Now a neglected outpost near Krakow, the village of Wiślica was once a thriving religious and political center of medieval Poland. A church built by members of the ruling Piast dynasty in the second half of the twelfth century featured a magnificently decorated gypsum floor preserved by the later Romanesque and Gothic churches built atop it. (...)
Now a neglected outpost near Krakow, the village of Wiślica was once a thriving religious and political center of medieval Poland. A church built by members of the ruling Piast dynasty in the second half of the twelfth century featured a magnificently decorated gypsum floor preserved by the later Romanesque and Gothic churches built atop it. In 1959–1960, excavators rediscovered the gypsum flooring three meters below the current 650-year-old church (Collegiate Basilica of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary), marveling at its portrait of Piast dukes—the earliest-known—surrounded by a Latin inscription and rich floral and zoomorphic designs. An underground exhibition hall was built to display it in situ in 1963.
The gypsum flooring and its surrounding archaeological context were the subject of painstaking conservation efforts in the mid-1980s, but the lack of maintenance of the present Gothic church led to considerable water and salt damage. The exhibition hall was closed in 1987. Damage to the flooring by vandals in 1998 had led to soiling and subsequent microorganism infestation. Support from the General Conservator of Monuments in Poland allowed an emergency intervention that conserved of the archaeological remains, but the lack of a comprehensive plan for restoration and maintenance continued to threaten the site.
