Articles --> Żuławy

Subject literature and cartography

The architecture of the Żuławy village has already been briefly described, but only with respect to its sacral buildings and arcaded houses^[1]. Rarely have the authors dedicated more than a few sentences to the Dutch homestead. The most detailed descriptions of historical sites are included in an inventory of the Malbork powiat (district) prepared by B. Schmidt. In his monumental work on the structure and origin of Żuławy's arcaded houses, O. Koeppel provided an essential classification of layouts of Dutch homesteads and other types of arrangements. J. Stankiewicz published the essential and basically the only list of historical buildings of the Żuławy region. Extremely valuable are the restoration documentations associated with individual villages, Mennonite cemeteries, windmills, or arcaded houses preceded by an introduction and general notes on specific aspects of architecture; however, their form (rough manuscripts) provides only a limited access to their content. The doctoral thesis of B. Lipińska made enormous contribution to our knowledge about the cultural landscape of the entire region. The author described the types of Żuławy villages and their development, prepared the chronology of their origins, and introduced a thorough and clear classification of settlements. Particularly important section of the publication describes the condition of the cultural landscape and includes the numbers of historical homesteads and buildings still present in 1980s - at the time when the study was written. This publication partially complements the Stankiewicz's list. Since then, apart from tourist guides, which included only brief descriptions of the most remarkable buildings, no contribution has been made that would provide an equally thorough description of selected aspects of the cultural landscape of the entire region.
Unlike other Polish areas, the Żuławy region has an extensive collection of maps and plans, which include both the entire region as a whole and its individual parts with villages or even their fragments. This, however, is a separate subject, which has already been explored by Marian Pelczar and Jan Szeląg in their study on historical development of the Żuławy cartography^[2]. An in-depth analysis of the Żuławy maps is necessary to conduct further investigations of the development of the Dutch colonization in this area. At this point, essential are not only large scale maps, which depict large stretches of the Vistula delta, but also cadastral plans of specific villages. The road network and building locations included in those plans constitute a basis for such studies. The efforts of medieval and early modern cartographers were rather concentrated on presenting a general outline of the area, depicting settlements only approximately. The first accurate map (scale 1:368000) was drawn by Kasper Henneberger Dawid and published in Königsberg in 1576.^[3] The map includes outlines of major rivers and settlements. In addition to Gdańsk, Elbląg, Tczew, and Malbork, the map shows ca. 40 settlements and also names of the Żuławy regions: - Kley Werder - Małe Żuławy, present day Żuławy Gdańskie, Gros Werder - Wielkie Żuławy between the Vistula and Nogat - present day Wielkie Żuławy Malborskie, and Fischauer Werder - Żuławy Fiszewskie located on the eastern side of the Nogat - currently Małe Żuławy. Even though, at the time of its publication, the map was a significant cartographic achievement, currently its significance is limited to the sphere of history of cartography. From the point of view of the colonization, very important are maps of Żuławy sections prepared by the Gdańsk surveyor, Fryderyk Berent. He authored 20 maps of Żuławy and Mierzeja Wiślana areas. The first complete map of the Żuławy Wiślane was prepared in 1626 by the Swedish officer Olavo Joahnnie Gotho. It is known from three editions^[4] and its reproductions can be found in almost all publications on the Żuławy. Due to its accuracy and a large amount of included information, the map provides a reliable basis for analyzing the development of the Dutch colonization. Some of the later cartographers drew heavily on the Gotho map, for example, Frederic Getkant's map from 1643, Samuel Donnet's map from 1722, and Frederic Edersch's map from 1753. The Getkant's and Donnet's maps were only copies of the Gotho map and made no contributions to the history of the colonization; in contrast, the Edersch'es map shows new settlements or previously unmarked geographic points and also includes names that show more similarities to the names used before 1945 than the earlier maps. The 18th century produced many hand-made maps and plans of individual settlements of the entire Żuławy region. By that time, spatial layouts of the majority of villages were established and some of the buildings marked on those maps still exist, so the analysis of those plans is particularly important. Another important achievement is a topographic map of Eastern and Western Prussia and Noteć district prepared for the Prussian war minister Frederic Leopold von Schrötter. The surveys were conducted between 1798 and 1802. So, the map reproduces a configuration of the Żuławy region at the end of the 18th century. The map is so accurate that it was treated as classified document for the next 100 years. The 1:152600 Schrötter - Engelhardt map from 1810 was based on that topographic map. Unlike other maps, the topographic map includes spatial layouts of villages, colonies, vegetation along roads, small canals and draining ditches. In 1806, cartographers started working on another map at a scale of 1:200000 and after 1871, a map at a scale of 1: 25000.

The Topokraphische karte from 1911 published in 1938 is the last cartographic material that includes accurate locations of buildings in individual villages. It even contains layouts of individual homesteads. A cartographic analysis can provide a subject for separate studies. The 1:10000 plans prepared after 1945 accurately reproduce village, homestead, and building layouts as recorded during the survey. An analysis of those maps requires separate studies, whose range is far beyond the scope of this publication.

^[1] B. Schmid, O. Kloeppel, Stankiewicz, Peter Loewen, J. Domino, Domy podcieniowe w pow. elbląskim
^[2] M. Pelczar, J. Szeliga, Rys Historyczny Rozwoju Kartografii , in: Żuławy Wiślane, ed. Bolesław Augustowski, Gdańsk 1978.
^[3] Ibidem, p. 32.
^[4] Published by J. Janssonius in Amsterdam without a date; oryginal copies are in the PAN Gdańsk Library; cat. no. C.II 32, C II 746, C II, 46, C II 1476