Elbląg lies on the borders of four distinct geographic regions: the Elbląg Uplands, the Vistula Delta, the Warmia Plains, and the Vistula Spit. This location determined its natural conditions. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the climate was warmer than today, allowing the cultivation of vines and the production of country wine for the internal needs of the State of the Teutonic Order. From the 1450s, the climate gradually began to cool. Most notably, in the 1650s, there was a rapid cooling that lasted for the next two hundred years. This period is sometimes called the “Little Ice Age.” It was particularly cold in 1708-1709. The geography and climate influenced the flora in the Elbląg area: the Elbląg Uplands were mainly covered with pine and alder forests, but there were also deciduous forests with oaks, beeches and hornbeams.
Illustration:
The view of the city of Elbląg. Johann Christoph Hartknoch, Alt und Neues Preussen oder Preussischer Historien […], Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig: Johann Andreas, 1684.
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