During a press conference on Monday, 6 January 2025, the Archbishop of Vilnius, Metropolitan Gintaras Grušas told the media that on 16 December 2024 a secret place in the dungeons of the Cathedral of Vilnius was opened, that revealed the insignia of the rulers of Lithuania. At the start of the Second World War in 1939 the Treasury of the Cathedral had been walled up, containing the relics that had been uncovered after a flood in 1931. In 1985 the place was rediscovered, inspired by interwar accounts and sketches of the cathedral’s dungeons. Mykolas Juozapavičius, the economist of the Vilnius Archdiocese said, that only in October 2024 specialists from the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania Museum carried out an endoscopic camera survey of the hiding place and could confirm that the relics were in the crypts. The search for the burial site of Grand Duke Vytautas the Great is ongoing.
In the hiding place the crown of Alexander Jagiellon (1461-1506), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania was discovered. Also there were a crown, chain, medallion, ring, and coffin plaque belonging to Elisabeth of Austria (ca. 1436–1505), the wife of Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Found were also a crown, scepter, orb, three rings, a chain, and coffin plaques of Barbara Radziwiłł (ca. 1520-1551). She was married to Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. About the crowns Grušas said: “These crowns were not worn while the rulers were alive but were made after their deaths and were intended to be part of their tombs.”
The Church Heritage Museum in Vilnius is in the process of examining and restoring the artefacts and hopes to be able to exhibit them to the public later this year.
