Grad (Cyrillic: град), gard, gorod (Cyrillic: город) or gord is a Slavic word for town or city.[1][2][3] The ancient Slavs were known for building wooden fortified settlements. The reconstructed Proto-Slavic word for such a settlement is *gordъ, related to the Germanic *gard.

Similar strongholds were built during the late Bronze and early Iron Ages by the people of the Lusatian culture (ca. 1300 BC – 500 BC), and later in the 7th - 8th centuries CE in modern-day Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic and eastern Germany. These settlements were usually founded on strategic sites such as hills, riverbanks, lake islands or peninsulas.

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, and situated in places which presented particular natural advantages. However, as Slavic tribes united into states, gords were also built for defense purposes in less populated border areas.

Those gords which served as a ruler's residence or lay on trade routes, quickly expanded. A suburbium (Polish: podgrodzie) formed near or below the gord. Its population served the residents of the gord and could shelter within the gord's walls in the event of danger. Eventually the suburbium would have its own fence or wall. In the High Middle Ages, the gord would normally evolve into a castle or citadel (kremlin); the suburbium – into a town.

Grodzisko in Stara Rawa, Poland

Some other gords, which did not stand the test of time and were abandoned or destroyed, gradually turned into more or less discernible mounds or rings of earth (known in Russian as gorodische, in Polish as grodzisko, in Ukrainian as horodyshche, in Slovak as hradisko and in Czech as hradiště). Notable archeological sites include Biskupin, Poland and Bilsk, Ukraine (see Gelonus).

Evolution of the word

The Proto-Slavic word *gordъ means a "fenced area", compare to Ukrainian horodyty, Russian ogradit and Croatian/Serbian ograditi meaning "fence away". It ultimately finds its root in the Proto-Indo-European language; a cognate is the English word "yard". In some modern Slavic languages, *gordъ has evolved into words for a "garden" (likewise a fenced area): the Ukrainian ґород (gorod) and город (horod), the Bulgarian and Macedonian градина (gradina), the Polish ogród, the Slovak záhrada, the Czech zahrada, the Russian огород (ogorod). In some Slavic languages, *gord has evolved into a word for "town" or "city": the Russian gorod, the ancient Pomeranian and modern Kaszubian gard, the Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian and Serbian град, grad. The Slovak and Czech hrad and Slovene grad have evolved to mean "fortified castle." The Polish gród and Ukrainian horod retain their original^{[citation needed]} meaning of an "ancient fortified settlement."

Polish word podgrodzie meant settlement near a town (Slavic prefix pod- means "under" or "below", equivalet of Latin sub-) because in fact gród was built at hill's top frequently. It survived to these days in names of several villages (i.e. Podgrodzie, Subcarpathian Voivodeship) and town's districts (i.e. district of Olsztyn).

Towns and villages in Poland whose names derive from gród (pink circles)

The names of many Central and Eastern European cities hark back to their past as gords. Some of them are in countries which used to be, but no longer are, inhabited mostly by Slavic-speaking peoples. Examples include: Novgorod, Gorodets, Volgograd (Russia); Hrodna, Davyd-Haradok, Haradok, Navahrudak (Belarus); Uzhhorod, Horodok, Horodysche (Ukraine); Hradec Králové and Vyšehrad (Czech Republic); Stargard Szczeciński; Grodzisk Mazowiecki and Grodzisk Wielkopolski (Poland); Dravograd and Gornji Grad (Slovenia); Biograd and Stari Grad (Croatia); Visegrád (Hungary); Belgrade (Beograd), Dimitrovgrad, Veliko Gradište (Serbia); Danilovgrad (Montenegro); Blagoevgrad, Asenovgrad and Razgrad (Bulgaria); Gradsko (Republic of Macedonia); Novohrad region, many places named Hradisko (Slovakia) or Hradište (Czech Republic)[4]; Graz (Austria); Gartz (Germany); Pogradec (Albania), and Višegrad (Bosnia and Herzegovina). In old Iran (Persia) Gerd had the same meaning. This word changed to Jerd after Arab invasion. Burugerd or Borujerd is a city in West of Iran.

See also

• Gordoservon in Asia Minor, 680 AD
• Garðaríki - Varangian name for Kievan Rus, interpreted as "cities"
• Biskupin, a life-size reconstruction of a gród in Poland.
• Fortified settlements in other cultures:
  • Kraal (South Africa);
  • Motte-and-bailey (western Europe).
  • Burgh, Borough, Burg or bjerg (Scotland, England, Germany, Denmark)

External links

• Reconstruction of a gród at Grzybowo, Poland – images of a typical ancient Slavic settlement with suburbium, earth-and-wood wall and moat; by Tomek Birezowski (Polish text).

References