Lublin under the rule of the first Jagiellonian kings 1434–1474 ENGLISH VERSION
Index
[Collapse]Important dates
Casimir Jagiellon
Congress of the Crown and Lithuania
The fairs
– 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.
The municipal water system
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 voivedeship
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".