Medieval Sword, 700 Years Old, Hooked by Polish Fisherman in Vistula River
Sarah Johnson
August 7, 2025
Brief
700-year-old medieval sword hooked in Poland’s Vistula River gives one fisherman the catch of the millennium—and historians a blade from the age of founding Warsaw.
When the lucky Polish angler felt a tug on his line in the Vistula River, his first thought was “flounder.” His second thought was “flounder is getting very heavy.” Three heartbeats later he hauled up a 31-inch, 700-year-old medieval sword—proof that history sometimes fights back.
Conservators in Warsaw say the blade, forged sometime between the 13th and 14th centuries, arrived in pristine secrecy. A spherical pommel still crowns the hilt, and a tiny cross carved into the grip is the blacksmith’s medieval calling card. Despite heavy corrosion the weapon is “light as regret,” specialists note, which is ideal for tourists who want to hold 31 inches of tarnished glory without rupturing a rotator cuff.
No one knows how the sword wound up as river décor. Maybe a bargeman dropped it while unloading cabbages. Maybe a knight took an abrupt swim after a disagreement about board games. Whatever the saga, the artifact is now in the custody of the Capital Conservator of Monuments and is being lovingly stabilized so future generations can gawk at the bit of steel that nearly upstaged the angler’s fish story.
And Warsaw itself is smiling: the blade predates the city’s founding charter, turning “Look what we caught!” into the ultimate hometown boast.
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Editor's Comments
Imagine the knight who once wielded this blade: one joust too many, river at low tide, pride higher still. He loses his sword, walks home to explain to his liege, ‘I went fishing…it went badly.’ Seven centuries later he accidentally makes a burly Pole the coolest angler in Warsaw. That’s karma—and possibly the original catch-and-release policy.
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