Grobiņa

Latvian Cities
name=Grobiņa
Coa=Grobina gerb.png



Caption=
citysince=1695
location_

n1=56
n2=32
e1=21
e2=11
othernames= Grobin; Grebin; Söborg; _de. Seeburg; _de. Seleburg
Mayor=Jānis Neimanis
nrofmembers=9
District=Liepāja
area=5.12
Water=
Rural=
Elevation=
population=4315
density=843
postcode=LV-3430
callcode=34
webpage=http://www.grobina.lv

Grobiņa (audio|Grobinapronunc.ogg|pronunciation) is a city in western Latvia, eleven kilometers east of Liepāja. It was founded by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century. Some ruins of their castle are still visible. The town was given its charter in 1695.

During the Early Middle Ages, Grobiņa (or Grobin) was the most important political centre on the territory of Latvia. There was a centre of Scandinavian settlement on the Baltic Sea, comparable in many ways to Hedeby and Birka but probably predating them both. About 3,000 surviving burial mounds contain the most impressive remains of the Vendel Age in Eastern Europe.

Viking settlement

ite

The Viking settlement at Grobin was excavated by Birger Nerman in 1929 and 1930. Nerman found remains of an earthernwork stronghold, which had been protected on three sides by the Alanda River. three Vendel Age cemeteries may be dated to the period between 650 and 800 AD. One of them was military in character and analogous to similar cemeteries in the Mälaren Valley in Central Sweden, while two others indicate that there was "a community of Gotlanders who were carrying on peaceful pursuits behind the shield of the Swedish military". [Francis Donald Logan. "The Vikings in History". Routledge (UK), 1992. Page 182.]

From Nerman's findings, it appears that Grobin was the site of an early Scandinavian colony. The Swedish military garrison would levy tribute from the indigenous Curonians, while a group of civilian colonists from Gotland would engage in trade and agriculture. This was a pattern of colonisation resembling the Milesian colonies of Ancient Greece. The 8th-century Scandinavian settlement in Ladoga may have been similar in character. The Viking technologies and items were thus transmitted through Grobin to the Baltic and Slavic hinterland. [Marija Gimbutas. "The Balts." London: Thames and Hudson, 1963. Pages 152-153.]

Destruction

Cremations in Grobin almost ceased towards 800 AD, indicating that the Viking colony dwindled in size with the rise of alternative centres in Truso and Kaup. The Norsemen may have remained in control of Grobin until the mid-9th century, when — as Rimbert's "Vita Ansgari" relates — Olof (I) of Sweden gathered an enormous army and attacked the Curonians.

The first town the Swedes attacked was called Seaborg. It had 7,000 armed men to protect it, but the town was pillaged, ravaged, and burnt by the Swedes. The invaders sent back their ships and started out on a five-day expedition into the hinterland. They reached the town of Apulia (modern Apuolė, 25 miles to the southeast, in Lithuania) which had as many as 15,000 warriors. The town was besieged for eight days without apparent success and the Norsemen even appealed to the Christian God for help. When they were preparing for a decisive battle, the Curonians suddenly sued for peace, giving as booty weapons and gold captured by them from the Danes a year earlier.

Nerman's excavations at the ancient fort of Apulia corraborated the account of "Vita Ansgari". He found evidence of a large-scale conflict in the 9th century, notably large concentrations of Swedish arrowheads near the walls of the derelict Curonian fortress.

References

Further reading

*B. Nerman. "Grobin-Seeburg, Ausgrabungen und Funde". Stockholm, 1958.