Two historians claim the search for the Holy Grail is over.
The famous cup used by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper was identified in a book written by Margarita Torres Jose Manuel Ortega del Rio, titled “Kings of the Grail” and published last week, as the jewel-encrusted goblet on display at the San Isidro Basilica in the northwestern Spanish city of Leon.
News of the discovery caused masses of people to flock to the historic church to view the precious chalice – forcing the operators of the museum to pull the piece from the exhibit, according to French news agency Agence France-Presse.
The museum’s director told AFP that they were looking for space large enough to accommodate the crowds.
“It was in a very small room where it was not possible to admire it to the full,” Raquel Jaen told the agency.
There are more than 200 golden cups that have been thought to be the one used during the Last Supper, but Torres and del Rio identified the Spanish goblet during a three-year investigation that started with a piece of Egyptian parchment found at the University of Al-Azhar in Cairo, the agency reported.
The supposed Holy Grail was offered to King Fernando I, who ruled between 1037 and 1065, as a peace offering by the head of a Muslim kingdom within Spain, the historians said.
The cup, made of agate, gold and onyx, is actually two goblets formed together, the authors claim.
The artifact had been known until last week as the goblet of the Infanta Dona Urraca, King Fernando I’s daughter, AFP reported.
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