Funeral
The body of John the Blind was moved to Kloster Altmünster ("Old-Minster Abbey") in Luxembourg. When the abbey was destroyed in 1543 the corpse was moved to Kloster Neumünster ("New-Minster Abbey") in Luxembourg. During the confusion of the French Revolution the mortal remains were salvaged by the Boch industrialist family (founders of Villeroy & Boch, ennobled in 1892) and hidden in an attic room in Mettlach on the Saar River. The legend has it that the monks of the abbey asked Pierre-Joseph Boch for this favor.
His son Jean-François Boch met with Prince Frederick William of Prussia on his voyage through the Rhineland in 1833 offering the remains as a gift. As Prince Frederick considered John the Blind to be one of his ancestors he ordered Karl Friedrich Schinkel to construct a funeral chapel. The chapel was built in 1834 and 1835 near Kastel-Staadt on a rock above the town. In 1838 on the anniversary of his death John the Blind was laid in a black marble Sarcophagus in a public ceremony.
In 1945 the Luxembourg government took the chance to obtain possession of the bones. In a cloak and dagger operation the remains were moved to the crypt of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, Luxembourg. The tomb reads "d.o.m., hoc sub altari servatur ioannes, rex bohemiæ, comes luxemburgensis, henrici vii imperatoris filius, caroli iv imperatoris pater, wenceslai et sigismundi imperatorum avus, princeps animo maximus orbiit mmcccxl 30 au."
Read more about this topic: John Of Bohemia
Famous quotes containing the word funeral:
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