Curators recovered and partly deciphered out a letter from a bottle
Photo: PAP/ Tomasz Waszczuk 28.03.2014
Museum professionals managed to recover the letter hidden in a bottle, which was found a few days ago during the renovation of the castle of the bishops of Warmia in Lidzbark. The letter written almost exactly 87 years ago could be only partially deciphered.
Manager of Castle Lidzbark Małgorzata Jackiewicz-Garniec told PAP last Friday that on Friday morning at the State Archives, curators unsealed bottle found a few days earlier in the blend of the north-west turret of the castle. They also managed to remove and unroll the letter hidden in the bottle.
"We have confirmed the presumption that it had been written by workers. We were able to read that the letter was written and buried by the masonry-carpentry team working on the castle renovation. Interestingly, the letter is dated July 4, 1928 so we took it out almost on the anniversary of writing" - said Jackiewicz-Garniec.
It is also confirmed that the letter was written in pencil. "It mentions 12 workers by name, origin and age; the oldest was 51, the youngest 19. The descriptive part mentions, for example, rate per hour of work - 94 pfennigs. We do not know if it was a lot or not, we need to verify this" - admitted the manager of the Lidzbark castle and added that the letter and the bottle were sent to the Laboratory of Paper and Leather Conservation of the State Archive in Olsztyn for conservation and elaboration, including deciphering, because not all the words could be deciphered on Friday.
Jackiewicz-Garniec added that after deciphering its contents and conservation, the letter will probably become part of the permanent exhibition about the history of the castle in Lidzbark.
Dark green glass corked bottle was found last Tuesday afternoon by workers who repaired the north-west turret of the castle of the bishops of Warmia in Lidzbark. It was built in the blend of the turret, hidden out of sight.
The bottle, as curators quickly determined, came from St. George brewery, which functioned in this city in Prussian times, when Lidzbark was called Heilsberg.
The castle of the bishops of Warmia in Lidzbark is sometimes called "Wawel of the North" because of its architecture. In his chambers built in the years 1350-1401 lived, among others, Copernicus and his uncle Lucas Watzenrode, Jan Dantyszek, Stanislaus Hosius, Martin Kromer, Jan Stefan Wydżga, Andrzej Chryzostom Zaluski. Here lived and worked Ignacy Krasicki, who founded gardens around the castle, and built the conservatory (recently restored). Since 1963, the castle houses a branch of the Museum of Warmia and Mazury.
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