Vineta (sometimes Wineta) is the name of a mythical city at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. The myth evolved around the tradition about the medieval emporium called Jumne, Jomsborg (with which Vineta is sometimes identified), Julin or similar names by the chronicles.
There are several Vineta myths – all of them portray the Vinetans as having an excessive, voluptuous or blasphemous way of life and then being punished in a flood that took the city to the bottom of the Baltic. In some variants of the myth, the city or parts thereof reappear on certain days or can be seen from a boat, making the warning conveyed by the myth more tangible for the audience.
Some variants of the myth have Vineta sunken off Koserow (on the isle of Usedom). The historian Wilhelm Ferdinand Gadebusch from Swinemünde (Świnoujście) made this and other observations the basis for his thesis of Vineta's location. According to Gadebusch, Wolin did not have the deep water port that Vineta must have had, and thus discarded the Wolin thesis (see below). David Chyträus in his 16th century Chronicon Saxoniae had Vineta "beyond the Peene river near the village of Damerow " which was a Vorwerk of Koserow. For Chyträus, Usedom was the land of the Vinetans, while Julin on the neighboring island of Wolin was inhabited by Pomoranians. Since no traces of Slavic settlement have been found on northwest Usedom, this thesis is no longer accepted.
Several maps published between 1633 and 1700 have the sunken "Wineta" east of the island of Ruden northwest of Usedom. About 1700, Bernhard Walther Marperger reported it in the same spot. The origin of this thesis is the All Saints flood of 1306 that reduced Ruden and other small islands from a much larger landmass that prior to the flood had existed between Mönchgut and Usedom.
Rudolf Virchow said: "Vineta is Wollin!" Based on the primary sources outlined above, Adolf Hofmeister in 1931/32 formulated the thesis that Vineta, Jumne, Julin, Jomsborg etc. are all different spellings used for the same place on the site of today's town of Wolin. [1] Beginning in the 1930s, and continued after the annexation of Wolin to Poland after World War II, archaeologists unearthed the remains of a large settlement there. Hofmeister's thesis is the only mainstream thesis regarding the location of Vineta in today's historiography.
A thesis formulated by Goldmann und Wermusch placed Vineta near Barth, pointing to a possibly different course of the Oder in the Middle Ages and a creative reading of the primary sources outlined above.
Wolin is a Polish island in the Baltic Sea, just off the Polish coast. Administratively, the island belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Wolin is separated from the island of Usedom (Uznam) by the Strait of Świna, and from mainland Pomerania by the Strait of Dziwna. The island has an area of 265 km2 (102 sq mi) and its highest point is Mount Grzywacz at 116 m above sea level. The number of inhabitants is 30,000. Eastern suburbs of the city of Świnoujście extend to the Wolin island, while the towns of Międzyzdroje and Wolin lie further east.
Usedom is a Baltic Sea island in Pomerania, divided between Germany and Poland. It is the second largest Pomeranian island after Rügen, and the most populous island in the Baltic Sea.
Jomsborg or Jómsborg was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, that existed between the 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants were known as Jomsvikings. Jomsborg's exact location, or its existence, has not yet been established, though it is often maintained that Jomsborg was located on the eastern outlet of the Oder river. Historian Lauritz Weibull dismissed Jomsborg as a legend.
Zinnowitz is a semi-urban Spa (resort) municipality in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on the northern German island of Usedom on the Baltic Sea. The municipality has rail connections to Wolgast and Ahlbeck.
Wolgast is a town in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the bank of the river Peenestrom, vis-a-vis the island of Usedom on the Baltic coast that can be accessed by road and railway via a movable bascule bridge. In December 2004, the town had a population of 12,725.
The Jomsvikings were purportedly a legendary order of Viking mercenaries or conquerors of the 10th and 11th centuries. Though reputed to be staunchly dedicated to the worship of the Old Norse gods, they would allegedly fight for any lord who could pay their substantial fees, even if they may be Christian. The institution of the Jomsvikings would itself foreshadow those of the later religious and chivalric orders of the Middle Ages.
Uwe Timm is a German writer.
Wolin is a town in northwestern Poland, situated on the southern tip of the Wolin island off the Baltic coast of the historic region of Western Pomerania. The island lies at the edge of the strait of Dziwna in Kamień County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship.
Koserow is a municipality on Usedom Island, in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
The Bishopric of Cammin was both a former Roman Catholic diocese in the Duchy of Pomerania from 1140 to 1544, and a secular territory of the Holy Roman Empire (Prince-Bishopric) in the Kołobrzeg area from 1248 to 1650.
Adalbert of Pomerania was the first bishop of the 12th century Pomeranian bishopric, with its see in Wolin. He was a monk of the Michaelsberg Abbey, Bamberg and former chaplain to Bolesław III Wrymouth of Poland, whence he knew the Pomeranian language of the temporarily Polish-subjugated West Slavic population, whereas the Joms Vikings and other Germanic inhabitants of the Pomeranian coast understood his old German language.
Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages covers the History of Pomerania from the 7th to the 11th centuries.
Pomerania during the High Middle Ages covers the history of Pomerania in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Medieval Pomerania was converted from Slavic paganism to Christianity by Otto von Bamberg in 1124 and 1128, and in 1168 by Absalon.
The Wolinians were a Lechitic tribe in Early Middle Age Pomerania. They were first mentioned as "Velunzani" with 70 civitates by the Bavarian Geographer, ca. 845. Associated with both the Veleti and the Pomeranians, they were based on the island of Wolin and the adjacent mainland. Compared to other tribes of these groups, the Wolinians' territory was relatively small but densely settled: in the 11th century, there was one settlement per four square kilometers. The Wolinians are described by Jan Maria Piskorski as the most powerful Pomeranian tribe. This position resulted from the multi-ethnic emporium at the site of the present-day town of Wolin (Wollin), then known as Jomsborg, Jumne, Julin or Vineta.
Ernst Ludwig was duke of Pomerania from 1560 to 1592. From 1569 to 1592, he was duke in the Teilherzogtum Pomerania-Wolgast, sharing the rule over the Duchy of Pomerania with his older brother Johann Friedrich, duke in the other Teilherzogtum Pomerania-Stettin and bishop of Cammin.
The Golm War Cemetery is a World War II cemetery near the village of Kamminke close to the German-Polish border on the island of Usedom maintained and managed by the German War Graves Commission. The cemetery is the largest war cemetery in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and one of the largest in Germany.
The Streckelsberg is an approximately 58-metre high coastal cliff on the island of Usedom in North Germany. After the Golm and the Kückelsberg, the Streckelsberg is the third highest elevation on the island. The Streckelsberg is located half a kilometre southeast of the former fishing village and present-day seaside resort of Koserow directly on the Baltic Sea shore. To the southeast is the village of Kölpinsee; the B 111 federal road and Usedomer Bäderbahn railway run past the hill to the southwest.
The Vineta Festival is an annual theatre festival in Germany which began in 1997. The festival takes its name from Vineta, a mythical city said to have been on the southern Baltic Sea located on the island of Usedom. The city is said to have been seen rising from the sea on the beach of Koserow by a young shepherd one Easter morning. A troupe of actors, many of them students at the Theatre Academy of Zinnowitz, participate in the yearly festival.
Historical Western Pomerania, also called Cispomerania,Fore Pomerania, Front Pomerania or Hither Pomerania, is the western extremity of the historic region of Pomerania forming the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. Western Pomerania's boundaries have changed through the centuries as it belonged to various countries such as Poland, the Duchy of Pomerania, Sweden, Denmark, as well as Prussia which incorporated it as the Province of Pomerania.