A set of royal objects from the 16th century, hidden under a staircase for almost a century, has been recovered from Vilnius Cathedral in Lithuania. The gold crowns, rings and other accessories found have been missing since 1939, when they were hidden at the start of World War II.
A team of experts found the objects on December 16 while using an endoscope camera to look into holes, cracks and cavities in the walls of the cathedral’s underground chambers.
Mykolas Sotincenka, communications coordinator for the Archdiocese of Vilnius, explained that the objects were originally collected in 1931 after a flood damaged the cathedral’s crypt, revealing the sarcophagi of three important 16th-century rulers in their burial shrouds.
“They are priceless historical treasures”
The royal insignia – which had been made for funerary purposes and placed in the sarcophagi at the time of their burial – included several crowns, rings, chains, a scepter, a globe and coffin plates identifying the sovereigns as Alexander Jagiellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, and two of the wives of Sigismund II Augustus, who was also Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland: Elizabeth of Austria (also known as Elizabeth of Habsburg) and Barbara Radziwiłl.
“The funerary markers of the monarchs of Lithuania and Poland are priceless historical treasures” and “magnificent works of goldsmithing and jewelry,” he said the archbishop of VilniusAmber Gruš.
Source: www.descopera.ro
