Hill Fort Spotted Under Poland’s “Arian Tower”

News May 16, 2018

(Anna Kubicka, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology)
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Poland Arian Tower
(Anna Kubicka, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology)

KRYNICA, POLAND—According to a Science in Poland report, the tomb of an early seventeenth-century nobleman may have been built on top of an early medieval hill fort. Anna Kubicka of Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, and Konrad Grochecki of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, collected data and created a map of the site using measurements made with airborne laser scanning equipment. The map revealed outlines of two lines of ramparts, one on the lower part of the hill, and one on the surface of the steeper, higher part, where the pyramid-shaped mausoleum had been built for Pawel Orzechowski, chamberlain of Chelm. At that time, the hill was referred to as a “horodysko,” or a place where a fort once stood. Other documents state that Orzechowski wanted to be buried in the mausoleum “together with his ancestors.” As an Arian, who rejected Christian Trinitarian doctrine, Orzechowski would not have been eligible for burial in a Catholic cemetery. Renovation of the mausoleum, which was damaged during World War II, and archaeological investigations of the possible fort are being planned. For more, go to “Off The Grid: Krakow, Poland.”

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