- Bucu
Bucu or Buku is a hill
island surrounded by theTrave andWakenitz Rivers inLübeck ,Germany . It is also the name of a medieval Slaviccastle , now ruined, on the island. CountAdolf II of Holstein founded Lübeck on the island in 1143. [ [http://www.luebeck.de/tourismus/sightseeing/geschichte/ 1143: Die Gründung Lübecks] de icon] The "Burgkloster ", or fortified monastery, of Lübeck is located atop the ruins of Bucu. "Bucu" is also the name of a hill.History
Fortifications probably existed at Bucu by the end of the 7th century or the beginning of the 8th century. When the Christian Obotrite prince Gottschalk was killed at
Lenzen in 1066, the paganKruto took control ofWagria and made it his base of power. Kruto neglected the developing settlement ofLiubice and instead developed Bucu between the Trave and theWakenitz ; Gottschalk's son Henry made Liubice the Obotrite capital after killing Kruto in 1093, however. With the death of Henry in 1127 and the Rani sack of Liubice the following year, Bucu began to assume greater importance as merchants moved to the fortified hill. CountAdolf II of Holstein founded Lübeck in 1143 near the castle, which offered protection to the new harbour settlement. [cite book |last= Austin |first= David |coauthors= Leslie Alcock |title=From the Baltic to the Black Sea: Studies in Medieval Archaeology|publisher=Routledge |year= 1997 |isbn= 0415152259 ]Excavation
Bucu was excavated by archaeologists in the 1970s. Recovery excavations at the Kleine Gröpelgrube unearthed a nearby settlement, the suburbium, in 1997. The exposed findings indicate that the region east of the castle was inhabited by Slavs from the 8th or 9th century until the middle of the 12th century.
In a southern section of the current Großen Burgstraße road, a 3.5 m wide and 2.5 m deep trench protected the settlement. The northern border was presumably north of the current Königstraße. To the west the settlement bordered the castle directly, while to the east it reached the
Wakenitz . The settlement area was probably about 6 ha. Discoveries in the interior include mines, mining houses, hearths, and a great number of ceramic objects. The remnants of a potter's workshop were found in the Kleine Gröpelgrube. A Slavic pottery tradition could have existed at the location until the arrival ofSaxons in the 12th century. The Kleine Gröpelgrube was first mentioned in 1297 as "parva platea lutifigulorum", or the small street of the loam potters.References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.