Preseka

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Preseka

Preseka (German also Hag ; Polish Przesieka Śląska ; also Osek ; Czech Přeseka , also Hvozd ; Latin Indago ) was a wide border forest belt that served to defend ancient Slavic tribal areas.

history

The border forest known as "Preseka" was created in the early Middle Ages. It was first mentioned in a document in a report in the Heinrichauer Gründungsbuch from around 1270. There it is said that the border forest surrounded “the whole of Silesia ”.

The border forest, which was forbidden to be cleared, was built by a jib made of trees that were notched and bent down at man's height and their branches were intertwined. In addition, a thorn bush grew between the trees so that it was hardly possible to penetrate the forest. The mule tracks leading out through the undergrowth could be closed by several gates in times of danger. One of the few passes or mule tracks on which the border forest could be crossed was the Landeshut pass landscape. It was used by the Polish Duke Bolesław III. Wrymouth in 1110 for a raid into Bohemia. The Polish farmers were obliged to maintain and defend the Verhaus. The commitment was also called Preseka.

After the Preseka had been cleared from the outside in individual areas as part of the medieval eastern settlement , it gradually lost its importance. In the north-east Bohemian area, on the outside of the border forest, large areas were colonized by the Politz Benedictine monastery . The order for this was given by King Ottokar I at the beginning of the 13th century when he donated the Politzer Sprengels to the Břevnov monastery . To avoid loss of territory, the Silesian dukes counter-colonized the inside of the border wall. A belt of forest-hoofed villages , fortified towns and castles was created on the settlement area gained in this way . The first counter-colonization was initiated by Duke Heinrich I around 1225 in the area of Naumburg am Queis . The marriage of his son Heinrich II. To Ottokar I. Přemysl's daughter Anna in 1217 also improved the political relationship between Silesia and Bohemia.

The Preseka is documented for the following areas for the 13th century:

The Dreigräben near Sagan also belonged to the border security system . Other areas of the Breslau Duchy were secured by river borders.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. P. Ambrosius Rose: Grüssau Monastery. Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-8062-0126-9 , p. 13