Show lanterns lantern of the dead about halfway on the road from angers to poitiers in france one comes upon the old town of fonte vault which Is famous not only for nn an ancient abbey where english kings have wished they could be burled buried but tor for a fine example of those once mystifying tidying lanterns of the dead lanterns des morts marts the purpose of these tall stone funerary lanterns built like inland lighthouses was not known till a few years ago a passage was found in the writings of peter the venerable a nineteenth century abbot of cluny revealing that they were lit in homage to the dead christians most of them date from the eleventh century |