A WONDERFUL SUBTERRANEAN PALACE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 174, 28 July 1876, Page 14

A WONDERFUL SUBTERRANEAN PALACE.

Ebcbnt proceedings in the Hungarian Parliament disclosed a mos remarkable discovery. The story, as condensed, from the officialt reports is that two peasants, frcm the village of Ivan Bgerzeg, near the ancient city of Neszprim, and not far from Lake Balaton, came to Pesth, and to a jeweller, offered some broken fragments of what evidently was some very old gulden ornament for female wear, probably a bracelet or band for the upper arm. The jeweller questioned the shepherds, and their answers being unsatisfactory, he had the men arrested on suspicion of being thieves. On the examination they told a tale which was so astonishing that it was communicated to the Minister of the Interior, and this functionary ordered an investigation by scientific officers. The information of the shepherds was, that in the woods skirting Ivan Egerzeg, where they had some huts for shelter when out at night, they had been digging at a little hill. Suddenly they came upon what appeared to be a square structure of brick walls, with a stone covering the aperture. Removing this stone, they found that these walls enclosed an opening into the earth, and resolved to sound its depth. Lowering a stone tied to a rope, they ascertained that the shaft, about three feet in diameter, or nine square feet, descended perpendicularly to a depth of over a hundred square feet. The pebble they had lowered reached what seemed like a stone floor beneath, and from the sound itself they judged that this opening must lead to some subterranean cavern or hall. A day or two afterwards the shepherds were again at work. They prepared a small square board, freighted with stones, and in the centre of it they placed three lighted candles. This they let down through the shaft, and by the light of the candles they saw distinctly that the inner sides of the shaft were smooth and apparently ended in some large apartment. They next prepared a rope ladder of the requisite length, securing several lanterns, and then one of them let himself down the shaft At the bottom he stood in wonderment as he gazed upon a large square hall, the walls covered with faded paintings, chairs, benches and tables standing around, ornamented with gold and ivory, and large heavy doors, hung on golden hinges, leading to other rooms. The shepherd climbed the ladder and told his companion of the discovery. Both of them went down together, and found themselves in a succession of rooms abounding with elaborately carved furniture of a style they had never seen before. In some of them were low, large stands, evidently once used for beds ; there were also closets, bureaus containing armlets, rings, medals, coins, daggers, chains, swords, shields and helmets. There were also breastplates of leather, covered with iron and studded with ornaments in gold. Some of the armlets they took away, broke them up and carried them away to Pesth for sale, in which transaction they were arrested, as above stated. The officers of the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior began their investigation under the ancient law which makes all such discoveries the property of the crown, and their report as communicated to Parliament, is still more startling. Their researches clearly establish it as a fact that this subterranean structure was undoubtedly an old Roman castle, built many centuries before the Huns and Magyars left their Asiatic homes to invade this part of Europe. This section of Hungary was the province of Pannonia, of the Roman Empire, and in the vicinity of Lake Balaton there was a large permanent Roman camp, the agricultural and military settlements of of the Roman extending for many miles, and traces of this Roman occupation, which continued down to the sixth century of the Christian era, have repeatedly been found. But how this vast structure, which is said to cover two acres, and built two stories high, with massive walls of stone and brick, was covered with earth to the depth of more than sixty feet, over which a forest of heavy timber had grown vp — a forest, too, that is mentioned as existing in the oldest preserved chronicles of the kingdom, the officers have so far found, is impossible to account for. In one room several skeletons of human beings have been found, but the bones were too much decayed to indicate with certainty the race to which they belong. A thorough search of this wonderful building is now proposed. The shaft through which the first discovery was made is believed to have been either a chimney or an observatory or lookout, as iron hooks have been found fastened to the wall inside, to which means of ascent and descent were probably attached.