The Shroud of Turin is believed by many to have been used to inter Jesus Christ. It is made of linen, is essentially rectangular (4.3 by 1.1 meter) and bears the front and back images of a human body. It is named Shroud of Turin since it is currently (2010) kept in Turin, that is Torino, a city in the North of Italy, not very far from France. You can see the cathedral of Turin via this webcam. The Shroud is securely stored in the cathedral, in a protective sealed reliquary, fully unrolled on a flat surface. The reliquary is filled with an inactive gas to reduce oxidation of the linen of the Shroud. The Shroud itself is not visible to visitors although a copy can be seen near the reliquary.

The Turin Cathedral, where the Shroud is kept. The Royal Chapel, located in the back of the cathedral, was damaged by fire in 1997 and no longer houses the Shroud. We can see the reconstruction of the dome of the chapel in progress.

The linen cloth is a fine rare weave: a 3-1 herringbone. Its average thickness is less than half a millimeter, around 0.25 mm. It is shown only on rare occasions, most recently in 1998 (celebrating the 100 years anniversary of the first photography of the Shroud), 2000 (the new millennium), and in the Spring of 2010.

History

The history of the Shroud is complex and we will only make a cursory exposition of it.

Note: The whereabouts of the Shroud before 1357 is not known with very strong certainty. Some would simply say that the Shroud did not exist before the 13th century, which, of course, would imply that the actual Turin Shroud is not authentic. But there are multiple evidences that the Shroud existed before 1357. Some of the following statements about the history of the Shroud, prior to 1357, are considered controversial. The most obscure periods are the first three centuries and the years 1204 to 1356.

For almost a thousand years, the Shroud appears to have been kept in the city of Edessa, now known as Şanliurfa in Turkey, near the Syrian boarder. The Shroud would have been the Image of Edessa. It was publicly shown only from the sixth century, although it is very unlikely that it was shown completely unfolded showing the entire images. It is probably the case that only the reliquary containing the Image of Edessa was shown to the public. In 944, it was transfered to Constantinople, Turkey (known as Istanbul since 1930).

Byzantine Emperors most likely used the Shroud in many of their ceremonies and as a true representation of Christ for their icons, coins, paintings, and other artistic renditions. It was last seen, in the Eastern world, in Constantinople in 1203, before its reappearance in Lirey, France in 1357. In 1203, Robert de Clari, a Knight of the Fourth Crusade, reported to have seen a public display, in Constantinople, of a shroud similar to the Turin Shroud. This would be coherent with the many statements, made after 1204, that the French Crusaders had "stolen" the Shroud during or after the 1204 sack of Constantinople.

The Shroud makes its entry in the Western world in France. We have strong historical records of its existence in 1357 at Lirey, France, a small city near Paris. For example, a medallion reproducing the Shroud was found in 1855 in the Seine river (see A Souvenir From Lirey). The medallion clearly represents the Turin Shroud and it holds the ecussons of the houses of Charny and Jeanne de Vergy (14th century). This is corroborated with a report from the same period that a shroud of Christ was on display at Lirey in 1357.

But how did the Shroud arrived in Lirey, France?

Historians have proposed three different scenarios for the transfer of the Shroud from Constantinople to France, its next well documented location.

1. The Templars would have owned it for over a century until the order was disbanded. For some unknown reason, it would have been given to Geoffroy I de Charny. Ian Wilson has proposed this scenario in his book, The Shroud of Turin. On April 6, 2009, the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reports that Barbara Frale, an historian and an expert on the Knights Templar, has uncovered evidence from the Vatican Secret Archives that the Shroud of Turin was in the hands of the Templars between the time it disappeared from Constantinople in 1204 and its appearance in Lirey, France, in 1357. The document relates the account of a young Frenchman, Arnaut Sabbatier, in 1287: "I was shown a long piece of linen on which was impressed the figure of a man and told to worship it, kissing the feet three times".
2. Geoffroy I de Charny, a French Knight, would have acquired it as a gift from Humbert II after he participated at the battle of Smyrna (1345-1346) (croisade du Dauphin), then bring it back to Lirey, France. He established a collegial at Lirey. It would be used to keep the Shroud. He would have died at the battle of Poitiers before being able to organize public showing of the Shroud. This scenario is based on the declaration of his son Geoffroy II, Marguerite his daughter, and of the monks at the Lirey Collegial. There are several weakness to this scenario, two of which are: Geoffroy I de Charny never mentioned the Shroud, the Shroud was never reported to be in Smyrna.
3. Othon de la Roche would have owned the Shroud while in Athens, Greece. He would have transfered it to Besançon, France, around 1208. This scenario is mostly based on the presence of a shroud at the Besançon church. But this shroud was probably a copy of the Shroud of Turin. Daniel C. Scavone, a professional historian, has written several articles favoring this scenario.

Lirey on a modern interactive map.

In 1453, Marguerite de Charny, daughter of Geoffroy II de Charny, gave the Shroud to the Duke Louis de Savoie, in Chambéry, France, in exchange of a small fief. This fief will actually turned out to be worthless for Marguerite de Charny.

The Duke had a church built to house the Shroud in Chambéry. It was also shown in many small cities in France until it was brought to Turin in 1578 by the Duke of Savoy, where it is still located today.

In 1983, the Shroud was given to the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope.

The Shroud was never in America or in the far Eastern World.

A lengthy introduction to the Shroud of Turin can be found at Wikipedia, Shroud of Turin. You can even study the series of editing that took place between believers and non-believers of the authenticity of the Shroud.

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