The History of the shroud of  Turin 

 

1. Century 

Disciples of Jesus bring the shroud  to  Edessa's King Abgar  for safeness. In Edessa it is affixed to the city gate.  

 

2. Century 

Abgar's grandson turns himself to the old beliefs in demons. The shroud is in danger and is immured in the citywalls. Gradually it sinks into oblivion.   

 

525  

The citywalls are redeveloped and the shroud is  rediscovered. Immediately it is considered as the image of Jesus "not made by hands" and serves in the East-Roman Empire as the  model for all portrayals of  Jesu. The traditional way of portraying the face of Jesus directly trace back to the today called "Shroud of Turin".   

 

945  

The emperor of the East-Roman Empire buys the shroud from the people of Edessa and safes it from the approaching Arabs.  The cloth is treasured in  Constantinople. 

 

13. April 1204 

Constantinople is conquered by the crusaders and plundered. The cloth disappears.  

 

1306 

The French King Philip abolishes the Order of the Knights Templars. In interrogation transcripts again and again the story of an idol is mentioned, which has the form of a human head with a beard, and which played an important role in secret rituals. But the Templars keep mum  the "idol" is not divulged. All knowledge carriers are executed in the end. Later  in England  in a former Templar-building  the lid of a chest is found, on which an image is painted, which is very similar to the face of the shroud.  

 

1357 

The widow of the Knight Geoffroy de Charny exhibits the shroud publicly to rise money for herself. At once it attracts huge crowds of pilgrims and gets so popular that form this time on the history of the shroud is known until today without interruptions and doubts.   

 

1452 

A descendent of the family de Charny donates the cloth to Lois of Savoyen, the kin out of which the King of Italy emerged, because he had no own heirs.  

 

1532 

The chapel of Chambéry, in which the silver receptacle with the shroud stands, burns down completely. The cloth is damaged heavily.   

 

1898 

The cloth is photographed the first time in history. Immediately it is recognized that the image on the shroud is a negative of a kind of photo. From this time on the shroud is treated seriously in science and the history of the modern research on the shroud begins.  

 

1983 

Italy's former King Umberto donates the shroud to the Vatican shortly before he dies.    

 

12. April 1997 

The shroud is almost destroyed by a fire attack. 

 

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