The capital of Silesia since 1138 and the seat of its bishop.
The duke's wood-and-earth castle and the cathedral share Ostrów Tumski, the island in the Oder; the Augustinian canons of St Mary sit on the Sand Island next to it; the abbey of St Vincent at Ołbin, founded by Piotr Włostowic and by the 1190s Premonstratensian, has its own settlement on the right bank; and on the left bank a market settlement has grown along the Via Regia, the road from Leipzig to Kraków and Rus. en.wikipedia records Polish, Bohemian, Jewish, Walloon and German communities in the city. It is a castle town, not a chartered town: German town law, a town advocate and a council come only in the decades after 1200 (Magdeburg rights in 1261-62).
Who holds it
- Name
- Bolesław I the Tall; Bishop Jarosław
- Title
- Duke of Silesia (castle and market); bishop of Wrocław (cathedral and church quarter)
- Since
- 1163; 1198
- Confidence
- high
en.wikipedia (History of Wrocław)
Lord in 1200
Duke Bolesław I the Tall, through the castellan of Wrocław; the bishop (his son Jarosław) holds the cathedral quarter on Ostrów Tumski and the church's people
How things stand that morning
Held by Bolesław; the bishop is his son. Quiet that winter.
Charter
None in 1200. German-law town only after 1200 (en.wikipedia: Magdeburg rights 1262).
Council
None. The castellan of Wrocław holds the duke's court; the bishop's people answer to the bishop.
Communities
Polish castle folk and craftsmen; Walloons ('Latins', Romance-speaking settlers from the Low Countries) round their own church; Germans on the trade road; Jews (the oldest dated Jewish gravestone in Wrocław is of 1203); Bohemians.
Fairs and markets
Weekly markets; no annual fair is pinned for 1200.
Militia
None as a town; the castle folk and the ducal knights.
Walls and castle
The ducal castle of wood and earth on Ostrów Tumski with Bishop Walter's 12th-century cathedral beside it; St Mary on the Sand; St Vincent at Ołbin. No town wall.
Trade and crafts
The Via Regia and the Oder meet here: cloth from the west, salt, furs, wax and slaves from the east, grain and cattle from the plain; the ducal mint strikes denarii and bracteates.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
In 1200
- 8 May 1200 (doubtful)A great fire, reported by later Silesian writers; Grünhagen suspected a confusion with the fire of 8 May 1342.
Later, on the likely course
- 7 or 8 December 1201Bolesław dies at nearby Leśnica; Henry succeeds in Wrocław.Depends on: His natural death.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The topography and communities are attested; dates for the communities and markets in 1200 are not pinned.
Primary sources for Silesia (Bolesław the Tall)
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Chronicle of the Poles, by Master Vincent (Wincenty Kadłubek), Wincenty Kadłubek (about 1190 to 1208). Book 4 is a contemporary's account of the fight for the senior throne of Kraków. Read online
- The annals of the Kraków chapter and the other Polish annals (kept from the 11th century; the Kraków chapter annals continued to 1266). Short dated entries that fix the chronology Kadłubek blurs: the deaths of dukes and bishops, Mieszko the Old's captures of Kraków, Prussian raids on Masovia, church consecrations. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.