Who are the bodies under glass?

 

We have a quest. We would like to know exactly who is buried under that glass in the floor in the church of the Convent of St. Francis? There is a sign and the name on it is  Jazigo de Joao Cardoza e herdeiros. Herdeiros means heirs. So there is a whole group under glass. There is no other information on the sign. It is like, “Why of course everyone knows who these people are!” We don’t and it bugs us. We really would like to know.

You cannot use a flash in the museum and we honored the rules. But no one said anything about not using a flash light. It was necessary because the underside of the glass has condensation and you cannot see anything. My cell phone has a flashlight and I was hoping for a glimpse of the occupants. Like perhaps a finger pointing at me.

So when the docent left us alone for a few minutes we got down close to the glass and tried to see anything. No luck. Just dirt was all we could see. You have to be someone very special and respected to be buried in a church under glass. We forgot to ask who the occupants were.

So tomorrow we will walk uphill 3 blocks and pay another euro to find out. We cannot leave with this mystery unsolved. An internet search was already done for an embarrassing amount of time and yielded no information on the deceased parties. 

There are other places in the floor of the church where other people are buried. Those have wood trap doors and no signs as to who they are. 

The church records will have that information. It is of no interest to us. We want to know about the important people there . The ones who have glass ceilings and a sign in remembrance. We are not making this up. Here is a photo of the glass top of the burial site and the sign. See I told you it was for real!