A fisherman on the banks of the Vistula River in Warsaw caught a medieval sword THIS BIG. Angler Andrzej Korpikiewicz was not actually fishing at the time. It was too hot for that, so he was just enjoying a nice walk by the river, checking out what might be visible in its low water levels. He spotted a rusty metal object lying on a concrete inflow head, but he figured it was a piece of rebar or a hinge. He fished it out, cleaned off some of the leeches, river snails and freshwater shrimp clinging to it, and saw a cross pattée with triangular arms engraved into the metal.
Realizing it could be a historical artifact, he hid it in the grass by the river and then called a friend who is a metal detectorist. The friend wisely told him he should keep the sword wet to protect it, so he soaked some t-shirts in the Vistula and wrapped the sword in them. It spent the night in his car, and the next morning Andrzej Korpikiewicz brought it to the Warsaw Conservator of Monuments.
It has been tentatively identified as a medieval sword with its length almost intact, minus the pointed tip. It has a spherical or globular pommel and the cross is midway down the hilt. Several medieval knightly orders used a cross pattée as their emblem, including the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller, but it could also be workshop or maker’s mark, or simply a blessing on the sword.
The sword has now been transferred to the Metal Conservation Workshop of the State Archaeological Museum where it will be thoroughly cleaned, stabilized and analyzed to determine its age, origin and the meaning of the cross symbol.
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