Three lost treasures

Patrick Bernauw: Here are some amazing True Treasure Stories, that need further exploration! So Mr. or Mrs. Indiana Jones... Are you ready to start a True Treasure Hunt ?

The Holy Blood, aka The Holy Grail... lost in Bruges!

King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table searched for it... The cup from which Jesus drank wine at the Last Supper and that was later filled with his blood, at Golgotha. Legend says this "Holy Blood", also known as "the Holy Grail" (Sang Real = San Greal = Saint Grail) was brought to Britain. Treasure hunters are searching the Holy Grail in places like Glastonbury, in southern France, or even in Spain... and that is very strange, because the one and only Holy Blood was found by the Knights Templar and the Count of Flanders on Christmas Day 1148, in the Holy Grave in Jerusalem! They brought it to Bruges, the Venice of the Nord, where you still can see it in the Chapel of the Holy Blood. But some say that it is a false relic, and that the one and only real Holy Grail was hidden somewhere in a house in Bruges. Eat your heart out, Dan Brown!... And start with his article: The Holy Blood of Bruges, a New Jerusalem - or do it when Visiting Bruges-la-Morte, a medieval ghost city!

The Stolen Panel of the Mystic Lamb

The polyptych known as "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" was painted in the 15th century by the "Flemish Primitives" Jan and Hubert Van Eyck. It is regarded as one of the artistic highlights of Western civilisation and you can still visit it in the Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. But one of the many oak panels is missing: "The Just Judges" was stolen in April 1934. A certain "D.U.A." wrote a letter to the bishop of Ghent, stating he would return the panel if he could receive a "fee" of 1 million Belgian francs. Instead of 1 million francs, the bishop only would pay 25.000 francs... Some months later, Arsène Goedertier collapsed after a speech at a political rally. Before succumbing, he could tell a friend that he was the only man who knew where the stolen painting was situated. He had a file on that crime at home. The police investigated the file and did find something that looked like a code, but could not break the code. If you visit the city of Ghent, make sure you go to the Cathedral of Saint Bavo and see its most treasured piece of art, The Mystic Lamb... with the replica of the Just Judges. The whole story is here, and the theft of the Just Judges also could have something to do with the Holy Blood of Bruges…

The Treasure of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

In the spring of 1791, the King of France was a prisoner in his own country. Marie Antoinette, his wife, begged her brother, the Austrian Emperor, to save them from the revolutionary forces. She wrote her letters in a code that was borrowed from the Prophecies of Nostradamus. In fact they wrote a lot of "new prophecies" that were attributed to Nostradamus, but were meant to communicate with other royalists in order to save the royal family and their "war chest". The royalist general de Bouillé had an army at his disposition in the fortress town of Montmédy, in northern France. Just across the border with the Austrian Netherlands was the Abbey of Orval, a perfectly safe place for Louis XVI and his family. De Bouillé thoroughly prepared the flight of the royal family from the revolutionary Paris, but he couldn't possibly imagine at the moment that Louis, his wife and his children would be arrested in Varennes. The French Revolution would lead Louis and Marie Antoinette to the bloody axe of the guillotine, but the fortune of the Bourbons and the jewels of Marie Antoinette reached the Abbey of Orval... where they disappeared without leaving a trace.

You'll find the highlights of this true treasure story here: Nostradamus and the Lost Treasure of the Bourbons.

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