The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre in Lublin is a local government cultural institution. It works towards the preservation of cultural heritage and education. Its function is tied to the symbolic and historical meaning of the Centre’s location in the Grodzka Gate, which used to divide Lublin into its respective Christian and Jewish quarters, as well as to Lublin as a meeting place of cultures, traditions and religions.

Part of the Centre are the House of Words and the Lublin Underground Trail.

The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre in Lublin is a local government cultural institution. It works towards the preservation of cultural heritage and education. Its function is tied to the symbolic and historical meaning of the Centre’s location in the Grodzka Gate, which used to divide Lublin into its respective Christian and Jewish quarters, as well as to Lublin as a meeting place of cultures, traditions and religions.

Part of the Centre are the House of Words and the Lublin Underground Trail.

Lublin under the rule of the first Jagiellonian kings 1434–1474 ENGLISH VERSION

Lublin's development and growth at the turn of 14th and 15th centuries and the with Lithuania and Ruthenia resulted in Lublin becoming one of the most important cities in the Kingdom of Poland. The route connecting the two capitals of Jagiellonian kingdom – Vilnius and Cracow. 15th century seen the Jagiellonian monarchy joining European trade with its three major export goods: grain from Poland, furs from the Lithuanian-Ruthenian lands, and oxen from Ukraine and Volhynia. Other less important goods were wax, linen, wood and the Polish cochineal. Fairs, organised in borderland towns situated next to particularly busy routes, were one of the ways in which the trade functioned at that time. It was especially due to the development of the fairs that Lublin began to flourish economically in the times of the first Jagiellonian rulers on the Polish throne – passed through the town.

 

Important datesDirect link for this paragraphGo back to indexGo back to index

1448 – 1st Polish-Lithuanian congress
1448 – privileges granted to the city by Casimir Jagiellon
1474 – Lublin becomes the capital of a voivodship

Casimir JagiellonDirect link for this paragraphGo back to indexGo back to index

Just like his father, Casimir appreciated Lublin's bourgeoisie's loyalty towards the Jagiellonian dynasty. The king had the possibility of seeing the city on his way from Lithuania in June 1447. According to Długosz, Lublin was at that time "splendidly stocked with everything by Jan from Sczekociny, the Lublin starosta".
A proof of the king's favourable attitude to the city's situation was his deep involvement in a conflict between the city council and the vogt (Polish wójt). When the city was consumed by the Great Fire of Lublin in 1447 to the extent that, according to Długosz "not a single house was left", the king exempted the inhabitants from every possible kind of taxation for 10 following years. In 1448 the merchants of Lublin were exempted from the bridge taxes in the towns of Łęczna and Brest.

Congress of the Crown and LithuaniaDirect link for this paragraphGo back to indexGo back to index

It was however the congress of Polish and Lithuanian nobility in May 1448 that gave the king the most thorough overview of the municipality issues. The prominent notables of the two Jagiellonian countries that appeared in Lublin on that occasion were the Archbishop of Gniezno and primate Wincenty Kot, Bishop of Cracow Zbigniew Oleśnicki and other bishops, many voivodes and castellans, with the castellan of Lublin, Krzesław z Kurozwęk, among them. The congress debated over the most important issues, especially the ones decisive in the future relations of the two countries.

The fairsDirect link for this paragraphGo back to indexGo back to index

It was however from the trade that Lublin began to derive the greatest benefits from. The royal privileges were truly helpful. In 1448 Casimir Jagiellon granted Lublin the right to organise not just one, but four fora annualia:
– the first, lasting 16 days, beginning 8 days before the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (also known as Candlemas, February 2nd);
– the second, lasting 16 days, beginning 8 days before and finishing 8 days after Pentecost;
– the third, for the Feast of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15th), lasting 8 days;
– the fourth, for the Feast of Simon the Zealot and Jude Thaddeus (October 28th), lasting 8 days.

Therefore, the town was privileged with one fair for each season of the year. This raised Lublin to the rank of a large trade centre; the merchants arriving at the two longer fairs were also exempted from the customs tariffs. Poets and foreign travellers were marvelling over the fame and wealth of the Lublin fairs; the events also provided a source of pride and income for the inhabitants of Lublin, as the incoming merchants paid considerable amounts of money for the accommodation.

In 1450 the king proclaimed a new route for Ruthenian trade; it led from Lviv through Hrubieszów, Krasnystaw, Lublin, Kazimierz, Ra­dom and headed Wrocław and Poznań. All the merchants could take it, but the Lublin ones were provided with special protection. This in turn has led to Lithuanian towns establishing closer trading relations with their Polish counterparts, especially with Lublin. The new route deminished Cracow's monopoly of the eastern trade, strengthened Lublin's bonds with Wrocław, Poznań and Lviv and became one of the reason's for Lublin's growing role in Polish economy.

In the second half of the 15th century, the city was doing extremely well in long-distance trade: the merchants from all possible places – Poznań, Wrocław, Cracow, Vilnius, Germany, Moscow, Moldavia, Hungary – appeared in Lublin. Furs and wax would come from Latvia and Lithuania, textiles and metal objects – from the West, Hungarian and Greek wines passed through Lublin in large quantities, as well as Eastern textiles, spices, copper, sulphur, lead, side arms and oxen from Volhynia and Podolia heading West. The position of Lublin as one of the crucial partners of the Eastern trade was considerably strengthened.

In 1453 the city was granted yet another privilege, on the basis of which the clergy and the nobility had no legal right to purchase real estate within the municipal territory. However this law would be violated later on, at the moment of granting, it gave special position to the city and the municipal council. The lands belonging to the clergy and the nobility, situated within the city walls, did not, at that time, fall under the municipal jurisdiction and this meant the possibility of running any kind of business and being exempt from the municipal forms of its taxation.

In 1466, after the impoverishing Thirteen Years' War Casimir Jagiellon defeated the Teutonic Knights. On the basis of the peace treaty signed in Thorn, the Teutonic Knights had to hand over the territories of the Royal Prussia, Warmia, Kulmerland and Michelauer Land under the rule of the Polish king. The estuary of the Vistula river and Gdańsk, the gate to the most important Baltic trading route fell into the Polish hands. The Vistula, San and Bug rivers flowing through the fertile Lublin region provided a cheap and convenient mean of transport for the local grains on its way to Gdańsk and from there to the absorbent markets of the Western European cities with their urbanisation processes in full swing.

In 1468 yet another royal privilege was granted to the city: the strygeld gave right to measure and assess textiles brought to be sold at the fairs; the law prevented merchants from selling goods of poor quality or cheating when measuring the textiles. This in turn made the fairs more attractive for purchasers and provided additional money to the council. The same document also included a renewal of the staple right for Lublin (previously conferred in 1392).

In 1475 the king allowed for a smatruz "to be build anew". Smatruz (German: Schmetterhaus), in Polish also known askramnica, was a building where both the local and the outer merchants could display and sell their goods. As convenient as it was for the merchants, it also proved to be another source of income for the city council. "Anew" meant that Lublin must have had its kramnica before, but presumably it was consumed in a fire.

Among other important forms of taxation were: czopowe, gorzałczane and grosz piwny (money paid for, among others, producing, importing and selling beer, vodka and mead), but also the bridge (mostowe), market stalls (kramne) and pipe (rurne) taxes – just to name a few.

The municipal water systemDirect link for this paragraphGo back to indexGo back to index

The wealthy city deserved also communal facilities. Casimir Jagiellon, bearing in mind the civilised needs of the bourghers, granted the city with a privilege of building the water system, fitted into the urban space of Lublin in 1506, making the city one of very few places in the kingdom lucky enough to experience such luxuries. The pipe master Jan of Nowy Sącz was the author of the scheme. The water was drawn from the Bystrzyca river near the former village Wrotków and carried in the special channel leading to a water mill on the left bank of the river. It was there lifted by the mill to a tower situated on a high escarpment near the garden of St. Brigit congregation's convent and later transmitted in the hallow tree trunks linked by cast-iron muffs to the tanks near the Cracovian Gate, from where it was publicly accessible. The land where the pipes were situated was later incorporated into the city borders and is now known as Rury (pipes) district.

Lublin voivedeshipDirect link for this paragraphGo back to indexGo back to index

The position of Lublin as a centre of the region was steadily strengthening; the archdeaconry, magistrates' court and poviat starosty had all their headquarters here. During Casimir Jagiellon's reign Lublin was proclaimed the capital of the voivodeship established in 1474. The decision of the king made the region independent of Sandomierz voivedship, which considerably enhanced its prestige – voivedships (as an administration unit parallel to provinces) originally stemmed directly from the district duchies, and in the whole history of the Kingdom of Poland there were just two "new" voivodships formed: Lublin and Gniezno voivedeships (the latter in 1768). This decision, however elevating, had its disadvantages: the western border of the province was now situated along the Vistula bank – the main traffic artery of the kingdom was bypassing the region instead of crossing it.

The coat of arms of the Lublin voivedship depicted a running silver deer with golden antlers and hoofs. The animal's neck was adorned with a crown, the symbol of the royal favour. It is probable that the coat of arms existed before the actual Lublin voivedship was established; it might have been seen on the standard held by Lublin's chorąży ("standard-bearer") in the funeral procession of Casimir the Great; the knights of Lublin in the battle of Grunwald also fought under the symbol of the deer.

The first voivode of Lublin was Dobiesław Kmita from Wiśnicz of Średniawa coat of arms; Jan Feliks Tarnowski and Dobiesław "Lubelczyk" from Kurozwęki were his successors.

In reality, the decision of Casimir Jagiellon proclaiming Lublin the capital of a new voivodeship was a proof of the city's cultural and economic position. Nothing else could highlight the growing role of the city more, than the words of the king himself, stating in one of the royal documents from 1468 that: "location, state and size of Lublin are the conditions under which it highly deserves to be listed among the most prominent and splendid cities of our kingdom". Mentioning his predecessors' achievements in this matter he indicated that their intention had been to "make it [Lublin] deserve such favours and let it become the major city".