Croats Hail Discovery of Ancient Church in Osijek

Presenting the discovery of the medieval church to the public on Monday, Zlatko Uzelac, from the Croatian culture ministry, said the disovery represented "real cultural wealth".

The remains of a large Romanesque church with three naves were found next to the Baroque Franciscan monastery and the Holy Cross church, in the historic part of Osijek called The Fortress.

Archaeological works started at the site in 1990, but were interrupted several times, not least by the war that raged in eastern Croatia in the early 1990s.

Tino Lelekovic and Dragana Rajkovic, archaeologists from the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, HAZU, and the Slavonian Museum in Osijek, worked on the site.

They said the archaeological foundings are of "priceless value".

Medieval Gothic buildings of any type are extremely rare in eastern Croatia, where most older structures were flattened by the centuries of conflict between the Austrian and Ottoman Empires.

As a result, most of the oldest extant buildings in the region post-date the final conquest of the region by Austria in the 1690s and are in the Baroque or Roccoco style.