Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
grain was transported more than 7 days over land by cart, the draught animals had
eaten more in caloric value than they had transported.
7
Waterways, in contrast, were
almost free of maintenance, downstream the current took care of propulsion and
even upstream a horse could pull ten times as much weight on a barge than on a
cart. Thus locations on navigable rivers, and the notion of navigability in medieval
times included fairly small rivers, were highly favored, as the potential hinterland
for the provision of a city with foodstuff, raw materials, wood and other bulky
goods was greatly expanded by water transport.
'
ed houses of
secular or clerical lords, which needed to be defended against attacks by enemies.
Frequently such forti
Defense
'
or rather
'
defensibility
'
was essential for locating forti
ed seats formed a nucleus around which urban settlements
developed, particularly where favorable trade locations and defensible sites com-
bined. To give but one example: W
ü
rzburg in Southern Germany was founded in
741 by the missionary Boniface on
ood-protected land near a river ford of the
Main and below an older castle on the mountain. Here the cathedral as the seat of
the new diocese formed the nucleus of the city which developed in the ninth century
along a widened street market linking the cathedral with the river ford. Since the
early 12th century a bridge facilitated river crossing and W
ü
rzburg succeeded in
attracting signi
cant long-distance trade onto it on account of that bridge. In other
instances a forti
ed castle or royal palatinate secured such places as the Danube
crossing at Ulm, from which grew a mint and a market settlement by the 11th
century, or the crossing of the Main at Frankfurt.
8
Markets always were signi
cant
functions of new cities and frequently a city is
rst mentioned in sources when it
was granted rights to hold markets by the king or the regional lord. Thus, in most
cases, a favorable trade location giving easy access to resources, the forti
ed seat of
a clerical or secular lord and a market which developed protected by this lord and
was intended to cater for the needs of his court, came together to enable the setting-
up of successful urban settlements in the high middle ages. In the 15th/16th century
other types of city foundations arouse such as mining towns which were essentially
determined by the access to mineral resources (Freiberg, Joachimsthal) or forti
-
cation resp. naval towns which performed a special military function for the
emerging territorial states.
9
6.4 Waters of the City
Water is one of the essential resources a city cannot do without. Thus for pre-
modern times we can usually assume that no settlement was established without
access to some water. But its limited availability could force urban authorities to try
7
Sieferle (
2008
), Sieferle cites Ohler (1986, 141). Other authors give an even smaller spatial
range (35
40 km) for grain transport over land cf. Irsigler (
1991
).
8
Schmieder (
2005
).
9
Rosseaux (
2006
). On the European level see Clark, European Cities, 112
-
114.
-
