The Polish Pompeii
It was the year 1933. A village school teacher in Biskupin, Walenty Szwajcer, who was interested in architecture, made an unusual discovery in his village and this discovery became famous all over Europe. On a small island in the middle of the BiskupiÄskie Lake, he discovered a settlement of the Lusatians from the Iron Age that had been well preserved in the ground. It dated back to around 550 years before Christ.
We propose that you travel to this unusual ancient outdoor museum in Biskupin, which welcomes guests all year round. The village is located in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie voivodeship, around 40 kilometres southwest of Bydgoszcz. Only 320 inhabitants live there, however every year the village is visited by thousands of tourists.
In recent months Biskupin has become especially popular because the famous Polish film director Jerzy Hoffman has been making his latest film there - "Stara baæÄ" (An Old Legend) from the novel by the Polish writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812 -1887). It tells the story of the most ancient Poles, who were called, for centuries, the Polanie in the days when Poland had only just started to form its political existence.
On an area of two hectares in Biskupin there is an entire, excellently preserved history of the style of life, work, relaxation, births and deaths of the inhabitants of this land for over 25 centuries. Biskupin is still today the best known archaeological reserve in Central Europe.
The settlement of the Polanie was surrounded by a multi-row pier, composed of wooden stakes diagonally placed in the depths of the lake, and was connected to the mainland by a wooden footbridge. Around the settlement, parallel to the pier, there was an embankment, constructed with boxes that were joined to each other and filled with earth.
On the embankment there was a two-winged gate, topped with a defensive watchtower. In the interior of the settlement there were 102 wooden huts placed regularly in 12 rows, along 11 parallel streets, paved with wood and situated in an east-west direction. At the base of the fortifications, ran a roundabout way that connected with the perpendicular streets. These streets were closely arranged with rectangular huts, standing one after another. The huts, with walls, constructed with horizontal beams, had two or three chambers with a stone fireplace in the middle of the main chamber.
Archaeologists claim that the entire settlement was inhabited by 1000 - 1200 people. Probably, as a result of inter-tribal fighting, the total destruction of the settlement came about (phase 1) and later it was rebuilt preserving the original plan (phase 2). Because the level of the water in the lake rose, around 550 BC, the settlement was abandoned again and on its remains, around 100 years later, an open settlement was founded.
The inhabitants of Biskupin lived by tilling the fields, breeding animals, fishing and hunting. They also occupied themselves with the production of objects made of wood and bone and with a forge, foundry and pottery making.
In Biskupin there is a very dynamic Museum of Archaeology, which this year organised a superb archaeological festival and a very interesting exhibition, entitled "Treasures of the Hungarian Steppes". It displayed the history of the migration of the European peoples in the first centuries of our era.
The settlement in Biskupin has been called "The Polish Pompeii", not without reason. It's worth seeing this yourself. Contact: Rezerwat-Biskupin tel. (0-52) 30 25 025, (0-52) 30 25 055.