The Transmission of New Construction Techniques and Urbanisation Concepts During the Teutonic Crusade: Cities and Castles in Chełmno Land (Poland) in the Early Thirteenth Century

The Teutonic Order led a crusade against the pagan Prussian tribes inhabiting Chełmno Land (northern-central Poland) in the early thirteenth century. The approach to assessing the significance of the Teutonic crusades has changed in recent years. Colonisation is no longer understood to be merely a brutal process of new territories being conquered, involving war and the planned extermination of local peoples. Attention is now given to the importance of the crusades as a primary factor in affecting cultural transmission and change, including the spread of fortifications and urbanisation. The chapter discusses the results of the latest archaeological research carried out from 2016 to 2020 in five Teutonic castles and the Teutonic Order’s oldest city in Chełmno Land (i.e. Chełmno), which was founded by settlers from Germany at the beginning of the thirteenth century. This research has provided new data on the conditions in which the settlement (city) and defensive network (castles) formed. A characteristic of the Prussian crusade was the planned, long-term colonisation combined with the development of an administrative structure to manage the conquered territories.