Struktury osadnicze wykształcone na początku wczesnego średniowiecza nad jeziorem Oszczywilk stanowiły aż do końca XIII wieku ważne centrum wspólnoty sąsiedzko-terytorialnej. Rozwojowi tej jednostki osadniczej, której głównym ogniwem stał się powstały w 2. połowie X wieku gród, sprzyjało strategiczne położenie na pograniczu głównych prowincji historyczno-geograficznych oraz bliskość ważnych szlaków komunikacyjnych, w tym Drwęcy. Ewolucja tego zespołu przebiegała od niewielkiego skupiska mikroregionalnego przez czoło opolne, do centrum administracyjnego i gospodarczego państwowego, a w końcu biskupiego, w ramach klucza ostrowicko-golubskiego, wreszcie siedziby rycerskiej.
The Ostrowite settlement complex consists of: stronghold (site 1) – known from written sources stronghold in Ostrowite ( castrum Ostrowith ), two extensive settlements, inhumation burial ground and several smaller settlement points located along the north shore of Lake Oszczywilk and subglacial tunnel valleys stretching west towards Kowalewo and south-east – towards Golub nad Drwęcą. The name of stronghold was mentioned in longer version of the privilege of Lonyz (version A from about 1240). In older literature on this subject wrote Godfryd Ossowski (1878), Abraham Lissauer (1887), Władysław Łęga (1930). Excavations, conducted in 1976, 1989, 1990–1994, covered all the most important parts of the settlement complex. The results of this work became the subject of a separate publication (Bojarski 2012). Development of strong settlement structures at Lake Oszczywilk coincided with the time of disintegration of mesoregion community situated at the Struga Rychnowska River around the stronghold in Gronowo playing role of a central place. Its dynamic development was supported by both advantageous location – large patches of fertile soil, surrounded by less fertile outwash plains and podzolic soils covered with broad zones of forests, constituting natural settlement barriers, as well as communication conditions, including the vicinity of the Drwęca River. This river from the very beginning of the early Middle Ages was a ‘transmission belt’ along which the population inhabiting areas on both its banks migrated. The settlement centre in the area of today’s Napole/Ostrowite played an important role in the exchange realized along the east-west line (trade route connecting Pomerania with Rus’ through Mazovia and Chełmno Land) and north-south (Kuyavia with Old Prussia). It was favoured by advantageous location at natural waterways linked directly to the Drwęca River (the Struga Młyńska River and the Ruziec River) and facilitating the connection between Chełmno Land and Dobrzyń Land. The boundaries of the subsequent Ostrowite/Golub centre clearly distinguish against the background of settlement map of south-east part of Chełmno Land and adjacent northern part of Dobrzyń Land. Aperceptible centre, consisting initially of a large settlement and then a stronghold (formed in the second half of the 10th century) as well as related settlements, creating a real core of a microregion type community, was surrounded in various periods by more than 10 (from 13 to 20) settlement points situated between the centre and the periphery. In tribal times they formed a territorial unit of opole type, while in younger stages of the early Middle Ages a stronghold district in the administration system of Piast state. The surface of this unit – the property of the bishopric of Włocławek known from later written sources, named by Jan Powierski Ostrowite-Golub estate – was about 140–160 km2, which corresponds to the size of 1000 łan, stated in a document from 1276. The boundaries of the Ostrowite estate, and yet the most intensively exploited by this community territory, are defined very clearly by areas devoid of settlement, visible at a distance of 4–6 km from the centre located at Lake Oszczywilk, as well as in the forest zone, still preserved along the Drwęca River and the Struga Rychnowska valleys. In addition, the boundaries symbolically are hiding places of hoards from Golub, Kowalewo, and Rychnowo, which fit in zones separating the neighbouring settlement units. The end of this structure was formation at its outskirts of two military and administrative centres of the Teutonic Knights state – in Kowalewo and Golub, which after 1293 took over the functions of the former stronghold in Ostrowite.
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