Arcadia Discussion Zone

Ben has just posted some photographs of Sauniere's Holy Water Stoup angels showing the holes in the head where, allegedly, German newspaper/s or cuttings were found in 1986 by Alain Féral. The date of the newspapers was 1898, the time when some of the church renovations were carried out.

Does anyone have any information regarding the name of the newspaper or the exact date of publication or any information about which articles were being reported in the newspaper or cuttings?

VAM

A journal from Berlin. You'll find images of the newspaper fragments in Alain Feral's book Clef du Royaume des Morts.

Or in Jarnac's "Archives du Tresor de Rennes le Chateau" p135, relating to the newspaper article in the Midi Libre about this, from April 13th 1986.

Thanks Angelus and ndawe - much appreciated. VAM

Et voilà!

http://www.renneslechateau.it/indagini/articoli/12x589.pdf

I published it on my journal Indagini su Rennes-le-Château 12 (2006)

See: Alain Feral, Clef du royaume des morts, Rennes-
le-Château: Atelier Empreinte, 1997, dossier 3, p.8
also quoted in “Les journaux allemands trouvés à Rennes-le-Château” in
Midi-Libre, 13.4.1986
and in Pierre Jarnac, Les Archives de Rennes-le-Château, 1987, vol.I, p.135.

Mariano, that was kind of you to post these. Thank you very much. VAM

Thanks for the links people especially Mariano. Very interesting, noticed the name "Mark" on two of the cuttings? I wonder if this has any relation to JB's observation of the 16 0 8 inscription on the altar pillar? Does anyone have any theories on the numbers contained or the large H-Sto? One question Mariano are these cuttings as they were found or have they either been edited as pictures or deteriorated through time ?
I am aware that in the context the "Mark" refers to the German currency.
Regards
Nic

I just added the external squares but the original broken pieces (as printed by Alain Feral) were in that format.
They probably do not contain secret or coded messages: our friend Sabina Marineo from Munich wrote us that they are advertisements about rooms and buildings

Understood Mariano , I suppose if Sauniere was in possession of German newspapers during the war it would make sense to put them somewhere out of view, I cant think of any other reason to put them there, I presume that there is no reason to fill the inside of the stoup for support, strengthening etc. Maybe Sauniere was a secret papier mache artiste
Regards
nic

Probably nothing significant to solving the mystery, but there were accusations that Sauniere was taking in German spies so maybe that's who the papers came from. Just a guess. God only knows how or why they got in the angel's head.

Or maybe just pieces of protective packaging left in there from when the statue was delivered to Rennes le Chateau?

Surely you'd have to be a very inept spy to carry a newspaper from your home country with you when venturing into enemy territory? And a very prescient one to do so in 1898, sixteen years before the outbreak of hostilities?

I think protective packaging, as suggested above, is by far the most likely explanation for this particular intrigue.

Hello everyone, interesting topic.

I always assumed from the rumours of this discovery that there were a lot more papers found than the few cuttings that have been shown here. Were there more or is this all that was found? Mind you, after seeing the size of the holes I don't suppose there could be much more!

Rhea

I guess the packing idea is probably correct. The maker of the statues probably just reused some packing from something he ordered from Germany for use in his shop.

What a great example of how a thread can run!

Thanks everybody for your input and Ben has now updated his website accordingly.

VAM