Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - Many have tried to find the legendary ancient golden city of Vineta, but the place's location remains an unsolved mystery.
Did Vineta really exist, or was it only a mythical city? Do the ancient ruins of Vineta lie hidden somewhere beneath the water of the Baltic Sea?
Ancient stories tell that Vineta was once a prosperous trading center on the Baltic Coast. During the late 12th century, it disappeared beneath the water. Legend tells Vineta's inhabitants ignored omens of a coming disaster, and the city was submerged as punished for moral decay.
Today, Vineta has become known as the Atlantis of the North, and people still go to the beach hoping to catch a glimpse of the ancient underwater city.
Vineta Was A Prosperous Ancient Trading Center
According to legends, Vineta was visited by traders from many corners of the world. It was one of the most important ancient commercial cities in Europe, visited by Vikings, Slavs, Spaniards, Saxons, people from the Mediterranean, and business people from surrounding Baltic regions.
Before Vineta was submerged it was a major trading center. Credit: Adobe Stock - Sophia
The ancient city of Vineta flourished, and news about the town reached people in distant parts of the world. Ibrahim Ibn Yaqub, a 10th-century Hispano-Arabic, Sephardi Jewish traveler, who was probably a merchant and may also have been engaged in diplomacy and espionage, described it as "a large city by the ocean with twelve gates, the greatest of all cities in Europe, farthest northwest in the country of Misiko (Poland) in the marshes by the sea.
It is said that Vineta had a population of at least 50,000 inhabitants, and the city was even more prosperous than Constantinople.
Warnings Of A Coming Disaster Were Ignored
According to legend, three months, three weeks, and three days before the city's destruction, all people were warned of the coming catastrophe. Strange bright lights were seen in the sky, and a wailing mermaid appeared. The water woman cried three times in a high, startling voice:
"Vineta, Vineta, you rieke town, Vineta sall untergahn, wieldse se het väl Böses dahn"
Credit: Adobe Stock - Nejron Photo
"Vineta, Vineta, rich city, Vineta is to be destroyed because she has done much evil."
Even today, bells from the depths of the sea will be heard.
Elders advised everyone to leave the city, but everyone was reluctant to abandon a place famous for its gold and wealth. The inhabitants of Vineta lacked modesty and had become greedy.
The city of Vineta was deluged in 1170 and vanished beneath the waves of the Baltic Sea. It was believed that Vineta had been destroyed as punishment for immorality.
Where Is Vineta – The Atlantis Of The North?
The location of Vineta remains controversial, and there are many disagreements about where the legendary city was situated.
Some researchers have suggested that Vineta may have been on Wolin, an island surrounded by the Baltic Sea to the north and the Dziwna River to the east. Archaeological excavations have revealed that Wolin was once a major Viking trading center.
Jomsvikings were elite warriors who trained at Jomsborg.
Colored copperplate engraving from 1590 by Braun and Hogenberg (which is probably the oldest pictorial depiction of the town Barth. Image credit: Barth Stadt
According to intriguing stories told in the Icelandic Sagas, courageous Norse warriors were based at Jomsborg, a fortress on the south on the southern Baltic shore where Jomsvikings had their headquarters.
Jomsborgs has never been found, and there is insufficient evidence to claim Vineta on the island of Wolin. According to historian Wilhelm Ferdinand Gadebusch, Wolin needed the deep water port Vineta must have had.
Another possible location of Vineta is Usedom. Its nickname is Sunshine Island, and it is located between Germany and Poland in the Baltic. However, there is very little evidence of Slavic habitation in the area, making it unlikely this could have been Vineta. Several maps published between 1633 and 1700 have the sunken "Wineta" east of the island of Ruden northwest of Usedom.
This idea may have originated in the All Saints' Day flood of 1304, to which most of the Ruden and the then-existing connection to Mönchgut on Rügen fell victim.
It has also been speculated that Barth, a medieval town on a lagoon in northeastern Germany, is linked to the legendary golden city of Vineta. Barth was an important trade center during the Middle Ages.
Since 1999, the City of Barth has been allowed to call itself the City of Vineta. Two scientists from Berlin have suggested that Berlin, the "Atlantis of the North," be in the mud of Barth Bodden (Barth lagoon), but it has not been officially confirmed that this is the actual location of Vineta.
Whether the story of the golden city of Vineta is a mere myth or based on actual events can only be determined once the ancient ruins are finally discovered.
Written by Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com
Updated on January 2, 2024
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