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was built for a substantial sum of money. Archaeological excavations in Gutzkow have not discovered any remains of cult places (Corpus DDR, vol. 2, 1979, p. 153-155).

The aocounts about St Otto’s actions in other settlements in Pomerania do not contain any data conceming temples, except of Ebo’s passage (III, 5) ąuoted above, conceming a shrine of the Lutizens, “whose town with a tempie was recently bumt by illustrious king Lothar,” which caused a retaliat-ory campaign against Dymin in 1128, repulsed by Vartislav. C. Schuchhardt (1926, p. 56) associated the mentions about the recent destruction of the Lutizian tempie and the recent erection of the shrine in Gutzkow, and assumed that both concem the old tempie in Gutzkow demolished by Lothar. This thesis is incoherent, however, as at that time Gutzkow belonged to Lothar’s ally, Vartislav (Bruske, 1955, p. 97-100).

The Christianization of Wolgast and Gutzkow was decided by the assembly in Uznam, which comprised representatives of the territories on the left bank of the Oder, perhaps dependent on Pomerania for ąuite a short time. It is significant that in Wolgast and Gutzkow no one referred to the authority of Szczecin, which still persisted in apostasy during the assembly in Uznam, although Vartislav’s authority was recognised. It is impossible to decide which of the two sanctuaries presented above had higher rank. In the discussed period the area west of the Oder was organised as several territories subject to Vartislav, but loosely connected with each other. The priests of the whole area, however, are presented in the Lires as a unified group determined to oppose Christianity. In the time preceding their incorporation to Pomerania these territories may have been influenced in both political and religious matters by RadogoSć, Arcona and formerly powerful Wolin.

5. Temples in view of excavations

Written sources, although quite abundant, do not testify to the existence of any tempie before the tum of the llth century. Ali the cult buildings presented so far in accordance with their descriptions were located in north-ern Polabia and Pomerania, and that area was also the site of most fruitful excavations. Thus, it is not surprising that many historians (K.H. Meyer, 1931, p. 454—456; Łowmiański, 1979, p. 153-154) doubted whether the Slavs erected temples outside that territory. Archaeology, however, gives access to the history of other regions, which is much worse documented by written sources, and provides support to the thesis, posed already by L. Niederle (1916, p. 188-195), that temples and cult halls may have been built by Slavs also outside Polabia and Pomerania. We should, however, begin with the latter territories, where cult buildings have been discovered in Gross Raden, Feldberg, Ralswiek, Wolin, Starigard/Oldenburg and Parchim. Only the last one was erected after the lOth c., others existed much earlier.

The most impressive example of Slavonic religious architecture was found in the village Gross Raden in Mecklemburg. Ewald Schuldt (1985) worked there in the years 1973-1980 and excavated remains of a large settlement from the 9th-10th c. at a peninsula of Binnen Lakę. In the earlier stage the houses in the settlement were built of wattle covered with clay, later of timber in log construction. The eastem shore of the peninsula was occupied by a large house, separated from other buildings, surrounded by a fence close to its walls. Its comers were orientated to the four quarters of the world. It was connected with the road - the main communication axis of the settlement - by an oblique path paved with wood. There were no other buildings between the house and the lakę shore. According to Schuldt, this structure, at least four times larger than the neighbouring huts, be-longed to the earlier phase of the settlement. It was conspicuous among the wattle-and-clay huts for its solid construction, nearly as a brick church against the background of wooden cabins in a nineteen-century village. The original house was destroyed and a new one, of identical plan, was founded. The peat of the peninsula has conserved the ground-floors of both buildings in a very good condition. The walls of the older one were constructed of two rows of parallel boards. Some of them have been preserved in the ground because they were used as foundations of the new building. They are mainly

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