Museum basement hid an ancient royal kitchen in Poland. See the 500-year-old discovery

Around the end of the 13th century, officials in Poland initiated the construction of a royal residence in the city of Poznań. The fort-like structure included brick walls, a tower, a square and an entrance from the south.

Since then, the sprawling hilltop site that started as a fortress has taken on many iterations. It’s most recent: the Museum of Applied Arts, which opened in 2017.

Now, a team of archaeologists from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań have started exploring the site — and have unearthed a number of ancient discoveries.

The team, led by professor Artur Różański, searched the basement of the museum’s administrative building, according to a Feb. 5 news release from the university. Although the building that now houses the museum’s administrative office was constructed in 1796, it was built atop older ruins.

In the basement, experts found the remains of what is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, preserved royal kitchens in Poland, the university said.

Archaeologists said it was previously assumed that the Royal Kitchen was a medieval residential tower, but the discovery of the approximately 30-by-36 feet building changes this understanding. Records from the time the kitchen was in use indicate that it had a well in the corner of the building.

The university shared photos of the ruins in their release and on Facebook.

The kitchen dates back to the 14th or 15th century, according to the team.

A large pillar — about 9 feet by 11 feet — was also found in the building, Różański told Science in Poland, according to a Feb. 3 post. The pillar once held a kitchen stove and chimney to remove exhaust from the kitchen.

Experts also explored the castle’s courtyard area, the university said.

Archaeologists dug an approximately 10-by-13 feet trench that reached about 16 feet underground and unearthed more than 6,000 artifacts, including pottery, building ceramics and animal bones, they said. Among their finds were pieces of hypocaustum tile, which is evidence that the medieval castle was heated.

Poznań is about 190 miles west of Warsaw.

Google Translate was used to translate releases from Adam Mickiewicz University and Science in Poland.

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