Templar Treasures Hidden on Baltic Sea Island?
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant may have
been hidden by a secretive religious order of crusaders, the Knights Templar,
on the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm some 830 years ago, according to a new
book.
The whereabouts of the grail and the ark -- legendary religious relics of
immeasurable value to Christian and Jewish believers -- have intrigued
historians and archaeologists for centuries and films about quests to locate
them, notably the "Indiana Jones" series, have thrilled movie audiences
worldwide.
No one knows exactly what the relics actually are but the ark is believed a
box-type container that held the stone tablets inscribed with the 10
commandments which Moses received from God on Mount Sinai.
Legends differ about the Holy Grail but it is most widely thought to be the
chalice which Jesus and his apostles drank from at last supper before he was
crucified.
Some scholars speculate that treasures amassed by the Knights Templar ended
up in Rosslyn chapel in Scotland. Others have hinted at locations in
Ethiopia, Spain and Canada.
In a 194-page book "The Templars' Secret Island," Denmark's Erling Haagensen
and Henry Lincoln of Britain say medieval round churches were built at sites
on Bornholm based on the sacred geometry used by the Knights Templar
elsewhere in Europe, most famously at Rennes-le-Chateau in southern France.
The book, studded with graphs, plots the churches' geometric layout with
mathematical precision and the authors suggest the design may be a map to
hidden treasures.
The Danish archbishop Eskil visited Knights Templar Grand Master Bertrand de
Blanchefort in France in 1162, nine years after the death of his predecessor
Bernard of Clairvaux.
The historically recorded purpose of Eskil's visit -- coming at a time when
the Knights Templar may have feared becoming vulnerable because of the
influential Bernard's demise -- was to prepare a crusade against pagans
inhabiting the Baltic Sea's northeastern coast in what is today Estonia and
Latvia.
The book suggests that Knights Templar who joined the Baltic crusade built
Bornholm's churches and may have taken the opportunity to stash some
treasures there.
"The need for a secure hiding place would have been paramount...It would make
sense to conceal whatever may have been the Order's treasures in more than
one place.
"Better still to provide a hiding place which was remote and had no apparent
connection with the Order. Bertrand's involvement in the planning for the
Baltic Mission would have offered him the perfect opportunity. Bornholm...now
becomes a trump card," says the book.
"It was small and easily controlled and protected. Above all, it was remote,
unknown, unlikely to be disturbed, not big enough or rich enough to attract
an errant warrior intent on carving out a kingdom," it continues.
UNIQUE CHURCHES LASTING HERITAGE
The European Templar Heritage Research Network (ETHRN), a non-profit making
association of scholars not affiliated to any religious or political group,
says it has been historically documented that the order of the Poor Knights
of Christ and the Temple of Solomon -- the full name of the Knights Templar
-- was founded by aristocrats from the French region of Burgundy early in the
12th century.
The order's classic round churches founded on octagonal geometry, supposedly
based on the design of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, are a
lasting heritage of the Knights Templar era, the ETHRN says.
Historical records and 20th century archaeological digs indicate that a group
of Knights Templar were searching for something under Jerusalem's Temple
Mount between 1118 and 1127.
Haagensen and Lincoln say that on returning to France in 1127 the crusaders
reported to Bernard of Clairvaux that their "mission" had been accomplished.
A carving on a pillar at the cathedral in Chartres, France, suggests the
mission had been to find the Ark of the Covenant.
Legends say Mary Magdalen, to this day the village saint of
Rennes-le-Chateau, and Joseph of Arimathea, who according to the Bible buried
Jesus, took the Holy Grail to France.
Evidence of the belief in this tale is found in historical records about the
Nazis searching for the Holy Grail at Rennes-le-Chateau during World War Two.
Backing up the theory that Knights Templar treasures may have been hidden on
Bornholm, the book says ancestors of the noblemen who founded the order lived
on this rocky 587 square km (226.7 square miles) island, now part of Denmark
and home to some 45,000 people.
BURGUNDIANS CAME FROM BORNHOLM
The authors point to a find of nearly 3,000 tiny, intricately carved golden
figures unearthed in a 1985-86 excavation of a Bornholm field as lending
credibility to their claim of a Bornholm connection.
The golden figures have been dated to AD 400-600 when the Merovingians -- a
clan of Frankish kings who claimed to be, like Jesus, of the house and
lineage of the Bible's King David -- were at the height of their power.
Descendants of the Merovingians later settled in Burgundy.
The book also quotes a AD 417 work by Spanish historian Orosius, which says
the Burgundians came from Bornholm.
The Knights Templar viewed the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant as
their rightful possessions because of their bloodline to the House of David,
scholars say.
The equilateral six-sided shape which forms the star of David is part of the
geometric design formed by Bornholm's medieval churches, the book by
Haagensen and Lincoln shows.
"It is undeniable that those who planned and built the churches of Bornholm
knew exactly what they were doing and why they did it," the authors say,
adding the design "indicated a sure hiding place."
An excavation in 1995 to install heating ducts under the floor of Oesterlars
church, the biggest of Bornholm's round churches, found "unusual and
unexpected stone features...which might be explained by the presence of an
undiscovered crypt," the book says, quoting the official renovation report.
Olsker, another church in the geometric pattern, also features a "curious
indication of a possible underground structure beneath a staircase," the
authors say.
"Neither of these subterranean anomalies has, thus far, been investigated."
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