Saint Michael's Bridge

If you stand on the Sint-Michielsbrug, look closely in the water of the Leie to see if you can spot a lead chest. According to a Gentian, Luc Paquet, the panel of the Just Judges would be lying in the Leie, in a lead chest, close to the Sint-Michielsbrug. On the night of April 10 to 11, 1934, two panels of the Ghent Altarpiece, the masterpiece of the Van Eyck brothers, disappeared from the Vijdtkapel. One panel was found, the second is still missing. Over the years, various - credible or not - theories about the location of the panels have emerged. Luc Paquet identifies the brothers Frans and Karel Coppejans as the culprits. Paquet was once married to a cousin of those brothers. According to Luc Paquet, the Coppejans brothers hid the Ghent Altarpiece from the Germans during the world war, and Frans Coppejans had access to the Vijdtkapel because he regularly checked the condition of the artwork. According to Paquet, it was discovered in Germany that beneath the paint layer of 'The Just Judges' a secret was hidden, the Secret of the Templars: Christ did not die on the cross. Because this secret could never leak out, a plan was devised in the lodge. The Coppejans brothers simply stole the panels themselves and walked with them to the art and architecture office Bressers on Hoogstraat, with a back entrance on Theresianenstraat. In the Sint-Elisabethbegijnhof, a lead chest was made at the lead and copper foundry Melis, which was transported with the cart of Karel Coppejans. The intention was to hide the panel in a lead coffin in a tomb in the Sint-Baafs Cathedral. Two older women are said to have witnessed the nighttime dragging with the cart. The Sint-Michielsbrug proved to be too heavy a task, so the plan was to go under the bridge to the bridge at Hooiaard. But the slope down right next to the Sint-Michielskerk was also too steep, the cart crashed against the quay wall, and was broken. The brothers could no longer move forward, and saw only one solution: the Leie. There the lead chest is said to still lie.

Dromos