Zmagania z naturą i działaniem człowieka o utrzymanie odpowiedniego przepływu wody w kanale Raduni w Gdańsku od późnego średniowiecza do początku XIX w.
The struggle with nature and human action to maintain adequate water flow in the Radunia Canal in Gdańsk from the late Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century

Summary/Abstract: The Radunia Canal, 13.5 km long, was built by the Teutonic Order before 1338; its final section, from the suburban settlement of Szkoty, was reconstructed before 1356. The canal supplied water from the Radunia River to Gdańsk for the planned industrial facilities, irrigation of the Teutonic Order’s moats, and for the needs of the city’s inhabitants, for whom it was the main source of drinking water. These objectives could only be achieved with an undisturbed flow of water in the riverbed, which was affected by both natural and human causes. Much of the problem was caused by streams flowing into the canal, periodically carrying not only significant amounts of water but also sand, earth and rubbish. They could clog the channel and impede the flow of water, ultimately breaking the embankments between which the canal ran for a considerable length. The spring ice slide also posed a similar danger. Each time the dikes were breached, in addition to depriving the town of water for the time needed to repair them, considerable material damage was caused.Overcoming these dangers required the introduction of systematic measures to maintain adequate water flow in the canal. The most important was the annual cleaning of its channel and the repair of the embankments strained by the rains and the rodents digging their corridors in them. In the suburban area, 13 villages in the Gdańsk Highlands were assigned to this work; in the city, it was the responsibility of the residents of the suburbs through which the canal ran, as well as the Old Town council and the owners of the plots of land adjacent to it. An ordinance of 1652, which may have been based on the rules introduced by the Teutonic Order, precisely defined the procedure for carrying out the work. The clearing of the canal took place around St John’s Day (24 June) and lasted between two and three weeks. This time was called the Schüttelzeit or Schützzeit. The beginning was marked by the closing of the sluice on the canal before Pruszcz Gdański and the diversion of water into the Radunia riverbed. Once the water had gone, work began to remove the sand, silt and rubbish lying on the bottom and to repair the shuttering of the riverbed and embankments.It was not only natural conditions that were to blame for the need for regular cleaning of the canal. To a large extent, the inhabitants of the suburban villages, suburbs and the city itself were responsible for this, as they built various structures in and above the water that impeded its flow and the descent of ice (bridges, footbridges, toilets); they also dumped various types of rubbish into the canal (mulch, straw, waste and handicraft waste) and discharged their domestic sewage (carrying many solids) into it. The biggest culprits were distillers, tanners and butchers. The townspeople whose responsibility it was to take part in cleaning the canal also contributed to its state: they did their work poorly, inconsistently or not at all, as the surviving protocols of inspections of its technical condition show. Neither orders to demolish unauthorised buildings, nor prohibitions on their construction, nor prohibitions on throwing rubbish into the water or the financial penalties for noncompliance changed this state of affairs. Private interests were placed above the common good. Around the middle of the nineteenth century, the condition of the canal and the quality of water in it continued to be disastrous.

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