In Poland, researchers have used cutting-edge technology to locate a long-lost medieval town referenced in an early 20th-century text.
More than a century later, archaeologists discover an abandoned underground city dating back over 700 years
A team of archaeologists has located the remains of a medieval city that vanished more than 700 years ago in northwestern Poland. According to Polish media reports, the discovery became possible thanks to a long‑overlooked reference in a 1909 German text that placed the settlement near what is now the town of Sławoborze.
Research began several years ago, but it wasn’t until 2020 and 2021 that key clues started to surface. During that period, an exploration group recovered more than 400 metal artifacts, including medieval coins and everyday household items.
LiDAR tech turns up medieval town
These findings prompted the Relicta Foundation to ramp up the search using more advanced technology. To examine the terrain, researchers deployed drones equipped with LiDAR (light detection and ranging) systems capable of identifying structures hidden beneath dense vegetation. They also carried out soil borings more than two meters deep, which confirmed the presence of layers linked to human activity.
The results revealed features typical of a fortified medieval town - moats and defensive walls - along with more than 1,500 ground anomalies that suggest buried buildings. Using this data, archaeologists have managed to partially reconstruct the urban layout, identifying a possible central square, a street grid, and organized plots.
Why did the city disappear?
Evidence places the origin of the settlement between the late 13th and early 14th centuries. However, the city does not appear to have been inhabited for long, and by the 19th century it was already regarded as abandoned. To this day, researchers still don’t know who founded it or what ultimately caused its disappearance.
Among the hypotheses the team is considering are natural events, shifts in trade routes, or military conflict. Investigators plan to continue studying the site with noninvasive methods, and they hope that locating the church and cemetery referenced in historical documents will shed more light on the fate of this long‑lost city.
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