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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