Giecz

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Giecz is a small village in Poland, in the Greater Polish Voivodship, near Dominowo and Środa. It is notable as one of the centres of Polish statehood in the early Middle Ages, along with Poznań and Gniezno.

In early 9th century a small keep was built on a hill at a peninsula on the Giecz lake. Fortified with a stockade and earthworks, it was one of the strongpoints of early Piast dynasty. In 1038 during the war with Bohemia, it was seized by Bretislaus I, who sacked the town and sold all of its inhabitants into slavery. The town quickly recovered and until 13th century it was a notable centre of administration, trade and commerce in Greater Poland. Around that time the town was also granted with a city charter and became a seat of a castellany. In 1331 it was burnt to the ground - never to recover.

After 1945 the archaeologists discovered the remnants of a mediaeval pallatium, pre-Romanesque rotunda, stone walls, a 13th century palace and several primitive iron ore works.