New Aspects of the Genesis of the Medieval Town Walls in the Northern Baltic Sea Region

The purpose of this reasearch is to analyse the origins of the town walls of Old Livonia, specifically the medieval town walls in the present-day territory of Estonia. The main research questions are 1) which changes on the urban townscape can be associated with the building of town walls; 2) when did the construction of the town walls start and how long did it take to complete them; 3) did the walling of medieval towns in the Estonian area differ from the similar processes in the neighbouring countries, and if so, how. The town walls construction required the development of new types of building materials, which depended largely on natural resources in the respective locations. The beginning of brick-making in Estonia clearly correlates with the beginning of the construction boom in the 14th century, when town areas were re-planned, and the construction of the town fortifications, stone churches, and stone houses had started. Also in the current context the appearance of cesspits in the first half of 14th century clearly distinguish. After building the wall, the disposal of waste to cesspits was probably regulated by the town laws. The average development from the first traces of urban settlement to walled medieval town in the present-day Estonian territory took a timeframe of approximately 50–100 years and the walls were probably erected in the 14th century. Around the northern Baltic Sea region there are no medieval walled towns in the territory of present-day Russia nor Lithuania and there are very few of them in Scandinavia. Therefore I have suggested that the building of urban fortifications was not always directly related to military necessity, but was also due to the specificity of the cultural space, which came to Old Livonia with the German settlers. German influence is also clearly perceivable in the walled towns of the territory of medieval Sweden. Similarly to Estonian area, the average development from the first traces of urban settlement to walled medieval town in the Latvian territory took a timeframe of around 50–100 years, with the exception of Riga. The timeframe for the completion of the medieval Sweden’s town walls seems to fall in the same pattern as we already witnessed in Old Livonia. In some cases one can perceive similar events in the town planning.
 The genesis of the medieval town walls in Old Livonia seems to clearly indicate an ordinary colonisation policy, which is not something unique in Europe.