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500-year-old funerary jewels of three rulers found in Lithuania
Categories: Nálezy nejenom s detektorem kovů ve východní Evropě , Pravěké poklady
Royal funerary jewels from the first half of the 16th century were discovered in the underground of Vilnius Cathedral. They belonged to Lithuanian and Polish rulers. For decades, teams of archaeologists and treasure hunters with metal detectors have been searching for them. A month ago, they were discovered in a walled-off niche of a crypt.
The objects were originally placed in the coffins of Grand Duke Alexander I Jagiellon of Lithuania and King of Poland (1461-1506). Then the Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania Elizabeth of Habsburg (1526 - 1545), first wife of Sigismund II. Augustus Augustus. The third coffin belonged to his second wife, Barbara Radziwiłł (1520 - 1551), Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania.
"These jewels were not used during the monarchs' lifetimes, they were made after their deaths exclusively for funeral ceremonies, said Gintaras Linas Grušas, a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest, archbishop of Vilnius and president of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences. During the 1931 floods, the coffins of the three monarchs were retrieved and saved. Eight years later, World War II broke out. The cathedral chapter decided to remove the valuable objects from the tombs and place them in a safe place. Other church valuables were stored in a vault.
When Lithuania regained its independence, the cathedral was thoroughly searched several times. Originally, they were looking for the tomb of Vytautas the Great from 1430 (still not found). While the treasury was rediscovered in 1985, the search for the jewels has so far been futile. Specialists have searched using non-invasive methods such as GPR, thermal imaging and metal detectors. No results.
In 2023, experts wanted to create a 3D map of all the repositories, but ran out of funding. Only 16. December 2024, with the help of an endoscopic camera, based on interwar and modern
drawings and eyewitness accounts, the jewels were rediscovered through old cracks in the walls of the royal burial
chamber.
"I am grateful to all those who willingly participated in this search and I am sincerely happy that thanks to the cooperation of several institutions, these valuables were finally discovered," the archbishop said. "They will now be studied, restored and presented to the public in the future. The discovered funerary jewels of the rulers of Lithuania and Poland are priceless historical values, symbols of ancienttraditions of Lithuanian statehood, emblems of Vilnius as the capital city and remarkable jewellery works," he concluded.
Roman Němec
Sources: nevsedoma.com.ua, arkeonews.net, medievalists.net
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