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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Fragments of a Polish royal residence that was destroyed by the invading Swedish army in the 17th century have been discovered at the bottom of the Vistula River, where they were lost while being transported out of the city as loot by the Swedes.
The elements rescued from the river include important archaeological features that will be used as part of a reconstruction of a section of the ransacked palace at the Polish History Museum in Warsaw.
The palace in question, designed in baroque style by Italian architect Giovanni Battista Gisleni and known as Villa Regia, was built in Warsaw between 1637 and 1642 as a summer residence by Polish King Władysław IV Vasa.
“It was considered one of the most magnificent residences in 17th-century Europe,” says the Polish History Museum.
However, it was devastated in 1656 by Swedish troops during their invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – an episode known in Poland as the “Swedish Deluge” (potop szwedzki) and which caused enormous loss of life as well as destruction and looting of property.
A depiction of the original Villa Regia from a 17th-century panorama of Warsaw
The Swedes plundered the palace, including taking away valuable architectural elements. However, they overloaded a barge carrying the loot, which proceeded to sink to the bottom of the Vistula River.
Over the last 15 years, Hubert Kowalski, an archaeologist from the University of Warsaw, has been leading a team carrying out work to locate and recover the lost treasures from the Vistula. They have so far removed over 20 tonnes of material.
“Each year, the river reveals new relics of its past,” says Kowalski. Their work is helped when the water level is low – and this year it has fallen to record lows of just a few centimetres in some parts of the Vistula in Warsaw.
On Wednesday this week, in an operation carried out in cooperation with the municipal authorities and police, the archaeologists managed to remove a number of elements of the palace from the river.
These include two particularly important finds: one, weighing almost 200 kgs, is a section of an arch that once stood in the palace’s arcade; the other is a fragment from the top of a column.
The Polish History Museum, which is reconstructing a section of the former palace as part of its permanent exhibition, which is due to open in 2027, notes that the arch fragment can be used directly in the reconstruction along with other previously recovered elements.
“There’s a good chance that the Polish History Museum staff will be able to fit this piece back into place immediately. Just like a missing puzzle piece,” Kowalski told the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.
Meanwhile, the column fragment, which is of a type never previously discovered, “will allow for new measurements and provide valuable information for the reconstruction of the royal residence Villa Regia”, says the museum.
The institution’s deputy director, Krzysztof Niewiadomski, says that the palace reconstruction “will tell the story of the power and wealth of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth”, but also show the “crisis” it faced as a result of the Swedish Deluge.
After its destruction by the Swedes, the palace was rebuilt and expanded a number of times. Today, Casimir Palace (Pałac Kazimierzowski) sits at the same site and houses the rector’s office of the University of Warsaw.
A Polish constitutional court judge has called on Sweden to return treasures looted in the 17th century.
"They plundered Poland like savage barbarians and now boast of Polish culture in their museums," she wrote ahead of the countries' match at @EURO2020 https://t.co/DwAndLOy5Q
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 21, 2021
The Deluge was one of a number of episodes of war in the region for domination of the Baltic Sea. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was busy fighting on other fronts and left unable to resist the Swedish invasion.
Although the Swedes were eventually forced to withdraw, they left devastation in their wake, including millions of dead and many buildings destroyed. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lost around one third of its population, while Warsaw itself lost 90%.
Meanwhile, dozens of palaces, castles and churches were robbed, at least 17 archives and 67 libraries were looted, and numerous treasures were taken. Although the Treaty of Oliva of 1660 stipulated that all stolen goods must be returned to Poland, most were not, and many are still held by Swedish museums.
In 2021, ahead of a football match between Poland and Sweden, a Polish constitutional court judge appealed to Sweden to return looted treasures to Poland. In 2023, Poland’s foreign minister expressed hope during a visit to Stockholm that some items could be returned.
Poland hopes to secure the return of a historical document that has been in Sweden since the 17th century, said the foreign minister during a visit to Stockholm.
Łaski’s Statute of 1505 was the first codification of laws published in the Kingdom of Poland https://t.co/YlX0LJCxQh
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 3, 2023
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: MHP/Maciej Cioch
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
