Czech archaeologists have for the first time proved that Velehrad, now a significant Catholic Church pilgrimage destination, was inhabited as early as the 9th-century era of Great Moravia, Zdenek Senk, from the Archaia Olomouc company, told CTK today.
During the ongoing restoration of the local baroque basilica, the archaeologists uncovered pottery from the Great Moravian era.
"In the past, fierce disputes were led over whether the site was inhabited in the Great Moravia period. Our find testifies to people´s activities right at the site of the basilica before it was established in the early 13th century," Senk said.
Great Moravia was an early medieval Slavonic state spreading in Moravia and the adjacent areas, mainly Slovakia in the east and Bohemia in the west.
It is Great Moravia where the missioner brothers, Saint Cyril and Methodius, arrived from the Byzantine Empire in 863 to promote Christianity in the region.
Velehrad ranks among the most popular pilgrimage sites in the Czech Republic. Its baroque basilica, based on Romanesque foundations, and the adjacent former Cistercian monastery were declared a national heritage monument in 2008.
Pope John Paul II celebrated a mass in the basilica in April 1990.
The ongoing reconstruction of the basilica started five years ago. The costs are estimated at 300 million crowns.
Apart from the Great Moravian-era finds, the archaeologists have uncovered graves from the mid-13th century and a sophisticated network of irrigation canals from a later middle age period.
Source: Ceske Noviny [July 20, 2010]