Not only Ostrów Lednicki. A stronghold on an island as the realization of an ideal space of power in the area of the early states of North-West Slavdom
The aim of this paper is to present the cultural phenomenon of the form of specific stronghold complexes located on lake islands in the South Baltic Lakeland. Their functional interpretation, based on both written and archaeological sources, allows us to consider them as places where elite armed men, noblemen, and in some of them also members of dukes families resided. Some of these sites fully meet the criteria of a complex central place, as set out by Eike Gringmuth-Dallmer, adapting Walter Christaller's central place theory for the needs of archaeology. The most outstanding example of such a site is Ostrów Lednicki; apart from it, however, one can indicate quite a large group of analogous sites on both sides of the Oder. The peak periods of construction and use of such sites coincided exactly with the formation of early states in the area of North-Western Slavdom, which seems to be no coincidence.
