SLEUTHS' CORNER
The Shroud at Nice?
Following BSTS Newsletter No. 44's featuring of a fresco depicting an exposition of the Shroud from a high tower, location unknown, speculation became raised whether this might be a depiction of the historically recorded exposition of the Shroud from the Bellanda Tower, Nice, in March 1537, the only historically-known occasion in which the Shroud is specifically described being exhibited from a tower. BSTS member Hugh Duncan, who lives in southern France, has most kindly done some sleuthing, and sent a large dossier of his delvings into Nice Archives, of which the following forms part.
Hugh Duncan writes:
The fresco of the Turin Shroud shown
in BSTS Newsletter No.44 raised the question as to whether the painting
was based on the Bellanda Tower in Nice, it being the only tower known
from which the Shroud was exposed. I live about an hour's drive from the
centre of Nice, so am well placed to see what evidence there is of the
Shroud's stay and if the tower in the painting is indeed the Bellanda Tower.
The Nice Archives are found in a quiet
backwater, just off the Promenade des Anglais. Either I was very lucky,
or it happened to be a quiet day, as there were three curators there to
help the two researchers, me being one of them. They were keen to answer
questions and directed me to what secondary sources were available on the
subject of the Turin Shroud. The curators were also certain that the Shroud
had actually been displayed twice in Nice during its stay in the 16th century.
Below is a summary of the information I found that afternoon.
The Bellanda Tower
The original Bellanda Tower was pulled
down by King Louis in 1844. When Nice became French in 1860 a new one was
built, which is now the home of the naval museum. I did phone the naval
museum, but they said they had no documents on the history of the tower.
In the book
La Maison de Savoie
à Nice 1388-1860
, Palais Lascaris, were several sketches of
Nice from the 16th century. There were also several reproductions of paintings/sketches
of Nice from the same time, displayed on the walls and desks of the Archives.
In those views, Nice Castle is seen clearly on the hill behind the town,
and surrounding the bottom of the hill is a continuous wall, with cylindrical
styled towers at the sharp corners. The largest of the towers is the Bellanda
Tower, which is found where the hill meets the sea. Old Nice is to the
west of the Tower. I did find a sketch of Nice Castle and Bellanda Tower
from 1538, which is within a year of the Shroud's exposition there. This
picture was not at the archives, but on a web site about the history of
Nice. No artist was mentioned, but credit for the photograph was given
to A. Quadrubbi, Nice Town Hall. A copy of the picture is shown below.
The Bellanda Tower is on the right. It is now clear that the tower depicted
in the Shroud fresco from BSTS No.44 cannot be the Bellanda Tower, it being
square based and lacking the hill behind it.
I
did make one other observation, though, which might mean that Nice is not
completely excluded from being the setting of the BSTS 44 fresco. In the
16th century sketches at the archives, mainly done at roof height and at
a distance from Old Nice, there is always shown a dome and a tower next
to each other. They look similar to the dome and tower in the fresco
(I have the feeling though, that most Italian towns have a domed cathedral
and a tower near one another. Turin itself is a good example).
When
I pointed this similarity out to the Nice Archives curators, they were
adamant that the BSTS 44 fresco was not Nice. The domed cathedral in Old
Nice is called Sainte Reparate and it predates the stay of the Shroud in
Nice, though it didn't reach its cathedral status until some 50 years after.
From a web site called Nice France History, beyond the French Riviera
I found a couple of views of Ste Reparate on the Internet, one of which
is reproduced here.
The front of Ste Reparate looks very
similar to the cathedral in the fresco, but of course, the tower is on
the wrong side! Could the copy of the fresco picture have been reversed
during printing? And when was the tower built next to it? Could there have
been a tower on the other side during the 16th century? I think these questions
need to be answered before Nice can be crossed off the suspect list.
So, to round off, have any questions
been answered? Was the Turin Shroud kept in Nice? Yes. From early
1537. Was there an exposition in Nice? Yes. Good Friday 1537.
Was
it displayed more than once?
Unclear. When did it leave Nice? Unclear.
Does the fresco in BSTS No.44 show the Bellanda Tower? No.
Could the
fresco be of Nice?
Unclear. It might be Turin itself.