A mysterious "horseman" found inside a lead-lined coffin beneath the ruin of the Notre Dame Cathedral has finally been identified as the French Renaissance poet Joachim du Bellay, according to forensic experts.
The preserved remains, discovered beneath Notre Dame's nave in 2022, were stored inside a sealed sarcophagus near those of the high priest Antoine de la Porte during excavations that followed the fire at the cathedral in 2019.
