Walloons - Medieval treasure hunters

Already in the Middle Ages, the Karkonosze and the Jizera Mountains were places that attracted treasure hunters. They were not afraid of the mountain wilderness – the desire for treasure and fame was stronger.

The beginnings of gem and mineral exploration in the Karkonosze Mountains go back to the 12th century and are mainly connected with visitors from distant Wallonia.

In 1148 Laurentius Angel or Angelus, a master miner, is said to have discovered on Rudnik near Kowary so rich iron ore deposits that 10 years later Polish King Boleslaw the Curly sent 200 men there to start extracting ore, smelt iron and forge metal objects. The miners of Kowary and Ścięgny were so grateful that they decided to commemorate the legendary discoverer by building a wooden chapel dedicated to Saint Lawrence.

The medieval expressions like Wale, Wallone, Wälsche, Wahl, Wahle, Wahlen, Walen Wolch, Wloch, Walische, Venetier, Venediger, Venetianer, Walschen, Italiener denoted a treasure hunter irrespective of his nationality – he could have got to the Karkonosze region from northern Italy, distant Wallonia, nearby Saxony, the Erzgebirge or the Harz.

The famous 15th-century Wallon Book of Wrocław contains the first piece of information about an Italian from Florence, Antonio de Medici, also known as Antonius der Wale (‘Walloon’), who was a mining entrepreneur looking for ore deposits.

Different people reached the Karkonosze Mountains in the 16th century – doctors, alchemists, treasure hunters, trouble-makers, dowsers, miners. ‘free men’, adventurers. One of them was a doctor, Petrus Andreas Matthiolus from Siena (1507-1577), who visited our mountains in 1563, looking for healing plants. Another was a doctor and an alchemist Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn. He visited the Karkonosze and the Jizera Mountains before 1570, finding gold and gemstones.

The most precious gems like corundum, sapphire or ruby were used to make sophisticated ornaments, while semi-precious stones like amethyst, topaz, tourmaline, garnet, jasper or quartz were used to make the famous Florence mosaics. The Venetians were interested in the gemstones for another reason – they used minerals containing cobalt compounds to dye glass.

Treasure hunters in the Karkonosze Mountains most of all wanted to find gold. The precious metal can be found here in three forms: in sand and gravel of local streams and rivers, in metal ores and as grains embedded in rocks, e.g. quartz veins.

In the Middle Ages, a popular meeting place for treasure hunters in Silesia was the Salzring (now Plac Solny) in Wrocław. There explorers could exchange information about hidden treasures, pathways leading to them and searching methods.
The Walloons left some written records of their activities, later named Walloon Books. They largely contributed to the atmosphere of mystery, curiousness and an almost tangible possibility of finding the treasures. The hand-written records, some of which have survived, truly are a treasure themselves – they provide information on mineral and gem locations, quantities and quality, or their appearance depending on a given place. They tell us how the Walloons prepared exploration equipment, how they searched for treasures, wandered and marked sites and pathways leading to them. They also tell us how to deal with spirits, guardians of the treasures and win their favour. The Walloon Books also contain information on the first visitors to our mountains. As the Walloon used to write their names under the notes, we know some of them. The earliest written records concerning treasure hunters who got to the Karkonosze and the Jizera Mountains from Italy date back to the first half of the 15th century. Their author was probably Antonius of Florence, also known as Antonius der Wale (‘Walloon’). Until 1945 the parchment manuscript was kept in the City Library in Wrocław.

At the end of the 19th century, a doctor from Jelenia Góra, named Fiegel, had two 16th-century hand-written Walloon Books. One of them read: High in the mountains in the north, in a valley you will find marks by a bush that looks like a man, go past it upward until you find Mahlstein. There is a hollow underneath, enter it. Inside you will find lots of gold, yet it is not certain. So go on until you find a rock with falling water called High Waterfall. Under the wall of water there is a cavity. Go through the water and enter the pit. You will find lots of gold.

Until recently, a touchable trace of the Walloons’ activities in the Karkonosze Mountains were mysterious symbols carved on rocks, thanks to which the explorers probably found their way to hidden treasures. Simon Hüttel, a Czech chronicler, first mentions the marks in 1588, saying that he had seen many crosses and marks and date MDII [1502] carved on a beech tree, and a hand pointing east to a fir tree, on which a hammer and a pickaxe were carved.
The symbols carved on stones, rocks or trees did not only show the way, but were also talismans.

There were many different forms of those symbols. According to G. A. Volkmann, they could be human figures, hands, shields, knives, circles, crosses, arches, grates, ladders, circles with hooks, circles with crosses, moons, suns and various line and letter combinations. Some of them resembled symbols used by miners to indicate some metals, e.g. silver was the moon, gold was the sun, copper was the Venus symbol, while lead was the Saturn symbol.