A team of experts has unearthed an 800-year-old cellar under a central Berlin car park which they say dates the city back to the 12th century.

The cellar, which dates from 1192, was found alongside the remains of a graveyard, church and school on a site which formed the heart of medieval Berlin.

The 1100 square metre dig site, overshadowed by grey concrete tower blocks and enclosed by busy roads, was first unearthed in March last year, when the team found skeletons and the remains of a school from later in the Middle Ages.

But the cellar, which was discovered just a few weeks ago, became the site's prize find this week, when its oak beams were dated for the first time.

The site, straddled medieval Berlin and the town of Coelln, was especially lucky to survive Berlin's bombardment during World War Two when large parts of the city were completely destroyed.
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OMG. I would have sooooo loved to see something like that, be awsome. 800 years is a long time.
My family and I went Germany 1998 before the wall came down. My parents drank hot beer in an underground Pub cellar. "ewwww"

There was a statue of a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster. very interesting.

Umm, didn't the wall get torn down between June 1990 and November 1991? I'm in Berlin quite regularly, and that seems to be pretty common knowledge. Did you mean 1989?

It really makes me wonder what is sitting under all these cities in Europe that have been there for hundreds if not over 1,000 years. Just imagine some of the archaeological finds that are hidden from us.