Sandomierz 1400AD

[Chlodowech]

It's been about 3 years since i last contributed anything to the content of this Forum, but now i finally i've created something new that deserves being called a 'map' (in contrast to some older works of mine ) and is, in my opinion, good enough to be shown here. Unfortunately i did again not document any part of the creation, so i'll put it right in here.

But enough for the endless introduction talking, here it is:



[This is a cheap photography made with a mobile phone camera, i'll replace it with a scanned version asap]

A reconstruction drawing of the Polish town of Sandomierz around the year 1400, based on visible remains, and documentation of structures from the last 500 years.

Now, a bit of explanation for the interested:

Sandomierz is one of the most important towns in the historic region of Lesser Poland. Being set up directly above the Vistula river, it was the crossing point for some of the most important trade routes in eastern Europe. The existing town was founded in the mid 12th century, but it got almost completely destroyed by the Mongolian Invasion in 1241, and again by a second raid in 1259 and a third one in 1287, so except for the dominican monastery church of Saint James, which by miracle survived all the invasions, basically the whole town was reshaped and rebuilt in the 14th and 15th century, which was the golden age of Sandomierz. All the more important structures shown in my drawing have been built within the 50 years prior to the point of time i've chosen. The good times lasted well into the 16th century, but later, the town was struck by epidemias and a great number of sieges, among which the most important ones were the one by the swedish in 1655, which led to another destruction and depopulation of the town, and the one by the Austrian forces in 1809, during the Napoleonic wars.
Nowadays, Sandomierz has regained some of its old importance, but it still is a rather small town.

And, since the map key is written in German, i'll give you the english (and polish) translation for it:

1 Castle (Zamek)

2 Collegiate church of Saint Mary, catholic cathedral since 1818 (Bazylika katedralna Narodzenia Najświętszej Maryi Panny)

3 Dominican friary; not the early one described above, but a 14th century replacement within the town walls (dominikański klasztor i konwent św. Marii Magdaleny)

4 Saint Peter's church (Kościół św. Piotra)

5 Town Hall (Ratusz)

6 Holy Cross church and hospital (kościół pw. Świętego Ducha)




PS: I'm currently working on a second map, this time of a town called Nowy Korczyn.

[Abu Lafia]

What a lovely work! The subtle coloring looks wonderful and the historical excursus makes for a good read in combination with drooling over this wonderful map. Really looking forward to see the Nowy Korczyn map coming next.
Btw. welcome back!

[J.Edward]

Beautiful work Chlodowech
Love it. Look forward to the next map too.
Very rep worthy.

[vigosinger]

You are a map god

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Chlodowech]

Nah, the god of Iso city maps is still Blaidd Drwg

And many thanks to everyone for all the reputation, makes me want to finish my next map even faster

[arsheesh]

Love the subtle colors! Very attractive piece.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Josiah VE]

Fabulous work.. I've never seen any of your maps before, but this is certainly very impressive, and inspirational. Good work! Hope to see you around more nowadays, I really want to see more of your maps.

[Ilanthar]

Beautiful map! I would have loved a bit less "blank space" between the map itself and the title & key. But I'm know it's get complicated when you're drawing things on paper... and I really envy that kind of result!