Uwagi na marginesie zagadnienia wież drewnianych w rejonie północno-wschodniego Bałtyku

The problem of wooden towers belongs to the more combined questions than it seems, particulary when it's considered against a broad comparative background. In the late 12th century began to appear little "conoidal" strongholds, which are regarded as the prototypes of the castles with the dwelling towers by some scholars or as some reduction of the larger constructions by the others. The towers performed the dwelling and defensive function. Their distant patterns can be recovered in the West-European constructions dated back as early as to the end of the 10th century. Recent excavations (Siedląeków) threw a little more light upon the questions of the so called knights' strongholds both in formal and functional aspects, and the new studies supported the supposition that defensive and dwelling towers were located also within the ramparts along side the ground-floor dwelling and husbandry constructions (Kaszowo, Raciąż, Chmielno). Thus the functional character of the towers extends and they can be regarded as the last defence objects which usually played a role of the watching posts. The material concerning the towers is to be divided into two groups: 1. towers survived until nowadays or readable while excavating, 2, information about the towers derived from the wrlsten and iconographic sources as well as from the toponomastic names. In the north-east region of the Baltic the towers occured in number, along the important water routes, especially along those leading from the Finnish Bay inside Russia.The towers from this region can be cinsidered as the examples of the earliest constructions of this kind. That type of construction is know also from Finland, Estonia and Sweden and dates back to the 11th or 12th century at least. The towers standing along the Swedish water routes controlled and blocked the fords. The former investigations provided the ascertainment that the towers were built in the laft constructions, in three or more floors with the dwelling room. In a case of necessity they were used as the pi.sons. The problem of the wooden or stone towers is still an open question and one may suggest that the further investigations will bring new determinations.