The mysterious Wanda Mound and the Early Medieval occupation of Mogiła near Kraków and the Cistercian Abbey

The initial part of the paper discusses the available historical and iconographic sources referring to the Wanda Mound (Polish: Kopiec Wandy) in Mogiła near Kraków. Next, the most comprehensive information possible is given about the scale of destruction and archaeological exploration of the original feature, including the findings from the investigation of a ulticultural settlement excavated next to the mound. In this context, an attempt has been made to prove the Early Medieval origin of the mound and to hypothetically establish the dating of its construction at the 7th-8th century. In the following part, the attention is drawn to the existence in the vicinity of a very important Early Medieval settlement complex in Mogiła, perhaps an early centre of tribal power, and its possible connection with the Wanda Mound - an assumed place of the burial of a local tribal ruler. In the final part of the text, the fact has been strongly emphasised that the Christianisation activity in the 12th-13th centuries was concentrated in the vicinity of the mound, and which was crowned with the foundation of a Cistercian Abbey in Mogiła. The connection has also been noted between similar Cistercian foundations in Silesia (Lubiąż, Trzebnica, Henryków) and in other parts of Slavdom (e.g. Rügen, Carantania) and previous pagan cult sites.