A gord is a medievalSlavonic fortified settlement, usually built on strategic sites such as hilltops, riverbanks, lake islets or peninsulas between the 6th and 12th centuries CE in
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...
and Eastern Europe. The typical gord usually consisted of a group of wooden houses surrounded by a wall made of earth and wood, and a palisade running along the top of the bulwark.
Etymology
The term ultimately descends from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root '' ǵʰortós'', enclosure. The Proto-Slavic word ''*gordъ'' later differentiated into grad ( Cyrillic: град), gorod (Cyrillic: город), gród in Polish, gard in Kashubian, etc. It is the root of various words in modern Slavic languages pertaining to fences and fenced-in areas (Belarusian гарадзіць, Ukrainian horodyty, Czech ohradit, Russian ogradit, Serbo-Croatian ograditi, and Polish ogradzać, grodzić, to fence off). It also has evolved into words for a garden in certain languages.
Additionally, it has furnished numerous modern Slavic words for a city or
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an o ...
:
* Polish ''gród'', plural ''grody'' (toponymic; nowadays a town or city is termed ''miasto'', but remnants of a ''gród'' are known as ''grodzisko'')
* Ancient Pomeranian and modern Kashubian ''gard''
* Slovak and Czech ''hrad'' ("castle" in the modern language), or ''hradisko/hradiště/hradec'', which are terms for gord
* Slovene ''grad'' ("castle" in modern Slovene)
* Belarusian ''горад'' (horad)
* Russian ''город'' (gorod)
*
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
''город'' (horod, dialectal and toponymic; nowadays ''misto'')
* Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, and
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Ma ...
''grad''/''град''
The names of many Central and Eastern European cities harken back to their pasts as gords. Some of them are in countries which once were but no longer are mainly inhabited by Slavic-speaking peoples.
Examples include:
* Horodok
*
Gorod (toponymy)
Gorod () is a version of the Slavic word meaning "town", "city" or "castle", and is related to the similar '' grad'' and ''horod''.
It is preserved in the toponymy of numerous Slavic places:
* Bely Gorod
* Belgorod
* Gorodets (with -ets as the ...
* Hrod (toponymy)
* Hrud
* Horod
* Hrad (toponymy)
* Gard (Slavic toponymy)
* Grod (toponymy)
* Grad (toponymy)
The words in Polish and Slovak for ''suburbium'', ''podgrodzie'' and ''podhradie'' correspondingly, literally mean a settlement beneath a gord: the ''gród''/''hrad'' was frequently built at the top of a hill, and the ''podgrodzie''/''podhradie'' at its foot. (The Slavic prefix ''pod-'', meaning "under/below" and descending from the Proto-Indo-European root '' pṓds,'' meaning foot, being equivalent to Latin ''sub-''). The word survives in the names of several villages ( Podgrodzie, Subcarpathian Voivodeship) and town districts (e.g., that of
Olsztyn
Olsztyn ( , ; german: Allenstein ; Old Prussian: ''Alnāsteini''
* Latin: ''Allenstenium'', ''Holstin'') is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. ...
), as well as in the names of the German municipalities
Puttgarden
is a ferry harbour and a village on the German island of Fehmarn. It lies on an important route between Germany and Denmark known as the Vogelfluglinie which crosses the strait, the Fehmarnbelt, to Rødby on the island of Lolland.
Overvie ...
,
Wagria
WagriaArnold, Benjamin (1991). ''Princes and territories in medieval Germany'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, p. 156. . (german: Wagrien, ''Waierland'' or ''Wagerland'') is the northeastern part of Holstein in the German stat ...
and
Putgarten
Putgarten is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
The municipality is managed by the ''Amt'' of Nord-Rügen with its seat in Sagard.
Putgarten is the northernmost municipality in the state of ...
,
Rügen
Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...
.
From this same Proto-Indo-European root come the Germanic word elements *''gard'' and *''gart'' (as in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...
), and likely also the names of
Graz
Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popula ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and
Gartz
Gartz is a town in the Uckermark district in Brandenburg, Germany. It is located on the West bank of the Oder River, on the border with Poland, about 20 km south of Szczecin, Poland. It is located within the historic region of Western Pom ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
. Cognate to these are English words such as ''garden'', ''yard'', ''garth'', ''girdle'' and ''court.'' Also cognate but less closely related are Latin ''hortus'', a garden, and its English descendants ''horticulture'' and ''orchard''. In Hungarian, ''kert'', the word for a garden, literally means ''encircled''. Because Hungarian is a
Uralic
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian lan ...
rather than an
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...
language, this is likely a
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...
. Further afield, in ancient Iran, a fortified wooden settlement was called a ''gerd'', or ''certa'', which also means garden (as in the suffix ''-certa'' in the names of various ancient Iranian cities; e.g., ''Hunoracerta''). The Persian word evolved into ''jerd'' under later
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
influence. Burugerd or Borujerd is a city in the west of Iran. The Indian suffix ''-garh'', meaning a fort in
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
, and other
Indo-Iranian languages
The Indo-Iranian languages (also Indo-Iranic languages or Aryan languages) constitute the largest and southeasternmost extant branch of the Indo-European language family (with over 400 languages), predominantly spoken in the geographical subr ...
, appears in many Indian place names. Given that both Slavic and Indo-Iranian are sub-branches of Indo-European and that there are numerous similarities between Slavic and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
vocabulary, it is plausible that ''garh'' and ''gord'' are related. However, this is strongly contradicted by the phoneme /g/ in Indo-Iranian, which cannot be a reflex of the Indo-European palatovelar /*ǵ/.
Construction
A typical gord was a group of wooden houses built either in rows or in circles, surrounded by one or more rings of walls made of earth and wood, a palisade, and/or moats. Some gords were ring-shaped, with a round, oval, or occasionally polygonal fence or wall surrounding a hollow. Others, built on a natural hill or a man-made mound, were cone-shaped. Those with a natural defense on one side, such as a river or lake, were usually horseshoe-shaped. Most gords were built in densely populated areas on sites that offered particular natural advantages.
As Slavic tribes united to form states, gords were also built for defensive purposes in less-populated border areas. Gords in which rulers resided or that lay on trade routes quickly expanded. Near the gord, or below it in elevation, there formed small communities of servants, merchants, artisans, and others who served the higher-ranked inhabitants of the gord. Each such community was known as a ''suburbium'' ( pl, podgrodzie). Its residents could shelter within the walls of the gord in the event of danger. Eventually the ''suburbium'' acquired its own fence or wall. In the
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...
citadel
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
In ...
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an o ...
.
Some gords did not stand the test of time and were abandoned or destroyed, gradually turning into more or less discernible mounds or rings of earth ( Russian ''gorodishche,'' Polish ''gród'' or ''grodzisko,''
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
''horodyshche,'' Slovak ''hradisko,'' Czech ''hradiště,'' German ''Hradisch'', Hungarian ''hradis'' and
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe
* someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people
* Serbian language
* Serbian names
See also
*
*
* Old Serbian (disambiguation ...
''gradiška''/''градишка''). Notable archeological sites include Groß Raden in Germany and Biskupin in Poland.
Kałdus
Kałdus is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Chełmno, within Chełmno County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. It lies south of Chełmno
Chełmno (; older en, Culm; formerly ) is a town in northern ...
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...
Poznań
Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...
Włocławek
Włocławek (Polish pronunciation: ; german: Leslau) is a city located in central Poland along the Vistula (Wisła) River and is bordered by the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park. As of December 2021, the population of the city is 106,928. Lo ...
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, r ...
Kouřim
Kouřim (; german: Kaurzim, Kaurzin, Kaurim) is a town in Kolín District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,900 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.
...
Ducové
Ducové ( hu, Ducó) is a municipality (village) situated in western Slovakia, near the spa town of Piešťany. It was part of the municipality Moravany nad Váhom from 1976 to 1992. The village lies under the Váh Inovec. According to the 2011 c ...
Ukraine
*
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Ky ...
Wismar
Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest cit ...
Groß Raden Archaeological Open Air Museum
The Groß Raden Archaeological Open Air Museum (german: Archäologische Freilichtmuseum Groß Raden) lies a few kilometres north of the small town of Sternberg and about a kilometre northeast of the village of Groß Raden in the German state o ...
Rostock
Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state ...
Galenbeck
Galenbeck is a municipality in the district Mecklenburgische Seenplatte, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in ...
Ludwigslust-Parchim
Ludwigslust-Parchim is a district in the west of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is bordered by (clockwise starting from the west) the state Schleswig-Holstein, the district Nordwestmecklenburg, the district-free city Schwerin, the distri ...
Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...
* including:
* the fort of the Slavic settlement of Starigard in present-day Oldenburg –
Bavaria
*
Rauher Kulm
The Rauher Kulm is a small basalt mountain located in the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz) region of the state of Bavaria, Germany. It is located 23 kilometers southeast of Bayreuth and 5 kilometers south of Kemnath. The town of Neustadt am Kulm ...
* Oppidum, a type of similar but often much bigger fortified wooden settlement used by ancient
Celts
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
and
Germanics
The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
.
*
Gordoservon Gordoservon or Gordoserbon or Gordoserba ( el, Γορδόσερβον; sr, Гордосервон, Гордосербон) was an early medieval Byzantine city, and a bishopric, suffragan of the Metropolis of Nicaea, in the region of Bithynia, Asia ...