National Geographic Polska travels to Vilnius to solve the mystery of a green skull

Poland’s National Geographic has visited the Vilnius Church Heritage Museum, where three royal crowns found beneath Vilnius Cathedral are now on display. One of them explains why the skull of Alexander Jagiellon, the only Polish king buried in Lithuania, turned green.

National Geographic Polska sent a reporter to Vilnius for the opening of “Hidden Within”. The crowns are not staged as the grand centrepiece, and Szymon Zdziebłowski admits he had to look for their display case at first. The green skull, he explains, has a simple cause: Alexander’s burial crown was made of gilded copper, and as the gilding flaked, the oxidising metal reacted with the remains.

For Polish readers the finds matter well beyond the exhibition hall. Historian Bożena Czwojdrak tells the magazine that nearly all Polish regalia have been lost, so burial crowns are among the few clues to what they looked like. Museum director Rita Pauliukevičiūtė hopes the show will draw the biggest crowds in the museum’s 18-year history. The article adds a practical note for Poles planning a visit: Vilnius is under an hour from Warsaw by air, and the Cathedral crypts, where the niche was found, can be toured as well.