Mysterious graves of Notre Dame Cathedral found after fire reveal their secrets

Lead sarcophagi discovered under the nave of Notre Dame Cathedral in an “extraordinary and emotional” find have begun to reveal their secrets, French scientists have announced.

According to The Guardian, the first burial contains the remains of the high priest, who died in 1710 after leading a sedentary lifestyle, according to experts. The remains from the second sarcophagus have not yet been identified – and may never be identified – but it is thought to be a young, wealthy and privileged nobleman who may have lived as early as the 14th century.

The tombs were discovered as part of a cache of statues, sculptures and fragments of an original 13th-century screen buried under the floor of the transept (cross nave) in the center of the cathedral, which was destroyed by fire in April 2019.

The burial sites are described as being in a state of “remarkable scientific quality” and were discovered after preventive excavations under the floor, where heavy scaffolding is to be installed to install the cathedral’s new spire.

While most of the treasures were discovered only 20 cm below the floor of the cathedral, the body-shaped lead sarcophagus was at a depth of one meter.

After opening the burial, specialists from Toulouse discovered that the sarcophagus contains the remains of a man, probably aged 30 years, whom the researchers called “Cavalier” (that is, “horseman”), since his pelvic bones suggest that he was an experienced rider .

The tomb, which was molded to fit the shape of the body, lacked a nameplate, and holes in the lead around the head meant the remains had been exposed to the air and badly deteriorated.

Scientists continue to study fragments of tissue and plant material found inside the coffin and say the deceased was embalmed – a rare practice in the Middle Ages – and appears to have been buried in a wreath of flowers.

A copper plaque on the second lead sarcophagus, also exposed to air and water intrusion from the historic flood of the Seine in 1910, confirmed that it contained the remains of Antoine de la Porte, canon of Notre Dame Cathedral, who died on Christmas Eve 1710 at the age of 83 .

Eric Croubesi, a professor of biological anthropology at the University of Toulouse III who oversaw the opening of the coffins, said the two men were clearly important figures in their era, as they were buried in such prestigious tombs in the heart of the cathedral.

The unknown “cavalier” had to be a member of the “elite” at the time of his death, in order to be buried at the foot of a large cross near the partition between the altar and the nave, which separated the clergy and the choir from the parishioners. Most of these partitions were removed in the Catholic churches of France during the Counter-Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries.

According to Professor Krubezi, the young man suffered from a “chronic disease” that had destroyed most of his teeth by the time he died. “He would have had a difficult end to life.” The dead aristocrat also had a skull deformity caused by wearing a headdress or headband as a child.

Christophe Besnier, who led the scientific team at the excavations carried out by France’s Inrap National Archaeological Institute, said at a press conference: “If his death dates to around the second half of the 16th century or the beginning of the 17th century, we may be able to identify him in the register of deaths. which we have. If it happened before, we will probably never know who he was.”

According to Eric Krubesi, unlike the “cavalier”, de la Porte had “extraordinarily good teeth”. “They were wonderful for their age. We see it very rarely, but he clearly brushed his teeth and took care of them.”

De la Porte was wealthy, influential, and not only commissioned several works of art that are now in the Louvre, including Jean Jouvenet’s “Mass of Canon Antoine de la Porte”, but also paid 10,000 livres – a small fortune in those days – for reconstruction of the choir of Notre Dame Cathedral.

After a fire engulfed the 850-year-old cathedral, one of Paris’s most emblematic and visited monuments, in April 2019, nearly destroying the entire building, President Emmanuel Macron promised to rebuild Notre Dame and reopen for mass in five years.

The Inrap team was called in to carry out “preventive excavations” under the cathedral’s floor section between February and April, before scaffolding, 30 meters high and weighing 600 tons, was built to reconstruct the monument’s spire. Archaeologists were given strict deadlines and only a certain area in which to excavate.

Dominique Garcia, president of Inrap, reiterated that the human remains are not “archaeological objects” and will be treated “with respect from start to finish” of research before they are returned to Paris for the culture ministry to decide what will happen to them. further.