KIELCE, POLAND—Science in Poland reports that metal detectorists of the Świętokrzyska Exploration Group discovered several caches of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century coins in central Poland’s Świętokrzyskie Mountains and handed them over to the Historical and Archaeological Museum in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski for conservation and analysis. The coins are thought to have belonged to Antoni Jaczewicz, a preacher who claimed to have supernatural healing abilities. In 1708, Jaczewicz founded a hermitage in the Jeleniów Range, where he is said to have made a fortune from people fleeing a wave of plague and the fighting of the Great Northern War. “The coins we recovered may be part of the legendary treasure collected by Jaczewicz,” said Sebastian Grabowiec of the Świętokrzyska Exploration Group. The legend also suggests that the hermitage became a hideout for bandits who robbed pilgrims and nearby properties. Jaczewicz was eventually captured by local nobility and handed over to the court of the Bishop of Kraków, but he soon escaped. Jaczewicz was later recaptured, tried by the bishop in 1712, sentenced to life imprisonment, and jailed in southern Poland’s city of Częstochowa. To read about a Cossack city destroyed by Peter the Great in 1708, go to "Ukraine's Lost Capital."
