Bresnice

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The old Sorbian settlement of Bresnice came into being after the Slavic conquest by the Nisans in the 7th century south of the Iron Ford , a prehistoric, quite safe ford through the Elbe .

Bresnice (today's Briesnitz ) is a derivative of the Sorbian Breźnica and means "birch forest" or "birch village ", historically translated as "birch home" in the Romantic era.

According to tradition, the place was sanctified by the Slavic deity Святовит (Swantewit). As a female counterpart to Swantewit, the Elbe Sorbs in Bresnice worshiped the goddess Briesczecz, the birch goddess , for whom sacred birch groves were planted. The birch sap from these groves was considered miraculous, the birch bark served the Sorbs as writing material for sacred texts. Toponyms were also named after this goddess, and the name Prießnitz has been preserved in the Gau Nisan .

In the 9th century at the latest, the ford was protected by a hill fort made of clay and wood. To this castle Bresnice originated Sorbian Supanie Bresnice (to disagree is the Supanie Bresnice older than the castle). She also protected the Swantewit sanctuary at the same time.

In this castle, a wooden St. Mary's Church, built around 880 (according to today's understanding, more like a St. Mary's Chapel) was built based on the model of other Bohemian foundations. With this St. Mary's Church, consecrated according to tradition by Method von Saloniki , the Slavic sanctuary of the four-headed main god and oracle donor Святовит (Swantewit) was built over, as is typical of the time. The first St. Mary's Church in Prague was founded by Bořivoj I on the basis of a vow which he took as a persecuted person in the then safe Moravia. Frantisek Pubitschka dated this foundation to the year 877; if the baptism of Bohemia was later dated to the year 883, only the years 884 and 885 (up to Method's death) are possible. A number of other Marien or Petruskirchen were built during this time, for example a Petruskirche in Tachau (later Görlitz ) and a Marienkirche in Gana Castle . This development is an indication of an anti-Frankish alliance under Christian auspices, also to counter a conquest under the pretext of Christianization. As early as 845, 14 Bohemian princes had been baptized in Regensburg, whereby this connection to the East Franconian Empire and thus to the Latin Church was lost again in the next decades and the Bohemians oriented themselves to the Slavic mission of Cyril and Method. The marriage of Bořivoj I to Ludmilla (probably 874) is also seen as a possible confirmation of an anti-Frankish alliance. Ludmilla was the daughter of the Slavic prince Slavibor of the Pschowanen or the Milzenern .

According to another opinion, these Christian churches in the Sorbian area based on the Bohemian model are an extension of the Bohemian sphere of influence to the north at this time. This is not undisputed, as the Bohemians and Sorbs submitted to the East Franconian Empire separately after the death of Svatopluk I (894) during the weak phase of the Old Moravian Empire: in 895 the Bohemians and only in 897 the Sorbs. More likely, an alliance is not among equals, but still self-sufficient tribes, albeit under Bohemian dominance. Nisan and thus Bresnice are likely to have formed an exception due to the spatial proximity to Bohemia and the very unequal balance of power. The Bavarian geographer does not even mention Nisan between Taleminzia and Bohemia at the end of the 9th century, the Old Sorbian sources already count on the reign of the Bohemian dukes at this time. According to further opinion, Borivoj I of Bohemia had been a dependent of Svatopluks I of Moravia at least since his baptism, if not since he came to power, so that the Christian-oriented West Slavic alliance policy and the founding of churches basically represented an old Moravian strategy. By 890 at the latest, Svatopluk I took over direct control of Bohemia, and the Sorbs came under his direct influence (in another opinion: belonged to the Old Moravian Empire). At this time Nisan had already risen in Bohemia (possibly since [before] 845).

In 990, the Bohemian Academy in Bresnice , which had been relocated from Kraków , began to rebuild as the Bohemian Academy Nisan . The Academy in Cracow was the West Slavic successor institution of the (Old) Moravian Academy , which was destroyed in 886 and which has probably been archaeologically proven in the Devín Castle ( Bratislava ) (see also Kyrill von Saloniki ). Other old Moravian religious refugees established the Bulgarian schools of Pliska among the southern Slavs in 886 (in 893 the whole capital was moved to Veliki Preslav , cf. School of Preslaw ) and of Ohrid (cf. School of Ohrid ). Of the Bulgarians, many of the Slavic priests were ransomed from slavery by the Muslims, to whom they had been sold through the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Many did not survive the displacement in the middle of winter. Even after Wislania and Cracow were taken by the Polans, who had become Latin in 966 (according to a different opinion, 960), only a tiny fraction of Slavic priests, hymnographers and iconographers managed to escape. According to tradition, these took seriously the eclipse warning while the others were sold into slavery. In contrast to the events after 886, the Slavic sources are also silent about the sold. You will have found your death abroad, as is typical of the time, probably predominantly in the then powerful Caliphate of Cordoba . In 990 a last attempt by Boleslav II of Bohemia to rise up against the Germans and the Poles of his brother-in-law Mieszko I, allied with them, with the support of the Sorbs, had failed. Bohemia not only lost Wislania with Krakow, but also Silesia to Poland.

The first Christian burials in the cemetery in Bresnice are also dated to the time before the turn of the millennium , although the information from the 10th century could go back much further and it should also be noted that the very first graves may have been overlaid and destroyed later. The burials took place in a stretched position on the back in a strictly west-east direction with a view to the east, in some graves - as in the early Frauenkirchfriedhof - Slavic temple rings were found as grave goods. In one case the grave slab carried a modeled cross.

At the turn of the millennium, the ramparts of the Bresnice spur castle were further expanded , perhaps an indication of the conflicts after the death of Emperor Otto III. on January 23 or 24, 1002 in Castel Paterno near Faleria (Italy) including the existential threat to Bohemia, which was occupied by the Poles in 1003/1004. In 1004, King Heinrich II, as an alleged diversionary maneuver , pulled ships together in Nisani on the Elbe, possibly in the port of Nisan, or, according to another opinion, in Neußen near Belgern.

The foundations of a semicircular choir closure of the Marienkirche are also dated to the turn of the millennium, possibly an indication of a first stone building within the castle. In Krakow, the first Christian stone buildings were built before the Polans conquered it. This technique could have been adopted from there. The Marienkirche in Bresnice was therefore the first stone church in Nisan and certainly the most important and largest church in this Gau at that time.

In September 1017, Bresnice was razed to the ground by the troops of King Henry II (the Saint), and all prisoners were killed. The pagan Liutizen , allied at that time with the Christian Emperor against the Christian Polish (later) King Bolesław I Chrobry, did not take part in the devastation of Nisan because they had an old friendship treaty with the Nisans (according to another opinion, the Liutizen had already left Heinrich's army , because a carried as a banner image of their goddess had been damaged by a German by stone throwing. The Emperor compensated with 12 pounds ). There is also the view that Henry Nisan did not already devastated by his passage from Bohemia to Meissen, but only after 19 September 1017, as the Poles on the orders of her Duke Boleslaw in the area between Elbe and Mulde invaded, devastated the country and withdrew with more than 1000 serfs captured . It is more likely, however, that the Poles' devastation campaign in Daleminzia was a reaction to the devastation in Nisan.

The Nisan Academy was then relocated to the port of Nisan and, two years after the Peace of 1018, the St. Mary's Church there was built as a wooden church in the spring and consecrated on September 8, 1020.

The castle and church of Bresnice were rebuilt, at first quickly also in wood, then before the middle of the 11th century the church was again made of stone with a rectangular choir as an extension of the semicircular end of the choir. The dates of the stone foundations are, however, too imprecise to be able to classify them historically more specifically. Both stone foundations could be built after the destruction of 1017.

Allegedly at the end of 1139, the Meissen Monastery applied for confirmation of ownership by Pope Innocent II , which was also granted with a papal document of February 27, 1140. It was not until October 29, 1131 that Innocent II had confirmed to the collegiate church all rights and goods that it owns or will own in the future . By the end of 1139 the situation for the diocese of Meißen (concerning Nisan) had evidently changed fundamentally. Since this papal document has only been handed down by the Meißen monastery archive, from which extensive forgery complexes originate from the 10th and 11th centuries, this document from 1140 is not free of doubts either. It could also have been made in 1143/44 in order to give the bishopric of Meissen advantages in the dispute with the Margrave of Meissen over property, rights and influence in Nisan.

This difference of opinion, which existed between Meinward, the revered Meißner bishop, and Konrad, our loyal and highly respected margrave , was confirmed by King Konrad III. decided with a royal charter from 1144 to the advantage of the diocese of Meissen. One of the decisive factors was probably a forgery complex dating back to 1071 (with two diplomas) and 1091, whereby Bresnice was also mentioned allegedly in 1071 . The papal charter of 1140 mentions a Wirnotine (the deserted Wernten) in Burcwardo Bresnice . The Gau Nisan was passed from the Bohemian duke to the German king in 1142 and loaned to the Meissen margrave in 1143. Innocent II died in Rome on September 24, 1143.

According to another opinion, the mention of the village Hermanni villa (Hermsdorf) in the papal deed of 1140 proves that it must have been forged much later. While some historians see this place as evidence of a German state expansion before 1139/1140, other historians assess the mention of this place in the diploma of 1140 as ahistorical and thus more as proof that this papal document was also used by the Meissen bishops (at least Decades later) was forged and therefore could not be assigned to the dispute of 1144. Another forgery complex with border documents of the diocese of Meissen dating back to the 10th century was created in 1250.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The ford near Dresden was in swampy terrain at the time, "Dresdene" was probably derived from the Old Sorbian term "Drežďany" ("swamp" - or "Auwaldbewohner", plural form). "Drežďany" goes back to the Slavic word drežga ("swamp forest").
  2. ↑ See Ernst Eichler : Slavic place names between Saale and Neisse. Volume I, VEB Domowina-Verlag, Bautzen 1985, p. 63.
  3. ↑ New Lusatian Magazine. Published by the Upper Lusatian Society of Sciences by the Secretair J. [oachim] Leopold Haupt [1797–1883], Eighteenth, new series of fifth volume , Görlitz in Heyn'schen Buch = und Kunsthandlung 1840, p. 215.
  4. ^ Albert Schiffner: Handbook of geography, statistics and topography of the Kingdom of Saxony , second delivery, containing the Dresden district directorate, Leipzig at Friedrich Fleischer, 1840, p. 150 .: Dresdener Doerfer […] 14) Briesnitz […] (= Birkenbach, or named after the Slavic goddess Briesczecz in Boehnisch […].
  5. ^ Heinrich Meschwitz (* July 15, 1869 in Dresden; † 1927): History of the Dresdner Heide and its residents. Edited using official sources. With a map of the Dresden Heath, several plans and illustrations. Publishing house by C. Heinrich, Dresden-N. 1911 (Foreword Cossebaude near Dresden , May 1911.), p. 14: This heath area on the right bank of the Elbe already enjoyed a certain reputation among the residents at the time of the Wende rule. After all, the vast, silent forest was a center of religious worship, a temple of nature, and to which gods and spirits were worshiped. The remote forest grounds were believed to be the seat of various deities. The transfer of the names of gods to paths, trees, stones and streams. 1: According to Bohemian, the name Prießnitzbach is said to come from Briesczecz - a Slavic goddess. Another version translates it instead as "Birkenbach", more recent scholars as "mountain water".] Corresponded to this idea and one suspected good and bad spirits in the air, on wooded hills, in valleys and in gloomy ravines.
  6. ↑ Francisci (Frantisek) Pubitschka (priest of the Society of Jesus): Chronological History of Bohemia among the first Christian dukes. Second part, which contains Christian behavior. , Leipzig and Prague, with Franz Augustin Hoechenberg and Compagnie. 1771 , page 32: Year of Christ 877: To this year I can still count with a high degree of probability what Christannus von Borziwojo wrote after his reinstatement: this very prince had made a vow to God during his stay in Maehren, if he did to him gave back his lost dignity and paternal inheritance, he wanted to build a church in honor of the Holy Virgin Mary: and scarcely had he returned to Prague; So he kept this promise and built a church in the middle of the market in the old town of Prague, which is still today Tein. It is in this church that the university maintains its spiritual ceremonies. Right next to it is the old palace of Duke Krzezomysli, which was subsequently called laeta curia, the funny court or the Tein court. As Krugerius recalls, there is supposed to be a chapel in which Spitignaeus, Borziwoji's son, is buried: the Tein Church, however, as you can still see, is said to have had various merchants built in 1400. Pessina (o) [PESSINA. Phosphorus. Rad. 3.] writes: not far from there on the hill Zderassei of Borziwojo the church of St. Petri and Pauli was built: etc
  7. ↑ Frantisek Pubitschka: "Chronological History of Bohemia , Prague 1771, Volume 2, Page 33: Carpzov tells according to an old tradition: near the village of Tachau, on the river Nissa in Lusatia, where there was previously a grove sacred to the goddess Isis, the H Ludmilla erected a church for the holy apostle Petro and gave it generously: it was consecrated by H. Methodio. Carpzov reports this in the Zittauischen collections, Großer in the Lausitzische Merkwuerditäten 2nd Th. And Christoph Wiesner in the manuscripts of the Laubenschen yearbooks.
  8. ↑ According to the Christian legend , Cap. 3, p. 24, and the Chronica Boemorum .
  9. ↑ After the prologue on St. Ludmila.
  10. ^ Annales Jordani from the 11th century.
  11. ↑ Poznan annals from the 14th century.
  12. ↑ Thietmar VII, 60 (44) f., 63 (46) f .; Ann. Quedlinburg. (Pp. 3, 84).
  13. ↑ RI II, 4 n.1908c, in: Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/1017-08-12_1_0_2_4_1_749_1908c (accessed on February 22, 2019).
  14. ↑ Thietmar VII, 63 (46) f.
  15. ↑ RI II, 4 n.1908d, in: Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/1017-09-18_1_0_2_4_1_750_1908d (accessed on February 22, 2019).
  16. ↑ CDS II 1, No. 45 .