8 November 2022 - SECRET PASSAGES IN FRENCH MONASTERY

 

SECRET PASSAGES 

IN FRENCH MONASTERY

G'day folks,

This is an ancient monastery, containing a locked room and secret passages, involving a mysterious book heist. 

“I’m afraid my burning passion overrode my conscience. It may appear selfish, but I felt the books had been abandoned. They were covered with dust and pigeon droppings and I felt no one consulted them any more. There was also the thrill of adventure — I was very scared of being found out.”

In 2003, Stanislas Gosse admitted to the theft of over 1,000 ancient and rare books from a locked private library in a monastery perched 2,500 feet up in the Vosges mountains in France. In order to accomplish this feat, he climbed exterior walls and hidden stairways into a long-forgotten medieval passageway with secret access behind library cupboards. He then sneaked into the library, chose his victims, and left through the same route. He was not a professional thief out for money — all the books were found safely in his tiny apartment. He was a local teacher who stumbled across a map to the secret passages in the city archives and couldn’t resist the thrill.

 

The picturesque and remote Mont Sainte-Odile is encircled by 10 kilometer walls, the ruins of fortifications called Mur Païen. The monastery/convent dates to the 7th century AD, and is dedicated to St. Odile of Alsace, who was born blind, but miraculously gained her eyesight after angelic intervention. The buildings have been destroyed and rebuilt many times, most recently in the 1600s, and again in 1853. None of the monks nor staff at the building were aware of the existence of secret passages until the books started disappearing.

 

The theft of the books had not gone unnoticed, but since the room was firmly locked and off limits to the public, for two years the means and method remained a mystery. It was only after the exterior windows were blocked, and locks replaced, that police determined that there must be another entrance to the room. Finally the secret was discovered when a section of bookcase swung back to reveal the secret space. Rope ladders led up to the roof and then out into other rooms more commonly open to the public. It is thought that the secret passages may have originally been built to allow senior members of the monastery to listen in on monk’s conversations inside what was then the common room.

After setting up hidden cameras to catch him in the act, police arrested Gosse, still carrying climbing rope and three suitcases full of books. He received a fine, a suspended prison sentence, and was assigned community service — helping catalog the books in the library at Sainte-Odile.

13 September 2019 - THE RUINS OF KLASTORISKO MONASTERY, SLOVAKIA

THE RUINS OF KLASTORISKO

 MONASTERY, SLOVAKIA

G'day folks,

The ruins of a 13th-century monastery that long served as a place of refuge from wars and raids. 

 

For centuries, the ruins of a medieval Carthusian monastery were hidden under the grass and trees at what is now Kláštorisko, an archeological park within the Slovak Paradise mountains. The remaining stone structures and walls were once part of a sanctuary perfectly defined by its Latin name, “Lapis Refugii,” or “Rock of Refuge.”

 

Located on a rocky plateau surrounded by deep gorges and canyons, the site was used as a shelter for local people in many dangerous situations over the centuries, such as wars, raids or epidemics. It lent the national park its name, “raj,” meaning “paradise.”

In the 13th century, the sanctuary protected the inhabitants of Spiša during the devastating raids by the Tatars. Hundreds of locals managed to survive by escaping to Kláštorisko. Following this event, Carthusian monks built a monastery there, founded in 1299. But the plateau was likely used as a safe haven long before that. Archeologists found that the site was already settled and fortified in the pre-Christian era, and believe it may have served as a refuge from the very beginning.

The remains of the monastery have been renovated in recent years by groups of volunteers. It is now the site of one of the main tourist centers of the national park. Near the ruins, you can also visit a newly built symbolic cemetery dedicated to those who tragically died in the Slovak Paradise, and also to those who contributed to the development of the park. It is decorated with several interesting wooden statues carved by local artists.

Clancy's comment: Yet, another extraordinary place from the past. Founded in 1299! Wow.

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