Giecz

Giecz
Village
Romanesque church in Giecz
Giecz
Coordinates: 52°19′15″N 17°22′25″E / 52.32083°N 17.37361°E / 52.32083; 17.37361
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Greater Poland
County	Środa Wielkopolska
Gmina	Dominowo
Population	140

Giecz [ɡʲɛt͡ʂ] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Dominowo, within Środa Wielkopolska County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland.^[1] It lies approximately 5 kilometres (3 mi) north of Dominowo, 12 km (7 mi) north-east of Środa Wielkopolska, and 33 km (21 mi) east of the regional capital Poznań.

Giecz was once one of the main centres of Polish statehood in the early Middle Ages, alongside Poznań and Gniezno. In the early 9th century, a small keep was built on a mound on a peninsula on the Giecz lake; fortified with a stockade and earthworks. Since 940 it was one of the key strongholds of the early Piast dynasty. In 1038 during a war with Bohemia, the place was seized by Bretislaus I, who sacked the nearby settlement and sold its inhabitants into slavery. The place quickly recovered and by the 13th century was a centre of administration, trade and commerce in the Greater Poland region. At about that time, the settlement received a town charter and became the seat of a castellany. However, in 1331, it was burnt to the ground, never to recover.