Brama zamku „Golesz” w Krajowicach w świetle badań archeologicznych i prac zabezpieczająco-restauratorskich prowadzonych w latach 2010–2019

The subject of the article is a gate of the medieval and modern period castle “Golesz” in the former Sandomierz land. First of all, there is a description of the gate as the only element of the castle that survived on the surface in a degenerate form and was described in this form at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Later, the results of archaeological research and conservation work carried out in 2010–2019 have been presented. A gate system (12×10 m) was recognized, with a thickened section housing two small rooms on the right, a 4-meter-wide passageway in the centre and an outer wall with a buttress on the left. The exposed walls were secured and left in the form of a permanent ruin. Both stages of work at the site have been thoroughly documented on the basis of 3D laser scanning technologies.

The article presents the results of archaeological research and conservation work carried out at the „Golesz” castle in 2010– 2019, with particular emphasis on the area of the entrance gate. Currently, these activities can be view through the prism of the body of the building in the form of a permanent ruin. For many years, this gate was associated with a high earth mound or a rampart covering the eastern part of the gate, with a significant fragment of a stone wall visible there. In the shape of its surroundings it was also possible to see the edge of the western wall, and in the barrel-shaped depression (where the path was leading to the castle) the passageway through the gate could be noticed. Based on this layout, key archaeological excavations were planned in order to recognize the size and outline of the gate. In excavation trenches 3/2010 and 14/2012, the corners of the gate were uncovered from the courtyard side, and in the trench 5/2011 the contact point between the gate and the southern side of the castle was recorded. With a large fragment of the outer eastern wall exposed, it was possible to draw the outline of the gate (Fig. 3). The next stage in the research of the gate took place during the conservation work of the construction. In 2015, a large defect in the wall in the SE corner of the gate was bricked up, which posed a serious threat to the stability of the preserved remains. In the years 2016–2017, in the course of excavations and sondages (sondages 1 and 2/2016), the eastern section of the gate was excavated, recognizing its outline and two internal rooms, which were mentioned in the descriptions of the ruins of the castle at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. What is more, the exposed walls were also successively secured, giving them the shape visible in the contemporary body of the gate. In 2017–2018, the stratigraphy of the layers in the passageway through the gate was partially recognized, and the side walls and the passage level were captured in the front wall and the courtyard side. These small excavation trenches provided a direct impulse to make a decision to make the entire gate more visible in the form of a permanent ruin, not only its most exposed eastern part. In 2019, the outer western wall was uncovered and the passageway through the gate was cleared to the level visible in the southern and northern walls of the thresholds. Several younger layers with a thickness of 80–120 cm (even 2 m by the wall) were removed, and the complete stratigraphy was recorded in deepen trial trenches (Figs. 28–29). As a result of the action taken to clear out the passageway, significant fragments of the original face of the wall were exposed, currently visible under the layers of new stones added in the course of the restoration work (Figs. 33–34). A wide range of work carried out at the gate in 2019 is an example of well-coordinated activities of an archaeologist, a team carrying out conservation and restoration work (the Conservation and Restoration Workshop of Architectural Elements and Details “Kons-Art” from Trzciana) and a company documenting the object using 3D laser scanning (Designing Computer Services “Argas” from Jarosław). After the archaeologist uncovered and documented the walls of the gate, an inventory of the entire gate was carried out using the 3D laser scanning method, and then the work was undertaken by a team of stone workers, securing the walls and giving the final form to the reconstructed gate. The final result was also scanned. The archaeological research carried out in 2010–2019 and extensive excavation work related to the reconstruction and conservation activities allowed the researchers to study and document entirely the entrance gate to the castle. This gate, with a rectangular outline, is 12 meters long and 10 meters wide (Fig. 31). At its south-west corner there is a buttress protruding towards the moat, which was not noticed at the opposite, southeast corner. With reference to the plan view, three elements can be distinguished: a thickened section housing two small rooms on the right; a passageway in the centre and an outer wall on the left. The gate is preceded by a deep moat, but no traces of the drawbridge over it have been detected. Both in the internal rooms and in the passageway through the gate as well as in the moat, thick levelling layers (related to the demolition of the castle) accumulated. Therefore, material remains coming from the period of use of the building was discovered there: stove tiles, brick floor tiles and fragments of flat roof tiles (Table I). Outside the gate, under the layer of demolition rubble, the level of surface soil coming from the period of use of the castle (from the courtyard side) and from the period preceding its construction (in front of the gate) was also recorded.