The early-16th-century Radziwiłł family residence in Waniewo in the light of written and archaeological sources

Abstract

The article surveys the data that are available on the history of Waniewo, now a village and until the 17th c. a town in the region of Podlachia, near Białystok, in whose vicinity there was a defensive complex, called “a castle” in the local tradition. Written sources regarding this structure being scarce, major issues concerning its history could only be investigated thanks to archaeological excavations conducted in this site in 2009, 2014 and 2016. The dig uncovered relics of wooden structures, which enrich the rather modest catalogue of archaeological finds of housing and defensive complexes from the turn of the early-modern era at the Polish-Lithuanian border. The article presents excavation results, a reconstruction of the preserved elements of the complex (including the application of digital data) and its dating; it also describes the identified details of its interiors and some 16th- and 17th-century belongings of its inhabitants. The residence, which combined housing and defensive functions, was situated on an island in the swamps of the Narew River, between Śliwno and Waniewo. It was probably built when the area came into the ownership of Mikołaj II Radziwiłł (between 1501 and 1506), or in the second decade of the 16th c., after Mikołaj chartered the town of Waniewo in 1510, and initiated some related investments, e.g. building a bridge. The interiors were furnished and the stoves were installed around that time, as is evident from the type of stove tiles found at the site, characteristic of the first half of the 16th c. The house was inhabited from the beginning of the 16th c., which is confirmed by other finds, e.g. pottery, and the oldest coin found, dating from the reign of Alexander Jagiellon. Movable findsindicate that the house was used until the late 16th or early 17th c., when Waniewo was owned by the Szczawiński family. The abandonment of the residence can be linked to the traces of a fire discovered during the dig, including charcoal remains of burnt wooden structures. The time and circumstances of the fire are not known, but the resulting destruction of the complex must have sealed its fate. No archaeological data suggested any attempt at a reconstruction; probably due to the failure of the chartering of Waniewo, the residence was no longer needed. All this suggests that the “castle” functioned for less than a century. Covering about 2800 m2, the oval-shaped complex consisted of buildings surrounded by a fortified stone wall. So far, relics of two wooden buildings have been identified; one was probably a dwelling house and the other, adjacent one — an outhouse. The spacious manor house was probably a log construction with an arcade facing the courtyard and a footpath around the walls, paved with ceramic tiles. The roofs were probably shingled and some windows had glass panes. The floor in the manor house consisted of half-round timbers with pugging, or of paving stones. The interiors were heated: there was at least one stove of bowl-shaped tiles and some others, of flat tiles. The dig also unearthed some basic utensils, primarily ceramic dishes of varied quality and functions, which were used for food preparation and serving meals. The standard of the described residence is difficult to assess. The term “castle”, used to refer to it in written sources, was motivated by its defensive character rather than by its scale and shape. Its exact function is not clear; it might have been the administrative and economic centre of the Waniewo estate, designed to house its steward (administrator) and his employees. It might have also been a stopping place for the owner when he was travelling to inspect his estates; then it would have been both a dwelling house and a political show-piece.