According to records kept from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, a medieval town once existed deep within a portion of Poland’s most forested regions. Then, it seemingly vanished from written history, becoming another of history’s forgotten chapters that was ultimately lost to time… until now.
According to researchers with the Relicta Foundation, the remnants of the once-thriving medieval town of Stolzenberg—long since subsumed by the deep forests of northwestern Poland—have finally been rediscovered.
The discovery, made possible with assistance from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, indicates that early detection of the site began during reconnaissance in 2020 and 2021. At that time, metal detectorists recovered more than 400 artifacts that once belonged to the “lost” town’s former inhabitants.
Among the items recovered were coins, brooches, and other worn ornaments, as well as clothing items that included belt buckles and fittings—all common artifactual discoveries at sites from this period, which researchers were able to associate with the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries.
Tools used by the town’s former inhabitants were also recovered from the area, prompting further archaeological investigations in the years that followed.
LiDAR Unveils Lost Stolzenberg
In 2025, building on metal detector discoveries, researchers conducted LiDAR surveys of the site using drones, capturing subsurface features that revealed the remains of the ancient town, which had since been covered by forest growth.
Additional samples obtained from drilling further confirmed the presence of Stolzenberg’s physical remains.
According to Piotr Wroniecki, a member of the Relicta Foundation and a researcher at the University of Warsaw’s Institute of Archaeology, the town’s layout, as revealed by the data researchers have now collected, is a good match for towns from the period that were instituted under German law. Based on the commonalities of these town centers, he suspects the remnants of a market square could likely be discovered near the center of the site.
Surrounding the town square, urban centers of the period would also have featured long stretches of land along a main street, which brought visitors to the community’s gate entrance.
Evidence of buildings that once lined the long stretches of land surrounding the square may still be visible. And, like many medieval towns, the site features defense structures, including earthworks indicating fortifications and the remains of a moat, both of which are visible today.
“In an area of approximately six hectares, surrounded by a rampart and moat, we detected over 1,500 anomalies, unusual terrain features, suggesting the presence of buried structures, such as ancient buildings,” Wroniecki said in a statement provided to Science Poland.
Radiocarbon Confirmation
Finally, archaeologists used radiocarbon dating to determine the likely period of the town’s founding. Based on current data, the majority of the community is believed to have been built in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century.
This might indicate that Stolzenberg had served as a frontier outpost, possibly constructed under the direction of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, a significant principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 until around 1806, which controlled the nearby area called Neumark.
By collecting additional data from the site, Wroniecki and his colleagues hope to learn more about the circumstances that led to the town’s founding, as well as those that led to its abandonment sometime in the 19th century.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.