Giecz is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Dominowo __NOTOC__ Gmina Dominowo is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Środa Wielkopolska County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Dominowo, which lies approximately north-east of Środa Wielkopols ...

, within

Środa Wielkopolska County Środa is the Polish language, Polish word for Wednesday. It appears in the names of Polish towns holding Wednesday fair, weekly fairs. There are two towns in Poland called Środa: * Środa Śląska, in south-west Poland (Lower Silesian Voivodeshi ...

Greater Poland Voivodeship Greater Poland Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo wielkopolskie; ), also known as Wielkopolska Voivodeship, Wielkopolska Province, or Greater Poland Province, is a voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 ...

, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately north of

Dominowo Dominowo is a village in Środa Wielkopolska County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Dominowo. It lies approximately north-east of Środa Wielkopolska and sou ...

, north-east of

Środa Wielkopolska Środa Wielkopolska (until 1968 ''Środa''; german: Schroda) is a town in western-central Poland, situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, about southeast of Poznań, with 22,001 inhabitants (2009). It is the seat of Środa Wielkopolska Count ...

, and east of the regional capital

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 ...

. The village has a population of 140. Giecz was once one of the main centres of Polish statehood in the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, alongside

and

Gniezno Gniezno (; german: Gnesen; la, Gnesna) is a city in central-western Poland, about east of Poznań. Its population in 2021 was 66,769, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. One of the Piast dynasty's chief cities, ...

. In the early 9th century, a small keep was built on a mound on a peninsula on the Giecz lake; fortified with a stockade and earthworks. Since 940 it was one of the key strongholds of the early Piast dynasty. In 1038 during a war with Bohemia, the place was seized by Bretislaus I, who sacked the nearby settlement and sold its inhabitants into slavery. The place quickly recovered and by the 13th century was a centre of administration, trade and commerce in the Greater Poland region. At about that time, the settlement received a

town charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document (''charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally the granting of a charter ...

and became the seat of a castellany. However, in 1331, it was burnt to the ground, never to recover.

Archaeological finds

After 1945, archaeologists discovered the remnants of a mediaeval , a pre-Romanesque rotunda, stone walls, a 13th-century palace and several sites of primitive iron-ore working. Currently, Giecz is the site of ongoing excavations. There are two habitation phases being excavated at the same location. The first is a cemetery dated to the 10-11th century. The second, located just beneath the cemetery, is an earlier settlement. Features of this settlement include open earthen structures, hearths, storage pits, and rich culture layers.The Slavia Foundation
/ref> Funding for these excavations is provided by the Slavia Foundation and the First Piasts Museum, Lednica.

References

Giecz Giecz is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Dominowo, within Środa Wielkopolska County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately north of Dominowo, north-east of Środa Wielkopolska, and east ...

Archaeological sites in Poland {{ŚrodaWielkopolska-geo-stub