The corpse of Louise de Quengo, a widow from an aristocratic family from Brittany, was discovered in an hermetically sealed lead coffin placed in a stone tomb at a convent chapel in the western city of Rennes.
Four other lead coffins dating from the 17th century were also found at the site of the Saint-Joseph chapel, as well as 800 other graves containing skeletons.
Researchers expected to find little but dust and bones when they opened the fifth coffin and were astonished to discover the nearly intact body of De Quengo, Lady of Brefeillac, who died in 1656, some time in her 60s. They were able to identify the 1.45 m (5ft) body because of inscriptions on a relic containing the heart of her husband, Toussaint de Perrien, Knight of Brefeillac, who died in 1649.
Story: Kim Willsher, The Guardian | Photo: Rozenn Colleter/AFP/Getty Images
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