Inns of the former Polish Republic

The noble Playful Company spends a lot of their lives in inns.

And after reading various diaries, I get the impression that
the topic is treated poorly. Inns with a drive-thru through the
middle to the "state", with a compulsory Jew in charge
counter, are generally described according to one scheme. It
is true that in many diaries the inns are just an unimportant
background and - what can I say - that's completely fine. Not
o it's about objectivity, and about the unfortunate schematic
nature, which I know perfectly well from my own experience,
because once there was a Jew at my inn. Hence, among
others, the following article, which will allow you to add color
and diversity to the always gray background.
But it is not everything. What I regret most is the fantasy
systems inherited (Hail Warhammer!) general approach to
the topic: a terrorizing team armed to the teeth It's the
innkeeper's fault, she starts a riot at any opportunity, and
often leaving corpses and ashes behind. After all, the
opponents are only the fat host, his family and a few
henchmen, right? Law enforcement, including slow and
ineffective ones the city guard were not very interested in
pursuing the perpetrators, so that was enough get out of the
village or town quickly - and that's it. I absolutely forbid it
bring similar customs to Wild Fields Here, in the
seventeenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,
completely different realities prevailed. And the most
important difference is the fact that it is Old Polish an
innkeeper was almost never the owner of his business, only
a tenant (tenant), and the real owner, who derived
considerable profits from the inn, usually lived there just
beyond the border and had a large group of armed servants
at his disposal. The conclusions are obvious. Forget about the
heroic innkeeper defending his property with his son and
three children henchmen and falling under the blows of the
attackers' shining swords. Here's the stable boy in case of an
attack, he jumped on any horse he came across and called for
help. From who? Until this was different. And this is the
second goal of this treatise - to show those who enjoy
carelessly demolishing the inn, who are they really messing
with.

In the provinces...

...there were basically only two types of inns left. The most
common were courtly, the property of the nobleman who
owned the land. Of course, the nobility was not allowed
personally engage in trade, so the inn had to be leased to
someone else, or at least put a manager in it. Only a nobleman
had the right of propination, so anyone who wanted to pour
vodka or brew beer on his estate had to turn to him
permission. Importing alcohol from further afield was only
profitable if it was better genres intended for wealthier
travelers. Therefore, the innkeeper had a choice: either buy
spirits from the court brewery and distillery, or obtain (read:
buy) from a nobleman's permission to run his own
production. Such permission usually was leased for a certain
period of time. Either way, it was a golden deal for the
nobleman. Anyway, if he could afford to build an inn, he was
not among the poorest before. Therefore Gentlemen
Brothers should not be surprised if a host comes to the
innkeeper's aid hajduks or a large group of peasants. If the
inn is located on the lands of a powerful magnate, whose
headquarters are dozens of miles away, there will always be
someone at hand to speak on behalf of the lord manages a
given area, some bursar or sub-starosta. (Not to be confused
with sub-starosta city. Ordinary managers of private goods
were sometimes called this.) The second type of inn were
parsonage inns, managed similarly to manor inns, except that
the inn stood on church land and the owner was the parish
priest. Sometimes also a nobleman he allowed the parson to
build an inn on his land. It turned out to be funny sometimes
that priests were not prohibited from engaging in trade, so
they rented out less often inns, they preferred to run them
through a trusted manager or even... personally. Rarely, but
sometimes you could see the priest after he finished during
the service, he rushes to open the inn and stands behind the
counter. Priests may not have earned that much armed
service like the nobility, but they could count on pious
parishioners. And it shouldn't be underestimated a
clergyman - in the 18th century he defeated the gang of the
cruel and degenerate Myszkowski a unit sent by the parish
priest eager for revenge for the attack on the rectory and
disgrace of the ward. The equivalent of the magnates' inns
were bishops' inns. There were also not worthy of a separate
paragraph, monastic or hospital inns. Once upon a time,
when villages were established under German law, there
were still inns village heads, as well as "free" inns founded
and run - as in fantasy - by freemen peasants. In the 16th
century, both were already incredibly rare: sometimes free
in the Foothills, and a village head where there is still a village
with an efficient local government (cluster) and the village
head at the head.

Cities...

...belonged to one of three categories: royal, i.e. more or less

free; private, i.e. those belonging to a powerful nobleman and
church ones, owned by the clergy. In cities private and
church inns were the same as in the countryside: inns
(private parishes or monasteries) were run by tenants and
managers. They existed next to them townspeople's inns, if
the city owner granted appropriate permits. Of course, in
royal cities, no one had the exclusive right of propination, and
the regulations were established by the council city and/or
voivode or starosta.
In cities where crowds of people regularly arrived from time
to time (capitals, places noblemen's gatherings, tribunal
meeting places, etc.) there were inns open periodically. After
just clever townspeople, normally merchants and craftsmen,
before a grand convention the nobility bought as much
alcohol and food as they could, and then for the duration of
the deliberations/elections/sessions court judges opened
something like an inn in their own home: the master of the
house, the son or the rented one an employee ran the tavern,
the hostess cooked, and guests were welcomed to the rooms.
Of course, this is just an example, not a rule - some offered
accommodation and a room with a restaurant, but no food,
others only shelters, but the phenomenon was common. In
Piotrków, for example, At one point, every third house was
rented to the nobility who came to the tribunal. Another
typical urban type were guild inns, which were used for: the
name itself indicates. Each larger and wealthier guild tried to
have its own inn, and these were always places of a better
category, because the masters themselves often came there
guilds and their families. Journeymen lived there every day,
and the guild provided them adequate care and relatively low
cost of living.
There were finally wineries. Luxurious establishments
where wealthy merchants and the wealthy met gentry. In
addition to exquisite, expensive wines, exotic fruits were also
served and sweets: Turkish dried fruits, nuts in honey,
oranges, etc. If only the Company has them some money to
spend, a trip to a winery is a great idea. A separate category
were brothels, also known as brothels, which combined their
services with... serving drinks, good cuisine, accommodation
and organizing grand parties. Bands were banging (sic!) in
the brothels all night long, wine flowed in streams, and shots
were fired loudly. pistols echoed in the street, girls giggled,
and pious townswomen from the neighborhood they
submitted complaints to the city hall. City authorities (very
tolerant in the Middle Ages) from In the 16th century, when
the whole of Europe was engulfed by a great plague of
venereal diseases, they conceived fight prostitution
intensively. That's why we've had permanent, decent
shelters here for a long time at the end of the 16th century
almost exclusively in the largest cities, and even then mainly
in the countryside jurydyk. Those standing on land subject to
municipal law were oriented towards temporary action.
Usually, after a few months of complaints and quarrels, the
town hall closed it down business, and harlots were driven
out of the city after public (sic!) flogging. There were two
main ones types of associations. Usually an enterprising
woman takes care of a rented or purchased house she
brought in several or a dozen "traffic women", who were paid
rather for their services little money, but regular meals and a
roof over their heads were more important to them. Second
type were "ordinary" inns, the owner of which rented rooms
to whores, and they in turn they were either self-employed
and paid the costs of their stay and food, or they were
employed by the innkeeper himself. We don't take lonely,
wandering prostitutes here into consideration.
Security was, of course, ensured by the city guard or private
military units because the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
was a peaceful country (except for times of war and areas
south-eastern), tavern brawls, although known, were not at
all agenda (again, except for the vile dens). Therefore, loud
brawls immediately they attracted attention and brought in
law enforcement officers. And don't think that the city
authorities were watching finger brawls. After all,
innkeepers paid a lot of taxes, and also from those who were
captured noblemen could collect a nice sum of money. Of
course, not as a fine, because a bench After all, the city council
could not judge a nobleman, but it could hand him over to a
local court starosta - and if it happens in the private city of a
magnate, it's better, really, there was a way to get rid of it.

Innkeepers...

...this is also a topic that calls for comment. It's high time to
dispel the belief that the renter must always have been a
Semite. Jews behind the proverbial pubs (which, by the way,
they became popular only in the 18th century - before that,
an ordinary one served as a counter long table) there was
much less standing than we thought. In the western lands, i.e.
Poland, most of the innkeepers are local residents - either
local peasants or townspeople (no they lost their city rights),
or Germans (especially many in Prussian lands), or clever
and resourceful people, relaxed. It's hard to believe, but
Baranowski states that among There were also poor
noblemen among tenants and inn managers. (And let's
remember that a nobleman was not allowed to engage in
trade or crafts on pain of losing his jewel!) These the poor
clung to the nobility, using a clever trick: they said no they
rent inns as inns, but the patch of land on which it stands. And
the land it was allowed to rent.
In Lithuania and Russia, yes. There, Jews definitely
predominated among the tenants, and often they did It
happened that they rented not only the inn from the lord, but
also the entire right of propination. Others in other words,
they were buying a monopoly on alcohol production. So this
is the real cause of the uprisings Cossacks: The Jews did not
allow them to drink vodka freely. However, also in the east,
dear ones Game Starostas, you should sometimes put a Tatar,
Armenian or other as a host some local element, in Russia
preferably a Cossack.
Just as a curiosity (because I don't think the Freelance
Companies have the opportunity to check it often) I will also
say that especially many foreigners ran wineries, and not
only them Germans and Armenians, but also Greeks, Turks
and even Italians.

Menu...

...in the old Polish inn it was very poor. You could certainly
get bread, soup, bacon and smoked herring, maybe sausages,
maybe eggs or cheese, but not necessarily. Sometimes fresh
fish (if there was anywhere to fish in the area), sometimes
poultry, if the innkeeper had it a decent chicken coop. There
were no specialties such as ham, roast or cake. The situation
with drinks was not much better. Every inn in a reasonably
civilized area had one at least two types of beer, one from a
primitive court microbrewery – brewed any way, from any
thing and by anyone, and intended for peasants. More
expensive, better beer for visitors, they were most often
brought from a nearby town. Vile vodka was also served
(court or own production). Better vodkas and any wines
were rare, Honey was also not on sale constantly. And what
was there was usually weak, miserable and fake.
First of all, water was constantly added to everything. A 17th
century anecdote says that when a gentle Frenchman asked
the serving girl for some water to dilute, he heard in
response, "No need, father already poured the entire jar last
night." But never mind water. What's worse is that they tried
to mask too much of it with artificial means many were
poisonous and almost all were harmful.
However, I emphasize that this description applies to an
average, rural, roadside inn so the premises are quite low
category. Inns in small towns and many in big cities also fit
this description. However, in large cities, especially Prussian
ones, they did happen higher-class establishments offering
better and more diverse dishes. There were also, for contrast,
even worse murder for rafters and sailors. There were also
hams, in where only beer and vodka were sold, there was no
food or accommodation. AND some were actually brothels,
where there was beer, music and overnight stays nice
company, although you could wake up there without your
purse, saber, or hat shoes.

Buildings...

...inns were very different. Those described in detail in the DP

stand - single-block, with a passage to the estate through the
middle of the cottage - they were typical for Lithuanian lands,
less common in Korona. Most often, the stable and coach
house, i.e. the stable, were located in a separate building, in
an annex or simply adjacent to the inn with one wall proper
- either as its extension or perpendicularly, creating the
shape of the letter L. Not every one the inn was also an inn,
some had no estate at all - most of them urban and rural ones,
which were located at a considerable distance from the
frequented roads. Inns were built almost exclusively of
wood; brick inns were more common only in... large cities, in
Prussia and Silesia. Let's not forget about the atmospheric
atmosphere old, Gothic cellars of wealthy tenement houses,
where, for example, exclusive ones were located wineries.
Now let's go inside. All inns - if they really were inns, which
they weren't ordinary residential houses turned into inns -
they had a large inn room with tables and benches (in better
inns there were also stools, aka zydle). The poorest places
sometimes they consisted of only one room, and the owner
and his family slept on straw together with guests. However,
such miserable places were rare, mainly in Ukrainian lands.
Better inns, in addition to the common hall and the
innkeeper's private rooms, also had one or several sleeping
chambers, variously equipped - from stale straw to spacious
ones benches, even (exceptionally) to a comfortable bed with
linen. In cities where inns served more as meeting places and
drinking places than as lodging places, there were inns with
several side alcoves to provide more distinguished guests
with adequate privacy isolation from the boorish clientele of
the main hall. What are the richer roadside inns to which?
Passing nobility often visited them, and they also had smaller
rooms.
Old Polish inns were quite poor compared to Western ones.
High-rise premises level, even equipped with beds for guests,
were found in Prussian cities, including Kraków and Warsaw.
The further east and south you went, the worse it got, and the
meanest the holes occurred in Ukraine - with one room in
which people lay on rotting straw or a bare dirt floor where
only nasty, throat-burning vodka was served and one could
speak you were lucky if you didn't get lice in your clothes and
even worse vermin from there panniers.

Propination - the right to produce, sell and serve beer, wine,

honey and vodka. In the 16th-17th century century, the right
of propination belonged exclusively to landowners. This
meant that produce and Only the noble or clergy owner of a
given area and those responsible for selling alcohol could sell
alcohol such permission has been granted by paying an
appropriate fee. Usually, tenants also leased inns together
with their inns the right to produce alcoholic beverages. In
private cities it was theoretically the same, but it was often
the owners they leased or even granted the city the right to
own propination - then production and trade in alcoholic
beverages supervised by a city council, as in royal cities. To
be precise, I will also add that they are small and weak royal
towns were treated as private by starostas.

Jurydyka - a part of a city or suburb that is the private

property of a powerful lord, which is partly or was
completely excluded from municipal jurisdiction. The sizes of
juridices ranged from a single house to the entire district. The
so-called bunglers, i.e. unaffiliated craftsmen and merchants
who constitute competition for the city guilds, as well as
public women who could not be reached by the authority of
the town hall. WITH protection of prostitution and unfair
competition, the owner of the jurydyka naturally made
considerable profits.
Propination compulsion - In the countryside, where the inn
usually belonged to a lord or a priest, cruel feudal lords they
forbade their subjects to use anyone else's. A peasant who,
while at the market in the town, stopped by the local inn, he
risked his own life because of the risk of plagues, fines,
demijohn, immersion in an ice hole and other severe
penalties. Few noblemen remembered that peasants also
liked God's creation and liked beer. It was given to the poor
nasty washings brewed especially for them on the farm or by
the local innkeeper, and the peasants they had to buy it, even
if much better ones were offered in the town for the same
price. Often also rural ones inns competed with each other,
especially parsonage versus manorial inns. Let me expand on
this theme because was quite common and may constitute an
interesting setting for a diary:

Scenery - Two villages bordering each other, one of a

wealthy nobleman, the owner of several villages in the
area, the other - with a parish church - a parish priest, also
from several villages. Right next to the church there is a
parson's inn, every Sunday, attracting crowds of local
peasants after mass, to the obvious detriment of the lord
who owns own inn. Finally, the gentleman, tired of
constantly punishing unruly boors, closes the old inn and...
he builds a new one - on the very border with the church
village - and from then on, even the clergy's subjects sneak
away to other people's inn, because your beer is
supposedly better. Both competing inns stand a few
hundred meters from each other and look at each other
hostile from both sides of the valley, and the carpenters of
both owners constantly visit the neighbor's inn in search of
them violating the ban of subjects. But the peasants have
ways to deal with it. Let someone sitting by the window
shout “Karbowy is coming!” and all the “criminals” run
through the kitchen through the back door, and the
innkeeper the commandment is not to disturb.