Building Materials and Architectural Details of Natural Stone used in the 13th Century Castle Buildings of King Daniel in the City of Chełm

Abstract

The city of Chełm (Kholm in the past; today located on the territory of Poland) was founded by King of Rus` (Ruthenia) Danylo (Daniel) Romanovych in the middle of the 13th century. Initially, it was a small town with a small castle, but later Daniel rebuilt it and turned it into his capital. Unfortunately, buildings from the 13th century are preserved here only in the form of archaeological remains of the foundations and lower parts of the walls. The great historical significance of this city prompted us to study its building structure. It is important to know from which materials and in which technological solutions a large metropolitan city could have emerged in such a short time in the 13th century. The archaeological reports were the main source base for the study. Reports reflect all results of in-situ fixations of the walls and foundations remains of the castle. These fixations were carried out directly during archaeological research. The analysis shows that Chełm was built using materials from both local deposits and imported ones. Various stone raw materials and bricks were used for construction. It turned out that the main rock for the construction of walls and the manufacture of decorative architectural details was glauconite. The largest quantities of this raw material were used for the castle. Limestone, sandstone, opoka, and fossilized chalk were also used. The nature of the processing of stone materials shows that the builders of the castle had extensive technological knowledge and conducted numerous experiments with materials. The results of the study give an understanding of how castle buildings were erected in the 13th century both in technological and artistic aspects.