17 Sep 2008 Knight under the concrete slab

A surprise awaited the workers who were working in the centre of Bruntál thirteen years ago. They discovered a tomb where a member of the then Order of German Knights was buried.

The workers came across the tomb with the bones when they were working on the gutter pavement near St Michael's Chapel on Russká Street in Bruntál. While digging, they made a hole in the ceiling of the brick tomb. According to experts, it dates from the late seventeenth to early twentieth century.

František Kolář commented on the discovery at the time and immediately went to the site with other colleagues from the National Heritage Institute in Ostrava. "The workers came across a brick vault, under which there was a hollow space," he outlined.

The experts knew that the remains belonged to a knight of the German order by the objects found in the tomb. Specifically, there were spurs, a rosary, a metal breast cross and remnants of textiles. The brick tomb measured 2.4 metres by 1.1 metres. The archaeologists also focused on excavating the subsoil of the tomb.

"We have indeed found objects inside that allow us to conclude that this is a dignitary of the Teutonic Knights," Kolář was convinced.

The tomb even contained the remains of a cloak bearing the cross of the Teutonic Knights. However, archaeologists were not able to determine at the time which specific period the tomb came from.

"We know that the chapel was built at the end of the seventeenth century. This is probably the first discovery of a grave of a knight belonging to the Order of German Knights in North Moravia. This is probably the most significant discovery, Kolář said at the time.

While the artefacts from the tomb were examined by archaeologists from Opava. The bones from the tomb were sent to Brno for anthropological research. After a thorough examination, the archaeologists returned the remains to the tomb, which they walled up to prevent anyone from trying to get in.

The last such extraordinary find in Bruntál was made by archaeologists during the reconstruction of the square in 2004. They came across the remains of the original buildings and managed to determine the former shape of the square more closely. Twenty-three buildings were found on the sides of the square.

Sources: www.socharstvi.info, www.denik.cz, Právo