Plunder by Menachem Kaiser (suggested reading txt) 📗

Von Stein and his army searched for the gold and silver without success. Enraged, von Stein demolished the castle.

The robber knights’ treasure remains buried beneath the ruins of the castle until today.

In the last months of the Second World War, residents of the villages surrounding Owl Mountain heard frequent detonations, and witnessed the daily comings and goings of trucks, heavy machinery, and rows of slave laborers. Concentric rings of German soldiers kept the sites secure. Residents were warned that anyone who approached the sites would be shot.

The Germans were constructing tunnels, the locals knew. But it was a subdued, fearful knowledge. Even after the war, most of them kept their distance.

In June 1985 in Środa Śląska, an excavator operator named Widurski uncovered a clay pitcher containing nearly four thousand coins and fragments of coins, mostly copper pieces from the fourteenth century.

Three years later, in the same spot, another clay pitcher full of coins was found during a demolition. Workers and onlookers fought over the treasure, and the police had to be called to quell the fighting and secure the coins. It is widely believed that a number of gold coins were smuggled from the site, and later sold or traded. There are many stories of children in Środa Śląska selling ancient coins in shops and bars.

Some of the treasure ended up at the local landfill—​the police searched, but turned up very little. Local “pickers,” however, were more successful, finding chains, golden eagles, knives, fruit bowls, and other valuables. Many who attempted to sell these objects were apprehended, but the problem was so widespread that the municipality declared an amnesty for those who voluntarily returned treasure.

Eventually much of the treasure, including the Golden Crown of the Czech queen, was recovered, albeit often in fragments or otherwise damaged. Some can now be seen in the museum in Środa Śląska.

Historians believe that the treasure had belonged to a Jewish banker, who had received it, perhaps as a loan repayment, from Charles IV of Luxembourg, the Czech king. It is speculated that the banker fled the city in the fourteenth century during the plague epidemic.

In the eighteenth century a man named Herzer, hoping to persuade Frederick the Great of the viability of Silesian minerals, secretly shipped cobalt from Saxony and “mined” it. Frederick paid for a large-scale survey, but soon discovered the hoax. Herzer attempted to flee but was apprehended and put to death.

In December 1972, in Komorowice, workers building a sheepfold found in the sand—​which had been brought from the gravel pit in Kotowice—​a pot containing silver coins and ornaments. The Kotowice treasure, as it came to be known, contained approximately 3,500 items, including Arab, Byzantine, German, and Czech coins from the end of the tenth century.

Much of the treasure was snatched by the workers. Some was sold to onlookers in exchange for beer. Some, however, was accidentally mixed in with the mortar and ended up in the wall of the sheepfold. Under police supervision, workers dismantled the wall and liberated the treasure. Many items were damaged in the process.

During the Thirty Years’ War, in one of the many battles between the Swedish army and the German kingdom, a Swedish general was mortally wounded, and his body was buried at the top of Owl Mountain. But he had been a cruel and sadistic man, and his soul could not find peace; his ghost haunted the mountain.

Locals believed that great treasures were hidden inside the general’s tomb, and many attempts were made to plunder it, but all ended in disaster. Once, a group of miners from Nowa Ruda reached the tomb, but the moment their tools touched the stone, the sky filled with terrible thunder, the heavy lid slid off of its own accord, and the ghost of the general appeared, wearing his uniform and boots and raising his saber. The miners fled.

Two hundred years after his death, the general finally found peace, and his ghost departed. The treasure is still in the tomb, but its location is no longer known.

In 1198, in Janowice Wielkie, Duke Bolesław Wysoki built a castle on the site of an ancient Slavic temple. Legend has it that in the castle’s dungeon there is a treasure guarded by an enormous knight. For centuries, local villagers have avoided the castle, fearful of the knight.

For many years, villagers scoured the cavities in Owl Mountain for traces of gold. One day an old woman hid grains of millet inside one of the cavities. Since then—​as if a curse had been placed—​no one has found a single speck of gold.

Locals believe that the mountain will once again yield gold, but many years will have to pass—​as many years as grains of millet the old woman hid in the cavity.

In the 1980s in Maślice a local named Wojtek Stojak discovered a massive cache of weapons—​mostly of German origin, but also American, English, French, Canadian, Italian, and Belgian. According to Stojak: “We pulled out machine guns, both heavy and light; many old revolvers; some bayonets; and even one very rusty saber. We excavated a lot of weapons. Many MG-42 and Stg, a few Schmeissers and Mausers. I removed the cache with my excavator and took it home in my car trailer.”

My father tells me that after the war my grandfather returned to Sosnowiec, to the apartment he’d grown up in, because his father had told him that he had hidden cash and jewelry inside the walls.

My grandfather searched, but did not find anything.

In the Middle Ages, the discovery of traces of gold in the sands of the Oder River set off a gold rush. The Piast princes, who owned the land and everything it contained, speculated, excavated, brought in specialists from the west. Soon the mines were famous all over Europe, and the woods were full of gold-seekers.

From a March 12, 2014, article in naTemat:

The American-based firm Amarante Investments is seeking seven exploration licenses, one of which concerns the area of Lwówek Śląski