You may have noticed that in a number of places texts are painted on the walls. All neatly done only the capitalization seems a bit strange.
Let's translate and look at some texts:
Above the statue of Mary in the niche, behind the altar:
DeIparae VirgInIqUe LaUretanae SaCrUM. This means something like This shrine is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of Loreto
Now we put those capital letters in the right order for convenience MDCLVVVVIIII, note that U and V are equal. If we add that whole thing up, we arrive at the sum 1000+500+100+50+5+5+5+5+1+1+1+1 exactly 1674, the year that the roof was placed on the chapel and the finishing was started.
Above a door is written: Signum magnum apperuit in caelo, mulier amicta sole Apoc This means And a great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun. Note the monogram, MR, (Mary) surrounded by a halo. This time without Roman numerals.
Above the rood screen (or organ balcony) stands CresCente aCCVrsV CresCebat forMa saCeLLI this means As the crowd grew, so did the size of the chapel. Do you place it yourself in the correct year? MCCCCCCCLLVVI
The Roman numbers are mentioned again in the text window, so you can do the math yourself.
M=1000
D=500
C=100
L=50
X=10
U/V=5
I=1
If you've paid attention, you'll know if you're right.
Another one to get rid of, under the organ balcony it says: MarIae VIrgInIs aeDIs refeCtione rVrsVs popVLI ILLV CesClt pletas Means: “In the restoration of the sanctuary of the Virgin Mary, the piety of the people is again revealed”. Do you know in which year the chapel was restored?
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Let others know how you experienced the tour or share your unique findings!
As a real education family, the idea was to offer the children a tour in Thorn, in order to generate interest in Thorn but also in history in general.
Children come with their parents and go the same route as the adults. The route was thus determined by that of the adults.
That adult route could also be improved, since the software made this possible, it was ready before the children's tour.
Collaboration with the Thorn Museum.
Even in the first test phase, Museum Thorn showed an immediate interest in our tours and it was soon decided to enter into a collaboration.
The vision of the Thorn museum is that the town of Thorn is actually a large open-air museum. We can only endorse that.
We hope you enjoy your stay in Thorn and look forward to seeing you again.
Hélène, Sanne and Geert Stams.