Five tonnes of royal treasure found in River Vistula

photo - PAP/Pawel Supernak

The finds are the fruits of a project launched in 2008 using state of the art technology to scan the riverbed.

Among the treasures are marble relics with the coat of arms of the Vasas, the dynasty that reigned in Poland from 1587 to 1668.

The relics ended up underwater for centuries owing to the so-called Deluge of 1655-60 (Potop), the Swedish invasion that saw Poland brought to its knees and stripped of much of its material wealth.

Such was the scale of the looting, that it was said that not a single silver spoon was left from the manor houses that dotted the land.

As it was, the invaders shipped the booty up the River Vistula to Gdansk, from where it was transported by sea to Sweden.

However, not all of the treasures loaded onto the boats made it as far as Gdansk.

“Some of them simply drowned,” said archaeologist Dr Hubert Kowalski, one of the initiators of the project, in an interview with Polish Radio.

It is believed that the relics came from the Royal Palace in Warsaw, as well as the former Villa Regia, later transformed into the Kazimierzowski Palace, and today a branch of Warsaw University.

The treasures are ear-marked for Warsaw's Historical Museum. Meanwhile, the participants in the project have revealed that they will continue their search of the Vistula, in the hope of finding more relics. (nh/pg)