The postcard-perfect Dutch village of Wolder was set aflutter this year when local volunteers made a thrilling discovery in St. Peter and Paul\u2019s Church, which for centuries was rumored to be the final resting place of the fourth musketeer from Alexandre Dumas\u2019s famous story.<\/p>\n
There was a skeleton under the heavy gray stones of the chapel floor.<\/p>\n
Expectations were immediately high. Surely the bones belonged to Charles de Batz de Castelmore, also known as Count d\u2019Artagnan, who served under King Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard, and was dramatized, fictionalized and immortalized in Dumas\u2019s \u201cThe Three Musketeers.\u201d In the story, he is the fourth musketeer and the main character, joining his friends Athos, Porthos and Aramis as a comrade in arms. The man\u2019s swashbuckling fame lives to this day<\/a>, making his grave a point of avid historical interest.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why a group of community members set out to see if they could find d\u2019Artagnan earlier this year. Jos Valke, the deacon of the church, and other locals formed a nonprofit group that started with metal detectors, located the old church foundation, and eventually looked underneath some loose floor stones.<\/p>\n By February, they unearthed a skull. In March, they announced that they had located what might be d\u2019Artagnan\u2019s skeleton, and that tests would be needed to confirm his identity.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we\u2019re waiting,\u201d Mr. Valke said. \u201cAnxiously waiting,\u201d explaining that he expects results within the next few weeks.<\/p>\n The remains \u2014 a man\u2019s bones, buried with a 17th-century coin and a musket ball \u2014 have been sent to a Dutch university for investigation. Carbon dating, DNA testing and other analyses are underway, Mr. Valke said. A hole remains in the church floor, covered by a plywood platform and a rug to allow Mass to proceed. And this place and Maastricht, the larger city it is part of, are holding their breath.<\/p>\n Already, the discovery has drawn a deluge of unaccustomed attention to the village, population 1,500. International media including the BBC, CNN and even Smithsonian Magazine have run articles. American and French tourists have stopped by the church to see the site, Mr. Valke said. The university where the bones are being analyzed had to take four weeks to build a secure room to do the analysis, he added, afraid that people were visiting the campus to try to see them, and that the skeleton might be stolen.<\/p>\n That university, the Saxion University of Applied Sciences, declined to confirm or deny that. It did confirm that it was involved in the investigation into the skeleton, but referred all other questions to the municipality.<\/p>\n Mr. Valke and his colleagues think that if the bones turn out to belong to d\u2019Artagnan, this could be merely the start of a new chapter for Wolder, which sits on the outskirts of Maastricht and just on the Dutch side of the border between the Netherlands and Belgium.<\/p>\n A local tour operator is exploring the possibility of bus tours<\/a> out to the church from downtown Maastricht. Bulent Ozdemir, who owns the Shell gas station at the end of the church\u2019s small lane, wonders if bike routes might add their little village as a stop.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a surprise,\u201d Mr. Ozdemir said, standing behind his counter on a sunny May morning. \u201cThey\u2019re very excited in Wolder.\u201d<\/p>\n Broader Maastricht is also enthusiastic. Camille Oostwegel Sr., who owned several local luxury hotels before passing the business to his son, serves as squadron leader for the local branch of the modern-day Musketeers<\/a>, an international organization that holds events and keeps alive musketeer lore. One of his hotels is in a nearby castle that served as a hospital during the 1673 siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch war, in which d\u2019Artagnan died. It serves a special d\u2019Artagnan beer<\/a>, which is made with Champagne yeast.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is a French hero \u2014 a very important hero of course,\u201d said an effusive Mr. Oostwegel. The find is \u201cthe talk of the town.\u201d<\/p>\n Quincy Van Burg works at Grand Cafe Nieuw Bruin, a spot for poffertjes \u2014 Dutch mini-pancakes \u2014 that opens to the sidewalk of Maastricht\u2019s busiest tourist square. He said John Tana, a local recording artist, has put out a song<\/a> to celebrate the discovery, called \u201cEine veur al,\u201d or \u201cone for all\u201d in Dutch. <\/p>\n Maastricht is already flooded with tourists, so Mr. Van Burg and other service workers don\u2019t expect it to be a game changer for business there.<\/p>\n But Wolder \u2014 perched on the hill above the city, and home to bright green fields, red brick buildings and tidy tile roofs \u2014 does not share in that bustle. The walking map sold at the Maastricht city shop sticks to the city\u2019s core. Even a more extended foldout version cuts off Wolder\u2019s streets, stopping just shy of d\u2019Artagnanlaan (named, obviously, for our hero).<\/p>\n Already, the parish has long talked up its possible tie to the famous musketeer. At the entrance to the sanctuary, a statue of a proud-looking d\u2019Artagnan in a royal blue sash and a jaunty hat stares bravely skyward from a display shelf in the corner, nestled just below a life-size, realistically painted crucifix. Maastricht \u2014 and specifically Wolder, for the purists \u2014 is often the final stop<\/a> on the Route d\u2019Artagnan, a hiking, riding and biking route that commemorates the musketeer\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Yet it is not at all clear whether the results will be conclusive.<\/p>\n D\u2019Artagnan has known descendants but the French nobility often had extramarital affairs, so it is at least possible that they are not biologically related to the musketeer, Mr. Valke points out. Given that, Mr. Valke argues that it will be hard to rule out his identity if the DNA does not match.<\/p>\n Still, municipal leaders say proving a DNA connection could be a step in the identification process.<\/p>\n \u201cVerifying genealogical connections to d\u2019Artagnan is an essential part of this process,\u201d the local authorities said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n Mr. Valke is hopeful, suggesting that the church and village might eventually plan a museum, and that people could come by the \u201cthousands.\u201d The church is not usually open during the day, he said. When he does open its doors at 3 p.m. these days, people drop by, but \u201cnot to pray.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, he said he doesn\u2019t want to get too far ahead of himself. \u201cWe try to do this step by step,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Koba Ryckewaert contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The postcard-perfect Dutch village of Wolder was set aflutter this year when local volunteers made a thrilling discovery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9332,9328,9330,9331,9329,6,9333],"class_list":{"0":"post-11122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-netherlands","8":"tag-alexandre-dumas","9":"tag-bones","10":"tag-charles-de-batz-de-castelmore","11":"tag-count-dartagnan","12":"tag-maastricht-netherlands","13":"tag-netherlands","14":"tag-the-three-musketeers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}