Medieval Crowns and Scepters Discovered Hidden Inside the Walls of a Crypt Beneath a Lithuanian Cathedral

In the crypts of a Lithuanian cathedral, researchers have discovered a trove of royal treasure: crowns, jewelry and a scepter that belonged to several Lithuanian-Polish monarchs from the 15th and 16th centuries. The regalia had been hidden for 85 years—since it was stowed for safekeeping beneath the Vilnius Cathedral in southeastern Lithuania.

Last fall, experts were invited to explore Vilnius Cathedral’s subterranean level, where they used an endoscopic camera to look into cracks and holes in the crypt’s walls. In December, the researchers opened “a secret hiding place” in the church’s crypts, “where the royal regalia was hidden at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939,” as Vilnius Archbishop Gintaras Grušas told reporters earlier this week, per the Polish news network TVP World.

“The discovered insignia are priceless historical treasures: symbols of Lithuania’s long tradition of statehood, symbols of Vilnius as the capital city and magnificent works of goldsmithing and jewelry,” says Grušas.

The collection includes a crown of Alexander Jagiellon, the king of Poland between 1501 and 1506. It also features crowns, chains, medallions, scepters, orbs and rings belonging to Elisabeth of Austria (also known as Elżbieta Habsburżanka) and Barbara Radziwiłł—the first and second wives of Sigismund II Augustus, who served as king of Poland in the mid-1500s.

The Jagiellon and Habsburg dynasties are two of European history’s most powerful families, as Mykolas Sotincenka, a spokesperson for the Vilnius Archdiocese, tells Live Science’s Kristina Killgrove. These rulers set in motion Poland’s golden age.

Each of these kings acted also as grand dukes of Lithuania, as Poland and Lithuania were united between the 14th and 18th centuries.

Found among the royal accessories were insignia made for these rulers’ burial chambers. As Grušas said, “These crowns were not worn while the rulers were alive but were made after their deaths and were intended to be part of their tombs,” per TVP World.

In 1931, a flood damaged the cathedral’s crypt, exposing the three rulers’ coffins. The funerary regalia was then gathered from the burials, as Sotincenka tells Live Science. The researchers found the accessories wrapped in newspaper dated 1939, tucked in a cavity beneath a staircase in the crypt. Historians knew from records that the cache of regalia existed, but attempts to find it hadn’t been successful—until now.

According to a statement from Vilnius’ official development agency, the artifacts connected to Radziwiłł add “a romantic and legendary dimension to this discovery.” Born in 1520, the famously beautiful and witty Radziwiłł was already a widow by the 1540s, when she became the king’s mistress. Their subsequent marriage caused a scandal: Nobles thought Radziwiłł promiscuous and unfit. In time, she became “one of the most celebrated figures in Lithuanian history,” per the statement.

The trove has been cataloged and will now undergo restoration before being publicly displayed later this year. As Rita Pauliukevičiūtė, director of the Church Heritage Museum, says in a statement shared with CNN’s Jack Guy, “These symbols are important both for the state and for each of us, as signs of European identity, as a reclaimed identity of the old state, as a sign of the strength of our roots.”

Sonja Anderson | READ MORE

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in New York City.