In the Belgian town they found a private library, where no one had visited for 200 years

Not so long ago, a truly amazing event took place in the small Belgian town of Bouillon, located in the south of the country. Real estate agent Henri Gods discovered an old library there that has been locked for 200 years. The secret treasury of literature and art was reported to Gods by relatives of the original owner of the house during a real estate auction.

Its owner is a French intellectual who, presumably during the French Revolution of 1789-1794, left his homeland and arrived in Bouillon. The library turned out to be a kind of time capsule, sealed for 200 years and retaining within itself the pristine appearance of a bygone era.

No one has come into this room for two centuries, so being in it now is like making a real journey into the past. Henri Gods was incredibly lucky not only to find the treasure, but to be the first to open the old door and breathe in the air saturated with the spirit of those times.

A valuable find contained 182 rare books, furniture, objects of art and interior of the 18th-19th centuries. All publications were in perfect condition, as if they had just left the press. The books for the most part contained descriptions of exotic countries and other civilizations.

However, a particularly important find, which was invaluable in the framework of culture, was the old atlas of Abraham Ortelius, the Flemish cartographer who created the first modern-type geographic atlas in history.

The artifact dates from 1575. Then only 100 copies of the first modern atlas were made, and most of them in such a long time were either lost or destroyed. That is why this find is of such exceptional interest.

On June 20, an auction was held where genuine historical values of the secret library were put up for sale for all interested buyers.

Portrait of Abraham Ortelius: