A 1000-year-old church built through Otto the Great, which greatly expanded the influence of the Catholic Church in Europe as Holy Roman Emperor, was discovered under a cornfield in Germany.
Archaeologists have discovered the walls of the base of the giant church of the rebuilt royal palace of Helfta near Eisleben in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The city is known as the birthplace of Martin Luther.
The church found out early last month and its base walls have now been completely uncovered.
The church built through Otto I, historically known as Otto the Great, who was King of Germany from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973.
According to a from the site’s study team, there is evidence of two remains at the site through Otto I and his son, Otto II “the Red”, the first to attend the inauguration of the church.
“It is an exceptionally giant church, which demonstrates the importance of this position in the Ottoman era,” the team said.
“With a duration of 30 meters (98 feet) and a width of 20 meters (66 feet), Otto had built a church that looks like a miniature cathedral,” said assignment director Felix Biermann.
The church was founded before 968 and is believed to have been consecrated to Saint Radegonde, the Princess of Thuringia and the Frankish Queen who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross in Poitiers.
She is the patron saint of several churches in France and England and of Jesus College, Cambridge.
The church, which existed for about 500 years, was demolished by the Reformation, the western church’s department in Protestantism and in what is now the Roman Catholic Church.
In addition to the base walls, several coins and an earthenware stove from the 14th and 15th centuries have been discovered in the place, as a fragment of a bell.
A cemetery with 70 tombs was also found, as well as several stone tombs from the tenth to fifteenth centuries, which, according to Biermann, were “the burial place of the aristocratic families of the region”.
“In addition, belt ornaments, bronze buckles, coins, knives and utensils were discovered. Many disk pins from the Ottoman era have been unearthed, in bronze, enamelled and inlaid with oblong and circular glass,” says Biermann.
“It’s amazing to me what archaeologists and excavation assistants are missing in this excavation,” said the city’s mayor, Carsten Staub.
The long-lost remains of the royal palace at Kleine Klaus were the starting point for the most recent discoveries after their rediscovery in 2009 geomagnetic prospecting, the exploration slowly expanded outwards.
In addition to the church, the Palatinate also had residential and advertising buildings with well houses, as well as majestic residential buildings and an auditorium where meetings were held.
Biermann said the ongoing excavations will continue through September.
Saxony-Anhalt Minister-President Reiner Haseloff said the discovery would fill “a gap in the country’s history. “
This story was provided to Newsweek through Zenger News.
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