User:Methodios/1020-2020: A thousand years of Dresden's Frauenkirche

On September 8, 2020, the feast day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Dresden Frauenkirche celebrates the millennium of its consecration by the Bohemian chaplain Přibislav in 1020.

In September 1017, during a Polish campaign, the castle (Dresden-) Briesnitz on the Iron Elbe ford in the Gau Nisan was destroyed by troops of the Roman-German emperor Heinrich II.

In return, the Polish army of King Bolesław the Brave devastated the neighboring Gau Daleminzien and took around 1000 Meissen livegens over the Elbe as prey. During this campaign, the Church Slavic Bohemian Academy was destroyed, which had to be moved from Kraków to Briesnitz Castle in 990 after the Polish occupation of the Wislan lands by the Wislan, since the Latin clergy dominated in Prague. Pope Benedict VI approved the diocese of Prague in 973, but with the same papal bull prohibited the Slavic liturgy, which amounted to a ban on the Slavic clergy.

The Bohemian Academy had to be relocated again in September 1017: inland to the fortified port of Nisana at the confluence of the Gruna-Striesen backwater (anabranch) in the Elbe, the Bohemian customs station in front of German Meissen. Another Bohemian Elbe customs station was then in Ústí nad Labem at the mouth of the Bílina in the Elbe.

The port was on the ford to Altendresden, today's Dresden Neustadt, where two historic roads met. The "Kulmer Steig" came from Bohemia over the Ore Mountains and was part of a salt road from Halle to Prague. The "Frankenstrasse" came from Zwickau and went to Bautzen. It was part of the "Frankfurter Gleise" from Nuremberg to Frankfurt (Oder), a branch of the Via Imperii from Rome via Nuremberg to Stettin on the Oder. These historic roads have existed in the Dresden Basin, which has been marked out by nature as a passage corridor, since the Lusatian culture of the Bronze Age around 1300 BC and led to abundant traffic.

A customs building for checking and weighing goods belonged to the port. As is typical of the time, craftsmen will also have settled here, there was probably also a harbor jug ​​with catering and accommodation. Nisana was protected by Neidhart, a tower-like harbor castle.

A chapel was also built at a very early stage, at which the travelers stopped to ask God for help before passing the dangers or to thank Him afterwards. Over time, a wik, a merchant settlement, developed on the site of the later "Brotbänke" (bread stands [on the site of today's Kulturpalast]).

A "Nikolaikirche" (St. Nicholas Church) in connection with this settlement is mentioned to 990 and 1017. Nikolai (Saint Nicholas) is the patron saint of sailors (skippers) and merchants who built and maintained this church. The area around the Nikolaikirche was planted with linden trees, the tree of the Sorbs.

In Leipzig the important crossing point of the Via Imperii with the Via Regni was planted with linden trees. "Urbs Libzi" (city of the linden trees) was first mentioned in 1015, after the Sorbian "lipa" for the linden tree.

In Dresden-Kaditz there is still a so-called "millennial" lime tree. This Sorbian village was the last refuge of the Bohemian Academy before its final ban on March 12, 1212 by Bishop Bruno II of Meissen.

In early Sorbian times, St. Nicholas was not only the patron saint of the Russians, Serbs and Croats, but also the Sorbs, until Latinization violently destroyed this tradition. Today, the legendary figure of the magician Krabat is considered the patron saint of the Sorbian rural population.

1017 Jews are mentioned as slave traders, who, as is typical of the time, also operated the then profitable salt trade. The Jüdenhof and a synagogue were included in the city wall when the German city was founded around 1170. A prayer house or a synagogue can also be assumed 1017.

The ford will have been supplemented very early by a ferry. A bridge is mentioned in 990, which, like all Slavic bridges at that time, may have been made of wood. Both the West Slavs and the East Slavs had miles of bridges spanning lakes in Mecklenburg or the Volga. The Elbe was no problem for the Slavic builders, especially on a flat ford. Adam Stolze mentions a new bridge from 998, possibly after a flood. This bridge was certainly part of the customs station system and could probably be opened or closed for ships as needed.

According to chroniclers such as Anton Weck, constant recurring floods were the rule at that time, their effects mainly affected the Neustadt side, the former Altendresden. Floods occurred in 1002, 1008, 1012 and 1014, a millennium flood flooded most of Altendresden on September 13, 1015, rendering the ferry unusable. A "Krug" (jug - a Sorbian rest stop with catering and overnight stay) is also suspected here at the fork in the path to Meißen and Bautzen. The next flood followed in 1020. According to Wilhelm Schäfer, around 1020 several residents of Altendresden therefore moved over to the settlement on the Frauenkirche, which was better protected from the floods. The church building offered work, the academy was also built there, and the 1017 damaged icon school was repaired again.

The building of the Bohemian Academy was on the site of what would later become the Materni Spital. Only a circular metal cover of the fountain with a diameter of about 1.5 m testifies to this, about four meters in front of the stairs to entrance G of the Frauenkirche and thus about seven meters from the new church building. This circular metal cover shows an old city map of Dresden from before the construction of the Frauenkirche in 1726. At the intersection of two lines you can see the Materni Spital, which bordered the Frauenkirchhof. The small gondola port next to Brühl's terrace (towards the New Synagogue) was the remnant of Nisana port at the time.