Prehistory
W .Kuś, transl. L. Krzanowska & J. Whitewood
The present knowledge of primaeval and mediaeval settlements in the Cieszyn region is still relatively modest. It concerns both the ground survey as well as the degree to which the hitherto registered locations have been examined. This is why many issues relating to the process of settlement still remain unknown. The physiographic properties of this ground had an unquestionable influence on settlement. The domination of hilly and piedmont areas with not very favourable climatic conditions (higher rainfall and a shorter vegetation period) as well as the quality of the soil that is difficult to cultivate limited the settlement of farming communities in primaeval times. Also, what played an essential role in the settlement process was the geographic position of the land that was situated in the northeastern and northern approaches to important “transcarpathian” passages, namely the Moravian Gate and the Jabłonkowska Pass. The migration of groups of people through those natural passages, including expeditions that were plundering in nature, perhaps had a destabilizing influence on settlement in this area. Despite this the archaeological examinations that are being conducted prove the existence - in primaeval times – of not only short stays of people here, but also the existence of permanent settlements that were established in places that best suited the requirements of the people of those times. The area of today’s Cieszyn, and especially the Castle Hill, was one of such places. The Castle Hill (with its remains of a mediaeval castle that have been preserved until today) is by nature a defensive elevation that resembles in shape a truncated cone with steep slopes. It is situated on the right bank of the Olza river and its small feeder stream – the Bobrówka. Cieszyn limestones constitute the main bulk of the elevation ( 300 m above sea level). The oldest traces of human presence on the Castle Hill that have been found so far come from the palaeolithic period. They are connected with the Szelet culture (38 – 24 thousand years B.C.) and are represented by stone tools – arrow-heads. On this basis we can talk about the existence, on the Castle Hill, of a camp of hunter-gatherers who penetrated the area of steppe while hunting for mammoth and reindeer. The cooling down of the climate that was caused by the drawing of the continental glacier into the area of the European Plain caused the migration of those people to East Europe. For the next several thousand years the Castle Hill was probably not settled, which is indicated by the lack of material remains of human activity. From that period, however, we know of a few archaeological locations in other areas of Cieszyn Silesia. To them belong, among others, the following locations from the last part of the palaeolithic age(12-8 thousand years B.C.): Jaworze 8a, Jaworze 10, and Ochaby 1 as well as locations from the Mesolithic period (8-5 thousand years B.C.). It is quite possible, however, that groups of people of that time also stayed on the Castle Hill periodically. Ruling out the possibility of settlement over such a long period of time cannot be done because the Castle Hill has been examined only partly and the oldest layers were destroyed by more recent structures, especially those erected in the Middle Ages. The settlement situation in the Neolithic Age (5-2,3 thousand years B.C.) looks similar. Farming and animal husbandry appear then and they are expressed by settlements with dwelling and farm structures. Such a settlement was discovered in Cieszyn-Krasna and, in the last years, it has been examined. Also in this case one does not rule out the existence of some settlement on the Castle Hill – all the more so as in Cieszyn Museum there are photographs of two fragments of Neolithic ceramics that come precisely from the Castle Hill. Unfortunately, the objects themselves are absent. The settling in the Cieszyn region and Cieszyn itself took place at the end of the Bronze Age ( the 5th period of the Bronze Age – 900-700 years B.C.) and in the early period of the Iron Age ( the Hallstatt period – 700-400 B.C.). The recorded upland settlements were situated on elevations and foothills in the approaches to the Beskids. Besides Podobora (The Czech Republic), Międzyświeć, and Skoczów parish, the Castle Hill in Cieszyn also belongs to this group. The archaeological examination conducted in the forties and the fifties of the 20th century gave evidence of the existence of the settlement of people representing the Lusatian culture here. This fact was testified mainly by ceramic material. It is possible that the settlement of that time was continued also in the next period, called La Tene’s period, or pre-Roman (400 B.C. to the beginnings of A.D.). In Western and Central Europe this was a period of dominance by ancient Celts who settled also in parts of Southern Poland during their migrations. Also in Cieszyn on the Castle Hill, we come across the remnants of a fortified settlement associated with a Celtic tribe. The dominant element in the antique material is characteristic graphite ceramics of Celtic forms and ornamentation. It was fashioned on potter’s wheels or by hand. Exceptional findings are a gold Celtic coin, a glass bead and a casting ladle. Because of specific features that distinguished that culture it was called puchowska culture (from Puchov – a location in Slovakia). It came into being as a result of elements of the Celtic culture combining with the local traditions of the Lusatian culture. Scarce monumental material, connected with the Roman period, ends the phase of ancient settlements. The Roman period (the beginnings of A.D. to about 375 A.D.) is represented in the Cieszyn area mainly by individual findings of coins of the Roman Empire, which reflects the trade routes of that time. In the 6th and 7th centuries there was an influx and settlement of the areas of Central and Southern Europe by Slavs. The Slavonic Gołęszyce, numbered among the ‘Silesian’ tribes lived in the area of Cieszyn Silesia,. The oldest fortified settlements, called grody (strongholds) and established in Cieszyn Silesia by Slavonic people, are in Podobora (in today’s Czech Republic), which is 5 km from Cieszyn, and in Międzyświeć near Skoczów. The stronghold in Podobora is still, until now, referred to as “Stary Cieszyn”( The Old Cieszyn) or “Cieszynisko”. At the end of the 9th century it was destroyed by the invasion of Svatopolk, the ruler of Grand Moravia. In Cieszyn – on the Castle Hill - a new stronghold was erected as part of the process of building the rudiments of the Slavonic state of the first Piasts (Piasts were a dynasty of Polish princes). In the 11th century, during struggles over Silesian lands between Poles and Czechs a division of the old territory that had belonged to the Gołęszyce tribe was made. Cieszyn Silesia remained within the Polish borders, thus becoming the border area. The Cieszyn stronghold, raised to the standing of castellany, became the seat of a castellan (a high rank official in the hierarchy of state authorities of that time) and it played that role until the Duchy of Cieszyn was formed at the end of the 13th century.
The building of a Gothic princely castle is connected with that period and the following structures have remained until today: fragments of defensive walls, towers and the only one in Poland – a Romanesque Rotunda church with a gallery in the west part. At the time when the early mediaeval stronghold functioned, from the eastern side a settlement developed, which gave rise to the development of the mediaeval town of Cieszyn.