and grown according to plan.
Web links
- Archaeological Park at www.freyenstein.de
- The invisible Freyenstein - the becoming and passing of a city on www.landkreis-prignitz.de
- Freyenstein. The Pompeii of Brandenburg Berliner Zeitung from October 1, 2017 (accessed October 3, 2017)
- Romanesque routes in Berlin and Brandenburg - Freyenstein urban desert
Individual evidence
- ↑ The invisible Freyenstein - the rise and fall of a city. In: Central Archaeological Places in the Prignitz. Prignitz district, accessed December 28, 2012 .
Coordinates: 53 ° 17 '5.5 " N , 12 ° 21' 8.2" E