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250 Year old safe that protected monks’ gold
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IT ISN’ T OFTEN THAT Bristol-based Thornhill Security comes across something they haven’ t seen before. But this was the case recently when they were called out to move a heavy safe from a client’ s garage and into their house. It wasn’ t your average jewellery or cash safe. In fact, it is more than 250 years old and rich in fantastic history and surprise.
The safe( possibly French and manufactured near Nice), or cassaforte as it is referred to by the Italian client, was found by one of her uncle’ s employees in 1966 during the rebuild of a monastery in the hills of Santuario Mondovi in
Piedmont, Italy. Her father then visited the site and told the Abbot that he was very interested in purchasing it for himself.
He learned that the safe was believed to have originated in the Lerins Islands just off the French Riviera in the south of France, perhaps best known for being where the man in the Iron Mask was held captive, circa 1740. The family later learned that it was originally a travelling safe belonging to the Cistercian monks from a monastery founded on one of the Lerins Islands and used to store silver chalices, candelabras, church service apparatus and gold.
Transporting the safe to the client’ s family house in Ceva, Piedmont was the first of several hurdles and a specialist company was needed to crane it up to the second floor. Once in place, was the painstaking task of cleaning it by hand using a wire brush and a rotating drill.
Opening it is a complicated process. First you have to discover four secret compartments. Once you have located them, the keyholes are revealed allowing four keys to be inserted and turned in sequence, finally enabling the doors to be unlocked and opened.
In 1977, after the death of her father, the client’ s sister Marisa decided to relocate it at her family home near Turin. Over the years it has continued to move; from Turin to London, on to Antibes, France and now to its current home in the West of England. The Thornhill team are proud to have played a part in safely relocating this majestic and historic safe in its new home.
Source: www. eurosafeuk. org
LOCKSMITHJOURNAL. CO. UK | MAR / APR 2017 Sponsored by Insafe International