IX. (last wall) Watchtower of the kingdom
Santok – as a hillfort lying on the border of Great Poland, Brandenburg and Pomerania – was called by Gallus Anonymus „the watchtower and the key of the kingdom”. The special location advantages quickly made this place an object of interest and rivalry of neighbouring political centers. The first to reach Santok were the Piasts – who in the second half of the 10th century took over the fortified settlement existing for at least a hundred years and built a powerful, multi-section hillfort there.
According to Gall Anonymous, the Pomeranians were to build a counter-fort opposite Santok. As the great chronicler wrote, it was so high and located so close to the Christian stronghold that pagans could easily see what was going on in it and hear what was being said in it. Undoubtedly, this stronghold was built on Góra Zamkowa, on the right bank of the rivers. Later, however, Bolesław Wrymouth expelled the Pomeranians from Santok – and this act meant that on August 15, 1100, he was knighted.
The description of this event is the first surviving description of this type of ceremony in medieval Poland.
XXII. Watchtower, Góra Zamkowa
Within the borders of the present village, on a clearly dominant elevation – called Góra Zamkowa – there is an observation tower. It was built in 1935 for the first museum in Santok.
In this place, in the second half of the 10th century and at the beginning of the 11th century, there was a cemetery where the inhabitants of the gord located on the other side of the rivers were buried. In the 11th century, the Pomeranians erected a watchtower there, from which they not only saw, but also – according to the chronicle – heard what was happening in the Piast stronghold.
In the fifteenth century, the Teutonic Order built a watchtower in the same place, called a castle. It was a wooden residential tower made of timber construction. It had 2-3 storeys, measuring approx. 4 m x 4 m and 8-10 m high, with an additional basement. Its walls were plastered with clay. The entrance to the tower was from the north-west, and in front of it was a trench 2 m long and 1.2 m deep, which could have been a utility descent to the basement. A bridge or a ladder probably led to the main entrance. The roof was covered with ceramic tiles. The interior of the tower was heated with tiled stoves, and the presence of fragments of glass panes would suggest that the windows were perhaps covered with glass. The tower was situated on a mound – surrounded by three moats and a palisade. The Teutonic building functioned for about 16 years.
