THE 17th C. CHAPEL OF ST MARTIN IN VIRJE

During 2009 and 2010 the Museum of the City of Koprivnica conducted archaeological excavations near the parish church of St Martin in the local park at Virje. A chapel from the first half of the 17th c. was found, together with a cemetery to the north and east of the building. Northern parts of the chapel built in brick, were excavated, along with the part of the sanctuary with two lateral rooms (sacristy and storage-room) and the entrance to the crypt of the new church. Since the excavated walls are extremely well preserved, after the excavations they too were conserved. This should be a stimulus for the continuation of archaeological excavations near the parish church of St Martin, while the position of the site within the area of a local park is favourable for its full-scale presentation. At the same time, the accompanying cemetery with several phases of interring is also being excavated (until now 30 graves have been excavated). The cemetery was most probably first used in the late 15th c., when a wooden chapel is mentioned in historical sources, and it was in use until the late 17th c., when it was moved to the modern local cemetery at St Jacob's chapel; soon (in 1833), a new parish church was also built. This type of cemetery found in Podravina is too little known, and only the cemeteries in Delekovac (Scapovo) and Starigrad (Sveti Mirko) are being partly excavated.