The site has a very clear terrain form preserved in the landscape and is one of the few objects of this type in Silesia. Together with the motte-and-bailey castle located in the nearby village of Osiek Grodkowski (site 4), the site formed a late-medieval fortified boundary stretching along the Nysa Kłodzka River.

History of the structure

The main element of the settlement is an artificially raised mound, typical for the so-called motte-and-bailey castles. The origin of small defensive structures, erected on artificially raised mounds or natural hills and surrounded by a moat, is associated with the Normans and Western Europe, where such objects were common as early as the mid-ninth century, and according to some the oldest may even date from the eighth century. In France, these types of mounded settlement are referred to as motte, while in Germany the term Wasserburge is used.

In Poland, the so-called motte-and-bailey castles are usually dated to the 13th-15th centuries. Such settlements became common in the second half of the 13th century, most probably the majority of them were erected in the 14th century, in the 15th century they slowly began to fall into disuse, and the period of their functioning ended at the beginning of the 16th century, although individual settlements survived until the 18th century. According to L. Kajzer, tower castles were an element of the symbolism of the knighthood state and were created and shaped along with its other determinants. Castle experts estimate that there were about ten times more small knight’s castles, “defensive mansions” and “wooden castles” in the territory of today’s Poland than there were large brick castle complexes. In the 14th century they were already very popular and numerous in the cultural landscape of the Polish Middle Ages.

Description of the structure

The hillfort is located between two rivers, on the western bank of the Nysa Kłodzka River and on the eastern bank of its left tributary called Old Struga. The site is located less than 4 km northeast of Kopice and approx. 1.5 km south of Głębocko. The monument is located in the Dębina Forest and is overgrown with trees and shrubs.

The hillfort, surrounded by embankments (a double line?), has an area of approx. 1.15 ha and is irregularly oval in plan (from the east it adjoins the meandering oxbow of the Nysa Kłodzka River). The cone-shaped mound is located in the inner yard, in the southern part of the fortification - in plan it is circular, with a diameter of about 25 m, an area of about 5 acres and a height of 4-4.5 m. The mound is probably the oldest element of the settlement.

Numerous late-medieval moveable artifacts, ceramics and fragments of Gothic finger bricks, which are traces of brick architecture, were discovered at the site.

The hillfort in Kopice is an example of relatively well-preserved relics of a late-medieval settlement with a residential and defensive function, which may have been a ducal seat. It is distinguished, among others, by its exceptionally defensive location (in the fork of a river), relatively large size (“bailey”) and traces of brick architecture.

Thanks to archaeological excavations carried out throughout the country, we now know what medieval wooden-earth fortified settlements looked like and how they were built. Due to their small size, they are also referred to as hillforts or knight’s mansions, or even as “wooden castles”. Sites with permanent access to water and defensible in nature were preferred for the location of the settlements. The settlements were usually located in wetlands, meadows and marshes in the immediate vicinity of small river courses, which provided access to water and limited the access to the site, and thus increased its defensibility. Some settlements were built on low hills dominating the surroundings or on elevated promontories of river terraces. According to J. Kaźmierczyk, the location of particular motte-and-bailey castles in Silesia is to a large extent connected with the course of borders of particular principalities.

In general, the “classical” so-called knight’s castle-town was a relatively small, modest residence and in fact was a very simple defensive structure. It had a solid wooden residential and defensive tower, built in the log technique and placed on an artificially raised mound-embankment. The earthen mound with a tower was surrounded by a wide moat, which was excavated during the construction of the embankment. On the one hand, raising a mound made the settlement more inaccessible and therefore increased its defensibility; on the other hand, it was often necessary and served to isolate the residence-manor from the marshy ground. The height of preserved mounds is usually only a few meters, their bases are usually circular or slightly oval in plan, much less quadrilateral, and their diameters usually range from 20-50 meters. In the case of castles built on hills and promontories, the workload was saved because the artificial embankment did not have to be high and the moat did not necessarily have to surround the object - it was enough to cut it off from the rest of the promontory with this obstacle. It is believed that the tower, together with any accompanying small buildings, was surrounded by a wooden palisade or fence, and the mound itself was reinforced with e.g. stilts or fascines, so that it was as stable and resistant to landslides as possible. A fortified settlement of this kind certainly had a wooden bridge over a wide moat. Relics of settlements have also been discovered that were originally more developed and somewhat larger, e.g. they consisted of two mounds or had an additional rampart (originally probably wooden and earth) and a second moat surrounding the whole. The stronghold in Kopice is an example of a more elaborate structure - a “castle”.

Visitor access. The site is accessible all year round.

Author of the note: Michał Bugaj, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Katowice, 02.03.2018

Bibliography

• Bugaj M., Relikty obronnych, drewniano-ziemnych siedzib rycerskich i możnowładczych w krajobrazie rzecznym województwa śląskiego w aspekcie konserwatorskim. Wiadomości Konserwatorskie Województwa Śląskiego 7 (Woda), 169-188. 2015.
• Gorgolewski W., Tomczak E., Grodziska Górnego Śląska i Zagłębia Dąbrowskiego z lotu ptaka. Katowice 1996.
• Guerquin B., Zamki w Polsce. Warsaw 1984.
• Kajzer L., Archeologiczny rodowód dworu. Przemiany siedzib obronno-rezydencjonalnych Polski centralnej w późnym średniowieczu i czasach nowożytnych. Łódź 1988.
• Kajzer L., Grodziska średniowieczne i nowożytne, Prace i Materiały Muzeum Archeologicznego i Etnograficznego w Łodzi, no. 36, pp. 33-43. 1989-1990.
• Kajzer L., Kołodziejski S., Salm J., Leksykon zamków w Polsce. Warsaw 2007.
• Kamińska J., Grodziska stożkowate śladem posiadłości rycerskich XIII-XIV w., Prace i Materiały Muzeum Archeologicznego i Etnograficznego w Łodzi, no. 13, pp. 43-78. 1966.
• Kamińska J., Próba podsumowania nowszych badań nad grodziskami stożkowatymi, Prace i Materiały Muzeum Archeologicznego i Etnograficznego w Łodzi, Seria Archeologiczna, no. 25, pp. 169-177. 1978.
• Kaźmierczyk J., Z badań nad grodami i miastami wczesnego średniowiecza na Śląsku, Archeologia Polski, vol. 10, z. 2, pp. 655-700. 1966.
• Kaźmierczyk J., Macewicz K., Wuszkan S., Studia i materiały do osadnictwa Opolszczyzny wczesnośredniowiecznej, Opole 1977.
• Marciniak-Kajzer A., Średniowieczny dwór rycerski w Polsce. Wizerunek archeologiczny. Łódź 2011.
• Mika M., Górny Śląsk w dobie wojen husyckich. Przemyślidzi opawscy i raciborscy a rewolucja husycka. Kraków 2015.
• Pawłowski A., Jak budowano obronne siedziby rycerskie? Z otchłani wieków, r. 46 (1), pp. 75-80. 1980.
• Tomczak E., Mało znane warownie Górnego Śląska. Katowice 2012.