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Possible d’Artagnan Grave Found Beneath Maastricht Church

DNA testing under way could confirm a link to Dumas’s real-life inspiration.

Overview

  • Workers repairing the floor of St. Peter and St. Paul in Maastricht uncovered a skeleton beneath the former altar area during building work.
  • Investigators reported a 1660 coin and a musket ball in the grave, and the bones show chest damage consistent with a musket shot.
  • Period records place d’Artagnan’s burial in consecrated ground near the French camp, which matches the church’s location and the high‑status spot under the old altar.
  • Researchers sent DNA from teeth to a German lab, with plans to compare it to living descendants of the de Batz family, while centers in Deventer check the age and sex of the remains.
  • Archaeologists urge caution until kinship results arrive in the coming weeks, though they note nothing found so far contradicts the hypothesis that this could be d’Artagnan.