It fell into the Vistula almost 100 years ago. It has just been pulled out
The flood in Poland is currently causing huge destruction, especially in the south of our country. It is easy to forget that until recently in our country we were struggling with a serious drought and a small amount of water in the rivers. However, the low level of the Vistula helped to discover the missing artifacts.
The Historical and Exploration Association “Nadwiślanskie Urzecze” and the Milion Explorers Team group boasted about new discoveries that they managed to discover at the bottom of the Vistula River. During Sunday’s exploration, they managed to come across very interesting artifacts. These are two wagons from the times of World War II and a fragment of a stone slab from Villa Regia.
Finds with history
The wagons were excavated at the height of Białołęka. They were brought from Germany, probably from the local mines, to help clear the rubble from the Warsaw Ghetto. As Jacek Boborycki, the founder of the Milion Explorers Team (an interdisciplinary team of history, geology and nature enthusiasts – PAP), quoted by the naukawpolsce.pl portal, points out, the vehicles are riveted, which also suggests their age. However, only the nameplates, which can determine what they could be used for, will provide final answers. However, a similar wagon was already excavated in 2015, when the Vistula River was low, and is currently in the Polish History Museum.
One of the pulled-out wagons has a rather characteristic trace that could be a trace of a shot. Searchers also indicate that they managed to come across a winch with the date 1929 on the nameplate, probably from a river barge. This could in turn be a clue to a slightly different use of the wagons. But there are more finds.
A bit earlier, fragments of Villa Regia were found. The stone slab was part of the suburban residence of Władysław IV Vasa. This palace stood on the site of the current campus of the University of Warsaw. Villa Regia was unfortunately destroyed quite quickly, during the Swedish Deluge. The facade of the building and its interior were made of richly decorated marble and limestone, which were a valuable material for the invaders. But not that valuable, because when the Swedes withdrew from Warsaw, a transport with materials from Villa Regia was deliberately sunk.
The recently found slab has already been donated to the Polish History Museum.
