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16th c. royal funerary regalia found hidden in Vilnius Cathedral wall
The royal funerary regalia of rulers of Poland and Lithuania has been discovered in the underground vaults of Vilnius Cathedral in Lithuania. The regalia includes three funeral crowns, a scepter, an orb, rings, chains and coffin plaques that were secreted in a niche in the wall of the crypt shortly after the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
They were originally placed in the coffins of Alexander Jagiellon (1461-1506), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Elizabeth of Habsburg (1526–1545), the first wife of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572), and his second wife Barbara Radziwiłł (1520/23-1551). In 1931, the burial crypts were exposed during work after a flood that damaged the cathedral. The coffins of the three royals and the royal regalia they contained were salvaged.
When World War II broke out eight years later, Vilnius Cathedral was at risk of being closed, so the Cathedral Chapter set to hiding the church’s wealth before it was targeted by marauders. The treasury was walled up in a niche in one of the staircases. The funerary regalia was hidden somewhere in the vaults, but obviously neither location was documented as that would have defeated the purpose of, you know, hiding them.
The treasury was rediscovered in 1985, but the regalia took a little more work. The Vilnius Archdiocese engaged specialists to search for the spot using non-invasive methods — georadar, thermal imaging, metal detectors — and testimony from a witness present when the regalia was hidden, but came up empty. In 2023, they planned to use a 3D scanner to create a detailed map of the vaults, but unfortunately the funding fell through. Finally, on December 16, 2024, an endoscopic camera was threaded through pre-existing cracks and holes in the walls. After several failed attempts, the camera finally spied the long-lost royal funerary regalia. The wall was dismantled and the objects removed so they could be documented, catalogued and moved to safety.
“I am grateful to everyone who willingly participated in this search, and I am sincerely glad that these valuables were finally discovered thanks to the cooperation of several institutions. Now they will be studied, restored and presented to the public in the future. The discovered burial signs of the rulers of Lithuania and Poland are priceless historical values, symbols of the long-standing traditions of Lithuanian statehood, signs of Vilnius as the capital, and remarkable works of jewelry,” the archbishop noted.
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