Czego bałbyś się w średniowieczu? Fear in the Middle Ag… — Transcript

Explore medieval fears and health practices in Dubrovnik, focusing on air, epidemics, quarantine, and sanitation innovations.

Key Takeaways

Medieval fears centered on air quality, disease, hunger, fire, and war, reflecting the realities of the time.
Innovative public health measures in Dubrovnik, like quarantine and sewage systems, helped control epidemics.
Animals like cats and birds played a crucial role in pest control and disease prevention.
Quarantine practices developed in Dubrovnik influenced later public health policies worldwide.
Medieval hospitals often functioned as shelters rather than medical treatment centers.

Summary

The video compares modern fears in Poland with those in the Middle Ages, focusing on fears of air, hunger, fire, and war.
Medieval people believed 'bad air' caused epidemics, leading to sanitation efforts in Dubrovnik, including waste disposal regulations and pig control.
Dubrovnik implemented an advanced sewage system with subterranean streams to manage waste and reduce disease spread.
Bird nesting holes and city-supported cats were used to control bugs and rats, helping prevent plague outbreaks.
Dubrovnik’s status as a major port exposed it to epidemics, prompting the introduction of quarantine measures for arriving ships and sailors.
The quarantine lasted 40 days, effectively protecting the city from the Black Death and other diseases.
Numerous early hospitals appeared in Dubrovnik, including the Franciscan monastery, which served more as a shelter than a healing center.
The video highlights medieval water supply challenges and solutions, such as rainwater collection and aqueduct construction.
It also touches on social and architectural aspects of medieval Dubrovnik, including fire prevention and city defense.
The video uses Dubrovnik’s historical context to illustrate broader medieval fears and public health responses.

Chapters

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

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What do you think Poles are currently most afraid of? For a very long time, the first item on the list has been the fear of terrorist attacks, followed by the mass immigration of refugees to Poland, and a bit further down the list, a few mundane matters,

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such as visits to the dentist, the fear of not getting a raise, or not getting enough likes on your vacation pictures.

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These are all understandable. But it becomes really interesting when you consider that people living 500, 600, or even more years ago were also scared of certain things.

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What exactly were they? We can find some clues in the words of an old Polish prayer which goes as follows: [sound of wind] "AIR" “Oh Lord, deliver us from air, hunger, fire, and war.” Today, we will try to consider what these fears really were

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and how people tried to deal with them. In order to see this for ourselves, we have come to beautiful Dubrovnik, in which, apart from the scent of fresh laundry, we can catch a whiff of the Middle Ages.

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So buckle up because it’s time to go. [music] [music playing] [sigh] It’s hot. [sound of wind] "AIR" What did people mean by air?

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How can anyone be afraid of air? We need to remember that people during the Middle Ages thought that the so-called “bad air” was responsible for all epidemics, a smelly and clammy odour.

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This is in some way justified, as many epidemics were transmitted by means of airborne droplets.

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Of course, not all diseases were spread in this way, but people at the time didn’t realize this, and they tried to do something about it.

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Here in Dubrovnik, these activities took on a real dimension. For example, currently, we can see many tourists walking down the main street in Dubrovnik, but there is no mud, and in the past, this place would have been very dirty.

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Let me explain why that was. When we look at the houses around here, they had perfect sniper positions which allowed the inhabitants to take buckets full of the worst filth and waste, and conveniently throw them straight onto the streets,

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which from that moment ceased to be their problem. Attempts were made to regulate this.

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For example, around 600 years ago, a regulation prohibiting this activity from being performed during the day was enforced. It was still permitted during the night to accommodate people’s habits.

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Did this help? Not all that much. What really helped was the ban on bringing pigs out onto the street.

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I’m not sure if you understood when I said that people lived in houses even right here on this main street, together with their pigs and swine, and they wanted to take them out for a walk, they simply opened their doors, and the pigs were free to run unattended.

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Naturally, they would defecate and spread filth and germs, which also contributed to epidemics. Eventually, people were prohibited from allowing their pig to run around unattended.

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The pigs had to be tied up, which turned out to really help. However, what helped to totally solve the problem was the implementation of a sewage system.

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This was something totally unique to Europe, especially at such an advanced level. It wasn’t the type of sewage system we are used to today.

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Basically, under these houses and rows of individual blocks, a subterranean stream was created which could be accessed by breaking into it directly from the top.

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People could pour their waste directly into these streams through openings. These streams flowed in the direction which we are currently walking and led down to the sea.

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Not much of an ecological system by our standards, but in those days it worked incredibly well.

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Bad air and epidemics were also created and spread by bugs and rats. This was also dealt with.

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How? Let me show you. [music] Here we have an ingenious method. People knew all too well that birds were very effective at getting rid of bugs.

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In order to attract birds, openings like the ones which we can see above were created in the walls where the birds could easily build their nest.

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Simple and effective. Cats were another simple and natural solution. Cats have always been part of the Dubrovnik landscape, and they were even looked after and fed by the city itself.

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They were kept happy just so they could hunt mice. Once again, this proved successful in reducing the number of rodents.

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Diseases like the plague did not have a chance to explode in this city. There was only one drawback to this situation.

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When walking through the narrow streets of Dubrovnik, the smell was really… interesting. I didn’t say anything bad about you guys.

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[music] [Foch!] Dubrovnik was always highly exposed to epidemics. Why? The answer can be seen right behind me.

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What you see there is not only King’s Landing from Game of Thrones, but also a port in which cargo from the east and the west was traded.

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It was certain that if ships and sailors came from across the sea, filth, disease, and death would surely follow.

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This could very easily lead to infection in the following ways. Many inhabitants of Dubrovnik worked on offloading cargo right there where you see the walls.

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In today’s terms, we would refer to them as waste collectors. They worked part-time, in other words, they only worked when there was work.

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Nevertheless, they were happy. Their happiness ended when they managed to catch diseases from the sailors who came from all over the world.

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This had to be dealt with in some way. But how? [music] Unfortunately, Dubrovnik wasn’t flawless and idyllic in the sense that it didn’t have any problems with epidemics.

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Actually, it did. That's why while the Black Death raged on in the old continent, people here were perfectly aware of the fact that they could not allow the plague to decimate the larger part of the city.

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That’s why someone came up with the idea to further develop a concept already used in other port cities.

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This was the concept of placing sailors and their cargo under quarantine. So when ships with any type of cargo approached Dubrovnik during the Middle Ages, they were not allowed to go directly into port. Instead, they were directed to obediently wait at this very place where we are now.

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After an appropriate number of days, a doctor would come and brutally check if the crew was sick.

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If the disease was detected, they would be ordered to go back to where they came from.

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To accommodate these sailors who were stuck here, the buildings right behind me were built.

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They were called the Lazarus buildings, derived from the biblical story of when Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead.

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Sick sailors would definitely not be resurrected, not even back to health. Things like that didn’t happen here, but at least they would not endanger the city.

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How long would they have to stay in quarantine? The name comes from a Venetian dialect, and the word itself is based on the word quaran, which translated to 40.

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So the quarantine lasted for 40 days. First for 30 days, and then it was slightly extended, and whether they liked it or not, they had to wait out the period.

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Did it help? Yes, it did, and Dubrovnik was not wiped out by the Black Death.

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That doesn’t mean that there weren’t any diseases. [music] As a result of this medieval reality, many hospitals sprang up around Dubrovnik. There were several in the city, and when compared to the rest of Europe, they appeared quite early on

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and there were quite a few of them. We are currently standing in one of the most famous ones, namely the historic Franciscan monastery. Right behind me, we can see Saint Francis, looking over the proceedings.

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This hospital functioned very well, but what is most interesting is that its main function was not the healing of the sick.

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One could argue, how could this place then be called a hospital? But if we were to look a bit closer at the name, we would realize that the word is derived from HOSPITALL,

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something like an inn or guesthouse, a place which gathers people in need but doesn’t necessarily heal them.

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These needy people would have consisted of widows who were unable to look after themselves after the death of their husbands.

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Poor people, who were frequent clients.

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This was the function of these old hospitals. It was only later on that they started to specialise to the point of being closer to our understanding of hospital.

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Earlier on it was more of a waiting room, that’s why the word hospital is so similar to hotel and hostel. In all of these cases the main concern of this establishment was to care for people in need.

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"HUNGER" [stomach grumbling] Apparently, thirst was a far more serious problem for the inhabitants of Dubrovnik.

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All around us we see find water but unfortunately, this is salt water. So how then can we find fresh water?

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Behind me is one of the answers. For most people this inset found at the base of the wall is nothing more than a symbol related to finding luck.

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Many men try to stand on these insets and placing themselves as flat as possible in order to stick to the wall to guaranty them some luck.

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In reality this is not what this inset was designed for but it does effectively explain why this beautiful wall is so extremely dirty.

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It has been touched by many dirty hands. The reason this inset was profiled in this fashion was to catch a stream of rainwater which used to run down the wall right here.

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It would run on to the inset under which a container was placed in order to collect it as drinking water.

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This would literally and figuratively be a drop in the sea for the needs for the city of Dubrovnik.

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Such rainwater collection systems were essentially temporary solutions. A comprehensive solution was needed to solve the city’s water needs And that’s precisely what happened, namely, someone came up with an idea that would once and for all solve the thirst problems experienced by the city, namely the aqueduct.

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A prominent designer by the name of Onofrio della Cava was sourced from Italy in order to create this system. After many months he managed to lead the water to the city. Fragments of this old aqueduct can still be clearly seen today situated higher up

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on this wall. What is interesting, especially from today’s perspective, is that people opposed this system.

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As you can imagine it was all good until the aqueduct had to run though someone’s place or area.

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This resulted in resident protests which were quickly nipped in the bud for the sake of the common good and finally led to the moment when all the water led though the entire city wound up in one central location.

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This is what prompted the construction of Onofrio’s Fountain, which is naturally linked to the name of the designer.

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So, something that was built 580 years ago during medieval times essentially works till today.

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What we have here is cool, fresh and very nice water and it was said that if one was to drink water and wash their hands in a sequence according to the movement of the clock it would bring them an immense amount of luck.

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Definitely more luck than you would get from trying to stick to a wall. While hunger in the Middle Ages could be a huge problem and practically decimate entire cities, Dubrovnik and Dalmatia were luckily quite far removed from these problems.

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This has always been a rich region and people here ate a little better than those in the rest of Europe. They did however share a few similarities.

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For example, similarly to what could be found in Poland, the absolute basis for the diet for the majority of residents was flour, cereal products and types of bread, more akin to flat cakes.

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Additionally, there were groats, which to some extent have been preserved in the tradition of the bruschetta or pizza.

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In this case we are talking more about poorer dishes but here in Dubrovnik they were often supplemented with fresh vegetables and this to some extent corresponds to historical reality.

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These vegetables were often served with olive oil, an institution by itself, which has been produced in these parts for many years.

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Meat and fish were reserved for the richest people. Often in movies about the Middle Ages we are shown richly laden tables dripping with fat and full of meat.

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This did not happen very often and certainly not for the majority of residents. In contrast, all such products were consumed in homes and very seldom outside.

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Restaurants, as we know them, did not exist. Dubrovnik, due to being a port city, had many taverns but these places were not for eating, they were places for drinking alcohol.

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These regions have always been known for their wine. I have here a perfect example of some local wine which has an amazing aroma full of wonderfully rich accents of flowers and citrus.

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The local people always found their wine immensely important, to the point of fighting for it.

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This inconspicuous liquid also contributed to the fight against another element. Which one might that be?

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"FIRE" [sound of fire] Allow me to keep you in suspense for a moment longer by not revealing how wine realistically contributed to the fight against fires.

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To fully comprehend this situation we have to cast our minds back in time in order to understand how medieval cities actually looked.

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When thinking about these times we often conjure up an image of the stone that was used in the construction of walls, fortifications and churches, among other things.

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We seldom think much about a mundane material such as wood. But the fight for the primacy of medieval building material between wood and stone is very trivial.

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Wood always won. It was the foundation of almost any construction. Even later on when stone was being used more often, the majority of the construction was still made out of wood.

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However, many stories from that time can be somewhat confusing regarding this topic For example, when we learn about Casimir the Great during history lessons he is always presented as a medieval ruler of some or other place and as the one who found Poland made of wood and left it made of stone.

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Was that really how it happened? Not entirely. When we look at some churches, fortifications and castles, then yes, we can definitely give him credit there.

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However the vast majority of buildings, especially residential ones, where all made of wood. Not only that, when it comes to building houses in Poland we switched from wood to bricks and then to stone only about 250 years ago.

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So you can see how these types of construction are a new topic for us.

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If we once again return to medieval times and think about the threat of fire then we’ll soon realise that wooden houses are a recipe for disaster and if we also consider that they were erected extremely close to each other

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then we potentially have the total destruction of the entire city. When we walk down such a street we might find it narrow and romantic but when it comes to the standards of the middle ages, this one is actually quite wide.

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There is a street in Dubrovnik called ‘Wide’ which is basically the width of what we have here.

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However, we do find many preserved streets which beautifully show just how they were built in the past.

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Now, if we don’t want it to reach a situation where a tiny fire can easily spread , from one property to the next then we are basically presented with two solutions.

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First, we can increase the space between the buildings which is at all easy as we would lithely have to pick up the property and move it further away.

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The second solution suggests that we replace the wooden construction in to a brick or stone construction and thus by far more practical as it doesn’t upset the whole layout of the city and even though it wouldn't totally prevent the spreading fire

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it does significantly reduce the change of this happening. This was the chosen solution for Dubrovnik and very soon after the city began to look as it does currently does.

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But if you were a resident of that old city and an official came to you and said, "Sir, wood? Let’s preserve ourselves, this is supposed to be stonework, it's supposed to be solid.

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You have to replace it as soon as possible". You would likely get rid of him as soon as possible and avoid him at all costs.

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The authorities were well aware of this and instead of ordering a massive replacement of building material they simply said “Dear inhabitant of Dubrovnik, if you want to store wine inside your building, then you have the right to do so,

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but under one small condition. The building must be built of solid building material such as stone.” This is what motivated people as they could not imagine their life without wine.

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These houses quickly began to change into the form we see here and this saved the city from many fires.

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Dubrovnik, despite appearances, did not have big problems with this element. This cannot be said for lands in Poland.

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Many of the ancient medieval constructions as well as the buildings themselves were not preserved simply because they disintegrated in the fires and were forever blown away with the wind.

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"WAR" Finally the payer says “Oh Lord, deliver us from war” We pray, but just in case, we build fortifications in the form of a system of city walls that beautifully surround the entire old city.

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They are impressive, 4 to 6 meters thick and in some places 25 meters high.

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But in actual fact, they don’t need to be so massive. In the past when there was nothing more than a wooden palisade, it faired just as well.

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When a large Saracen army marched on the city they were effectively stopped by an otherwise wooden construction.

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Why, then, did they invest so much money in building something so big? In the first place, if an army that wanted to destroy Dubrovnik came up to something like this, their enthusiasm would dwindle somewhat.

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In fact, a large army was never stationed inside the walls. There were only a few, what we would refer to these days as policemen.

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This was all that separated the inhabitants from the outside world. The second aspect is that it worked well for the residents themselves.

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For residents living in the old town of Dubrovnik who wanted to feel secure, the presence of such structures definitely provided a senses of well-being.

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This has not changed. It is for this very reason that large military parades are organised, allowing the army to proudly flex its muscles.

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They are not there to air out the soldiers and let them ride in a tank, but rather to show people that everything is okay and that they are indeed protected.

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Here, time effectively stopped because the whole wall structure and the way in which it was constructed survived many cataclysms and earthquakes, and actually has not changed since the Middle Ages.

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[music] Now try to imagine that due to all these fortifications people could not afford the luxury of entering and leaving the city simply when they felt like it.

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Strict restrictions were implemented in this regard. Even the very gates were not looked on particularly kindly.

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It was obvious that they were necessary for activities like the transportation of goods but the fewer and narrower they were, the better for the safety of the inhabitants.

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Additionally, if we calculated the cost of building such walls and gates, it would turn out to be an astronomical amount.

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We can easily compare this to the situation we are currently facing in Poland in which we are converting all our major roads into highways.

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It would have easily amounted to just as much. Here we are tempted to ask a question ... not a very elegant question, but one we should bravely ask it all the same.

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Where did Dubrovnik get all this money from? [music] To know the answer to this question, you will have to follow me to this door, above which an inscription reveals a lot.

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Here we have the word dogana, which literally means “customs”. Behind this door, on the left hand side, they would collect customs duties, taxes, amass treasures and coins in really large amounts.

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Thanks of course to the trade of the nearby port. In order to make all this possible Dubrovnik had to live in peace with all its trading partners.

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And so they wheeled and they dealed, appearing to remain as neutral as possible by paying the Turks for protection, but that did not prevent them from doing lucrative deals with those on the other side of the barricade They dealt with Venice and other Italian states.

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This really paid off andfor many years there was visible peace and prosperity which can even be seen in the construction of the Sponza Palace building.

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Here one can see beautiful arcades, gothic and renaissance motifs. All this was really very expensive, but the finances allowed for it Unfortunately, this is the only building on this street that survived from that old time period.

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This is because an earthquake that took place about 350 years ago totally destroyed building such as these, of which some were even more ornate.

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Now let’s take a look at a simple and quick comparison between The Sponzy Palace and the buildings that stand right next to it.

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These are much more modest. Why? First of all, there wasn’t much money to rebuild them as richly as before, and secondly, someone came to the just conclusion that during earthquakes the terraces turned into death traps.

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Many people died under them, so it was decided not to use them and replace them instead with tenement house which you are currently looking at.

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Since there were many different commercial transactions taking place in the city, it was deemed necessary to take care of their certainty and stability and my friend, who is visible behind me, was very helpful in achieving this.

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Let me introduce you to Roland, a distinctive sculpture that appeared in many European cities, especially German ones.

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It does, however, appear here in the south and I must honestly admit that from the ones I have seen this one is definitely one of the more handsome ones.

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What is characteristic of his appearance is the so-called Gothic smile. Economical, something like that, but still a smile.

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Apart from the fact that Roland was a symbol of municipal authority and to some extent freedom as well as the independence of the city, it also had a much more practical application.

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Namely, his elbow, which served as a unit of measurement used here in the city. As it was difficult to measure up there, it was drawn precisely in the same length down here.

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This is exactly 51 centimetres and 2 millimetres. Typically, these European elbows amounted to around 50 centimetres at different locations, which is a bit longer than the distance from my elbow to the end of my middle finger.

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When trading anything one could verify if someone gave them the right amount of goods by simply coming here and checking.

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This definitely elevated trading confidence to some extent In Dubrovnik, among all its love of freedom and respect for the individual, there was a lot of conservatism which we can find hidden in small historical monuments such as these.

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In theory these are quite ordinary stairs, but this element in the form of such an unusual filling between rungs makes one curious of its purpose. It was meant for the ladies who, God forbid, would not be exposed to the glances of men

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who could not only direct their gaze under the ladies dresses, but also at their ankles, which, during days of old, were considered to be an intimate part of the body.

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This is actually an interesting and rather funny element, differentiating us slightly from the people who lived during the Middle Ages.

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But after all, lets not forget that for centuries people have had different fears and different ways of meeting their needs, but to a large extent, we all remain the same.

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[music] [end] Almost 75k people bought Włam Się So Mózgu changing the way they acquire free knowledge.

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You can join them at radekaltenberg.pl to securely buy your copy, see you soon!

Topics:Middle Agesmedieval fearsDubrovnikepidemicsquarantinesewage systempublic health historyBlack Deathmedieval sanitationmedieval hospitals

Frequently Asked Questions

Why were people in the Middle Ages afraid of 'air'?

People believed that 'bad air' or miasma caused epidemics, as they did not understand germ theory. This led to efforts to improve sanitation and reduce foul odors.

How did Dubrovnik prevent the spread of the plague?

Dubrovnik implemented a 40-day quarantine for arriving ships and sailors, along with strict sanitation and pest control measures, which helped protect the city from the Black Death.

What role did animals play in medieval Dubrovnik’s public health?

Cats were fed by the city to control rodents, and birds were encouraged to nest in buildings to reduce bugs, both helping to limit the spread of disease.

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