Sandomierz 1400AD

[Chlodowech]

It's been about 3 years since i last contributed anything to the content of this Forum, but now i finally i've created something new that deserves being called a 'map' (in contrast to some older works of mine ) and is, in my opinion, good enough to be shown here. Unfortunately i did again not document any part of the creation, so i'll put it right in here.

But enough for the endless introduction talking, here it is:

SandomierzBearbeitet1.jpg

[This is a cheap photography made with a mobile phone camera, i'll replace it with a scanned version asap]

A reconstruction drawing of the Polish town of Sandomierz around the year 1400, based on visible remains, and documentation of structures from the last 500 years.

Now, a bit of explanation for the interested:

Sandomierz is one of the most important towns in the historic region of Lesser Poland. Being set up directly above the Vistula river, it was the crossing point for some of the most important trade routes in eastern Europe. The existing town was founded in the mid 12th century, but it got almost completely destroyed by the Mongolian Invasion in 1241, and again by a second raid in 1259 and a third one in 1287, so except for the dominican monastery church of Saint James, which by miracle survived all the invasions, basically the whole town was reshaped and rebuilt in the 14th and 15th century, which was the golden age of Sandomierz. All the more important structures shown in my drawing have been built within the 50 years prior to the point of time i've chosen. The good times lasted well into the 16th century, but later, the town was struck by epidemias and a great number of sieges, among which the most important ones were the one by the swedish in 1655, which led to another destruction and depopulation of the town, and the one by the Austrian forces in 1809, during the Napoleonic wars.
Nowadays, Sandomierz has regained some of its old importance, but it still is a rather small town.

And, since the map key is written in German, i'll give you the english (and polish) translation for it:

1 Castle (Zamek)

2 Collegiate church of Saint Mary, catholic cathedral since 1818 (Bazylika katedralna Narodzenia Najświętszej Maryi Panny)

3 Dominican friary; not the early one described above, but a 14th century replacement within the town walls (dominikański klasztor i konwent św. Marii Magdaleny)

4 Saint Peter's church (Kościół św. Piotra)

5 Town Hall (Ratusz)

6 Holy Cross church and hospital (kościół pw. Świętego Ducha)




PS: I'm currently working on a second map, this time of a town called Nowy Korczyn.