Grobiņa (; german: Grobin) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in South Kurzeme Municipality in the Courland region of Latvia, eleven kilometers east of

Liepāja Liepāja (; liv, Līepõ; see other names) is a state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest-city in the Kurzeme Region and the third-largest city in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an important ice-f ...

. It was founded by the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

in the 13th century. Some ruins of their Grobina castle are still visible. The town was given its charter in 1695. During the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

, Grobiņa (or Grobin) was the most important political centre on the territory of Latvia. There was a centre of

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

n settlement on the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

, comparable in many ways to Hedeby and

Birka Birka (''Birca'' in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö (lit. "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of the European continent and ...

but probably predating them both. About 3,000 surviving

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

s contain the most impressive remains of the

Vendel Age In Swedish prehistory, the Vendel Period ( sv, Vendeltiden; 540–790 AD) appears between the Migration Period and the Viking Age. The name is taken from the rich boat inhumation cemetery at Vendel parish church, Uppland. This is a period wi ...

in Northern Europe.

Scandinavian settlement

The settlement at Grobin was excavated by

Birger Nerman Birger Nerman (6 October 188822 August 1971) was a Swedish archaeologist, historian and philologist who specialized in the history and culture of Iron Age Sweden. Nerman was educated at Uppsala University, where he began his career as a lectur ...

in 1929 and 1930. Nerman found remains of an earthwork stronghold, which had been protected on three sides by the Ālande River. Three

cemeteries may be dated to the period between 650 and 800 AD. One of them was military in character and analogous to similar cemeteries in the Mälaren Valley in Central Sweden, while two others indicate that there was "a community of Gotlanders who were carrying on peaceful pursuits behind the shield of the Swedish military". From Nerman's findings, it appears that Grobin was the site of an early Scandinavian colony from Gotland. Many of the graves in level ground were of women, who could be identified as natives of Gotland by their belt-buckles and brooches. The grave-mounds predominantly housed men, often accompanied by typical Scandinavian weaponry. In one grave a picture-stone or stele depicting two duck-like birds was found in 1987. Such picture-stones are otherwise unique to Gotland. From its style it can be dated to the second half of 7th century. The weathered surface of one side contains refined carvings – inside the ring of ornaments there are two waterbirds; their beaks meet. Several hundreds of such picture stones ( sv, bildsten) have been found in Gotland. In the early years of the 9th century female graves at Grobin become scarce. Later graves are those of seafaring Scandinavian males.

Destruction

The Norsemen may have remained in control of Grobin until the mid-9th century, when – as

Rimbert Saint Rimbert (or Rembert) (''c.'' 830 - 11 June 888 in Bremen) was archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, in the northern part of the Kingdom of East Frankia from 865 until his death in 888. He most famously wrote the hagiography about the life Ansgar, t ...

's '' Vita Ansgari'' relates – people inhabiting the Courland regions of Latvia rebelled after a long period as tributaries of Swedish rulers. In about 854 a fleet of Danes attempted to reimpose the tribute on their own behalf, but was defeated. Then Olof (I) of Sweden gathered an enormous army and tried to win back the former colony, in the process destroying a place that Rimbert calls Seeburg, usually identified as Grobin. Seeburg had 7,000 armed men to protect it, but the town was pillaged, ravaged, and burnt by the Swedes. The invaders sent back their ships and started out on a five-day expedition into the hinterland. They reached the town of Apulia (modern Apuolė, to the southeast, in Lithuania) which had as many as 15,000 warriors. The town was besieged for eight days without apparent success and the Norsemen even appealed to the Christian God for help. When they were preparing for a decisive battle, the Curonians suddenly sued for peace, giving as booty weapons and gold captured by them from the Danes a year earlier.Rimbert: ''Life of Anskar, the Apostle of the North, 801–865''
chapter 30. Nerman's excavations at the ancient fort of Apulia corroborated the account of ''Vita Ansgari''. He found evidence of a large-scale conflict in the 9th century, notably large concentrations of Swedish arrowheads near the walls of the derelict Curonian fortress.

Gallery

File:Grobiņas pilsētas dome 2000-06-11.jpg, Grobiņa town hall File:Grobiņas katoļu baznīca.jpg, Saint Bridget Roman Catholic church in Grobiņa File:Grobiņa castle ruins (2).jpg,

Grobiņa Castle Grobiņa Castle is a medieval castle located in the town of Grobiņa, in South Kurzeme Municipality in the Courland region of Latvia. The ancient Curonian castle hill (''Skābāržu kalns'') is located only 100 m from the castle. It is supposed ...

ruins

References

External links

Grobiņa archaeological complex
UNESCO {{DEFAULTSORT:Grobina Towns in Latvia Archaeological sites in Latvia Populated places established in 1695 Castles of the Teutonic Knights Grobin County 1695 establishments in Europe South Kurzeme Municipality Courland

Scandinavian settlement

Destruction

Gallery

Further reading

References

External links