Sealed Under Marble
Image idea: the marble-covered burial bed inside the shrine.
By 1555, the shrine needed work again. Franciscan friars rebuilt it and covered the rock burial bed with marble.
The marble protected the rock from pilgrims, who had long chipped off small pieces to take home. From then on, nobody could see or touch the original stone.
For more than 450 years after that, people prayed over the slab without knowing exactly what was underneath. Over time, some experts wondered whether any of the original burial bed had survived at all.