ŚREDNIOWIECZNE MURY MIEJSKIE GOLUBIA. PROBLEMATYKA KONSERWATORSKA

Golub-Dobrzyń is a county town located 42 kilometres to the north-west of Toruń, near the Olsztyn-Brodnica route. Its walls represent a typical late mediaeval defensive system. Based on a plan of an irregular pentagon the system in question is composed of simple sections of curtain walls and rectangular bastions as well as four gates built on the axes of tracts. The fortification ring was reinforced with four towers in the corners, of which today only a single one is extant (the north-east corner). The walls, which had not been modernised for centuries, retained their original character, and are deprived only of four gates. Up to now, the Golub fortifications have not been discussed in an exhaustive scientific study. The first complex inventory was performed in 1958 by the State Enterprise – the Ateliers for the Conservation of Historical Monuments in Toruƒ, headed by Ireneusz Słowiński. Almost half a century later, this problem has been considered by the authors of the presented article, employees at the Regional Centre for the Study and Documentation of Historical Monuments in Toruń who in 2002 brought the inventory up to date. The prime reason for the new documentation – drawings and photographs – were the essential changes which had taken place in the appearance of the sections of defensive walls after the construction and conservation carried out during the last three decades of the twentieth century. The wide-scale venture entailed the reconstruction of two bastions in the north sequence, supplementation of the wall face and protection of the entire crown. The moat terrain was cleaned of of all sub-standard buildings, including economic ones, and a residential edifice. The outcome of all the undertakings was a representative section (northern) of mediaeval fortifications (walls and moat) along Gen. Hallera Street. The eventual elimination of the remaining buildings from the forefield of the municipal fortifications in Golub would create a possibility for encircling the mediaeval fortifications with a strip of plants designed in such a way as to enable contact with the suitably displayed monument. The fulfilment of the above postulates would have enabled the mediaeval town, together with the preserved town halls and the Teutonic Order castle, rebuilt in the 1960s, to comprise a town planningarchitectural complex unique on the scale of northern Poland. The planned revitalisation of the Old Town area in Golub would bring forth the inherent historical assets of the town, and generate attractive conditions for the development of recreation and tourism.