(plural ; from the
Samogitian 'stone' and 'pavement', itself from 'to rake, pull together')
[ is a hidden, usually winding, underwater stony road or ford across swamps, swampy areas, lakes, or along rivers, used as a defense in the lands of Baltic tribes, in particular, in the ]history of Lithuania
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...
.[kūlgrinda]
''Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia
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Companies
* NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company that is a subsidiary of Comcast
** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of ...
'' Similar secret roads made primarily of wood and ground were known as (from , 'tree') and (from , 'earth, ground') respectively.["Military Mastership of Slavs and Balts of 5–9th Centuries"]
Ya. Novikov Old Prussians
Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians were a Balts, Baltic people that inhabited the Prussia (region), region of Prussia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon ...
are known to build kulgrindas already in the first centuries (of Common Era
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the ...
), while the Lithuanian ones are dated to the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
.[
]
Function and construction
Undetectable from the surface, these roads were usually known only to the locals, and as such were an important element of the defense against various invaders, including the Teutonic Knights
The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to t ...
in the 13–14th centuries. Kūlgrindas provided safe shortcuts between villages, hillfort
A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...
s, and other defensive structures. They were built by bringing stones, wood, or gravel over frozen swamps in the winter and letting them sink once the ice melted.[ Such procedure would be repeated several times. Sometimes wooden posts were inserted to protect the elevated area from washing away.][
]
Surviving examples
The remnants of kūlgrindas are most often found in the territory of Lithuania, but also in Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast () is the westernmost federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of the Russian Federation. It is a Enclave and exclave, semi-exclave on the Baltic Sea within the Baltic region of Prussia (region), Prussia, surrounded by Pola ...
(former East Prussia
East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...
), Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
, and Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
.[ It is estimated that Lithuania has 27 kūlgrindas and 7 medgrindas, about half of them in ]Samogitia
Samogitia, often known by its Lithuanian language, Lithuanian name ''Žemaitija'' (Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see Samogitia#Etymology and alternative names, below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five ...
.
The longest and best-known surviving kūlgrinda is in Samogitia.[ It survived in three segments: the middle segment across the Sietuva swamp and along the between lakes and and two segments on higher grounds: the noertheastern and southwestern parts.]["Burbiškių, Reistrų, Dargių kūlgrinda, vad. Sietuvos kūlgrinda"]
Lithuanian Register of Cultural Values It was used up to the 19th century as a road between Kaltinėnai and Tverai.[ One of the first to investigate the Sietuva kūlgrinda was ]Ludwik Krzywicki
Ludwik Joachim Franciszek Krzywicki (21 August 1859 – 10 June 1941) was a Polish Marxism, Marxist anthropologist, economist, and sociologist.
An early champion of sociology in Poland, he approached historical materialism from a sociological vie ...
.[ The kūlgrinda near Kvėdarna was severely damaged during land amelioration by Soviet authorities.]Kernavė
Kernavė was a medieval capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and today is a tourist attraction and an archeological site (population 238, 2021). It is located in the Širvintos district municipality located in southeast Lithuania. A Lithuanian ...
and is dated to the 4–7th centuries.
See also
* Corduroy road
* Timber trackway
Historic roads (or historic trails in the US and Canada) are paths or routes that have historical importance due to their use over a period of time. Examples exist from prehistoric times until the early 20th century. They include ancient track ...
References
External links
Puiki pramoga savaitgaliui: grįšite baisiai purvini, bet labai laimingi
reat fun for the weekend: you'll come back terribly dirty, but very happy delfi.lt
Delfi (occasionally capitalized as DELFI) is a news website in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania providing daily news, ranging from gardening to politics. It ranks as one of the most popular websites among Baltic users.
Delfi operates in the re ...
; contains photos and a video of tourists trekking along a kulgrinda in mud in
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulgrinda
Roads in Lithuania
Archaeology of Lithuania
Types of roads