BARDUM POMERANIAE, BARTH/POMERANIA.

A fine antique map - bird's-eye plan of Barth by Braun and Hogenberg, from the Urbium Praecipuarum Mundi Theatrum Quintum Auctore Georgio Braunio Agrippinate. Part 5. Köln, 1596.

TRANSLATION OF CARTOUCHE TEXT : The princely town of Barth in Pomerania, which was founded in the year 1079 after the birth of Christ by the Lombards, who has settled on the Island of Rügen during this period, and which was afterwards granted privileges by the most praiseworthy princes, the Dukes of Stettin and Pomerania, and provided with a palace.
COMMENTARY BY BRAUN (on verso): "Barth has a large market at which one can buy all the necessities of daily life at a fair price, thanks to its fertile land and its favourable location by the sea. For since there are fertile soils not only all around the city but in the whole duchy, it has an abundance of salt water and other fish, game, cattle, grain, butter, honey, wax and other such things.
The wealth of the citizens comes from livestock farming and from trade, which they conduct very profitably with the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and other distant lands far across the ocean. They brew a tasty beer, which they also trade in."

The bird's-eye view of Barth presents the spacious town and harbour on the Barther Bodden, a bay that is separated from the Baltic Sea by an island. With its medieval fortifications, the town appears impregnable. The fortress (top left) beside the ramparts to the east was originally built around 1315 by King Wizlaw III, but was transformed into a Renaissance palace at the end of the 16th century.
The Gothic St Mary's church can be recognised on the market square. Barth arose as a German market settlement between two Slavic fishing villages and is first mentioned in records in 1159; it received its charter in 1255. In 1369 Barth became part of Pomerania and served for periods as the residence of the Dukes of Pomerania. (Taschen)

Reference: Van der Krogt 4 - 391; Fauser - #1098; Taschen, Br. Hog. - p.397