Vineta, the Drowned City of the Baltic
On calm days, fishermen say, you can hear the bells of a rich city that sank beneath the Baltic Sea for its pride.
What was reported
Medieval chroniclers described a great trading city on the southern Baltic, one of the largest in Europe, called Jumne or Vineta. Legend says its people grew so rich and proud that they used bread to plug holes and made their children's toys of silver, until a storm swallowed the city in one night.
Fishermen say that on calm days you can see its towers under the water and hear its church bells ringing, and that once every hundred years it rises for an hour.
Explanations offered
There probably was a real trading town behind the legend; many historians link it to Wolin in Poland, where a large Viking-age port has been excavated. Others have looked for it off Usedom, where the sea has eaten into the coast. Drowned-city legends are told along many coasts, from Ys in Brittany to Dunwich in England.
- When
- Legend since the Middle Ages
- Where
- Off the island of Usedom, Germany
- Witnesses
- Baltic coast tradition
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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