Chapter 14 c. Wood Street discovered in the Czech Republic – History

Archaeologists at the Paldubis East Bohemian Museum in the Czech Republic have discovered the remains of the 14th-century Wooden Street. Streets below five feet below the woody layer were found. It was built with an old Czech road suspension technique called Hatě, where logs and branches were laid horizontally and filled with river gravel, making flooding or swampy ground walkable.

The well-preserved wooden remains found in archaeological investigations in Green Gate restoration, which is an arched entrance and Gothic tower, as part of the Pardubice fortifications. The tower is an iconic landmark of the city and was built after the fire destroyed the medieval town in 1538.

The beautifully preserved historic center of Pardubice today dates to the same period of reconstruction after the fire, but the first written record of the name is in a papal document regarding the establishment of an order of canons for the village church in 1295. It was elevated to the status of a city 1340 when it was inherited by Arnošt of Pardubice, the future first Archbishop of Prague, from his father Arnošt of Stará. The castle and initial fortifications were built at that time, possibly soil embankments and large moats.

In 1491, after the Moravian and Bohemian nobleman VilémIII obtained Pardubice in 1491 and the Bohemian nobleman VilémII, Pardubice went from a sleepy village to an important city. Vilém died in 1521, and when the fire destroyed the city, his son and heir, John Pernštejn, was the owner of Pardubice. He rebuilt in the Italian Renaissance style: a two-story townhouse decorated with gables and clay window frames, surrounded by a wide city square.

The medieval settlements were very little left, which was through fires and Renaissance reconstruction, which made a small portion of the street one of the oldest cargoes in the city. It is likely to be the original surface of Zelenobranská Street, which was found on that street, and may also be the original surface of the adjacent square.

In 2013, medieval fortifications were discovered under the Green Gate. According to the estimates of the remnants, the Pardubice, which shows that Arnošt’s days was surrounded by a huge moat about 13 feet deep and 40 feet wide, and since then the gate was actually on the embankment of the moat. The newly discovered section of the street has not been radiocarbonized, but the ceramic fragments found in the archaeological layers date back to the 14th century, the same period as the fortifications held.