Mieszko I's Palace
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PalladiumFor most of the year archaeologists are at work on the digs next to the Church of Our Lady in Summo. A board mounted next to the entrance to the church informs visitors of this research on Mieszko I's palace, carried out since 1999 by the Adam Mickiewicz University's Institute of Pre-History.
Before World War II archaeologists supposed that the duke must have had his seat at Poznań stronghold, and in 1946 the first excavation work began in the search for Mieszko I's palace. Prof. Hanna Kóčka-Krenz's team of archaeologists unearthed remnants of the building in 1999 when they found fragments of a wall which without doubt comprised part of the foundations of the ruler's stone residence.
Mieszko I's residence was erected towards the end of the 10th century, and the bulk of the building is located beneath the Church of Our Lady in Summo. From archaeologists' findings we know that the duke's palace was a rectangular, two-storey building approximately 27 m by 12 m. The 4.84m2 entrance hall located at the south-east corner of the palace also housed a staircase to the upper floor. In all rooms the floors were composed of plaster laid over a layer of rock chippings.
The building most probably comprised 4 rooms. Adjacent to the entrance hall was a 51 m2 chamber leading to a larger central reception room (102 m2). An opening in the partition wall led from here to the two remaining rooms, one of which was a narrow corridor only 90cm wide and 5m long and which may have been a strongroom.
The room to the east was 34 m2 in area. Discoveries made in the tend to suggest that this functioned as an office, for instance, bronze and lead seals belonging to Brother Jakub from the Dominican monastery and a clay container for seals and stamps. The ruler's private rooms were located on the first floor.
Royal palaces were generally connected to chapels. According to a 13th-century Polish-Silesian chronicle, the founder of Poznan's Church of Our Lady in Summo was Dobrawa, Mieszko's wife. The remains of this church are most likely to be found beneath the presbytery of the Church of Our Lady in Summo. Indeed, objects found by archeologists confirm this: particles of church tiles, which formed the wood facing of reliquary's boxes, and the mosaic tiles, which probably decorated the chapel apse.
These decorative mosaics were certainly the work of artists brought to Poznań from Rus by Boleslav the Brave, whose daughter was married off to the Kiev Prince, Sviatopolk (Światopełk).
Georadar research performed by archaeologists working inside the Church of Our Lady in Summo has revealed remnants of an older building on the same level as the palace (Palatium). However, only an archaeological dig around the church presbytery will clear up these doubts.
Poznań stronghold was the seat of power for almost three centuries and during this period the prince's residence more than likely underwent renovation and restructuring work as dictated by the needs of Wielkopolska's princes. It became the property of Poznań bishopric around the mid-13th century along with the whole of Ostrów Tumski, at the moment when a new royal castle was being built on the left bank of the River Warta and was subsequently demolished.
(Based on Prof. Hanna Kóčka-Krenz's The Earliest Events in the History of Poznań: in Poland began here, book I in the series Materials, Documents, Projects, Office for the Royal-Imperial Route, Department of City Development 2007)