A RTVE PLAY
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES A RTVE PRODUCTION IN COLLABORATION WITH
CUARZO PRODUCCIONES (MAN) The Heritage Crime Unit
is investigating the theft of the "Codex Calixtinus". -The "Codex Calixtinus"
has vanished from the Cathedral. -A priceless literary work. -Not a trace of the Codex. A treasure of untold value. What a jewel we have here.
We didn't even realize it. It's like something out of a novel. -It can't have vanished. -There are no clues,
no witnesses. It was the crime of the century. The Cathedral was another world. -They were very inward looking
and didn't tell us the whole truth. -Getting inside that world is tough. The starting point was zero. Every day I left the Codex
in its place. But I didn't do it that day. If they wanted to make him
into trouble in life, it was that the codex Calixtinus
would disappear. The complexity of the investigation was assured due to those involved: the way they are.
-It was a poisonous atmosphere. -It could be anyone. There was a thief among us
but we didn't know it. (Theme "The Codex Calixtinus") THE THEFT OF THE CODEX (SPEAKING ENGLISH) (TV) "11:09,
10:09 in the Canary Islands". -"Police are looking into
the disappearance of the Codex Calixtinus from the Cathedral
of Santiago de Compostela". (Church bell) JULY 2011 (Church bell) (Church bell) That day,
like every day, I was on my way to play
the 9:30 mass in the Cathedral. JOAQUÍN BARREIRA
CATHEDRAL ORGANIST And a choirboy, who is now a priest, came running up to me
at the door saying: "They've stolen the Codex". I thought he was kidding. -The police station is barely
100 metres from the Cathedral. The Dean came here to the station and asked to speak
to the night duty chief. JUAN CÁSTOR VÁZQUEZ
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA COMMISSIONER I spoke to José María
and he said: "I think the Codex
has vanished". "José María,
are you sure about this?". "Yes, I think that the Codex
has gone". -I was on duty,
it fell in my provenance, this was material that affected
our cultural heritage. I grabbed a coffee,
went to get the judge and we started to work out
how to deal with this. -The news broke very quickly. As I lived next to the Cathedral they said: "Ana, please,
get over to the Cathedral". "Don't come here.
go straight there, because the Codex Calixtinus
has been stolen". "What's been stolen?". (TV) "Ana Lorenzo
is in Santiago de Compostela". "Ana, what can you tell us?". -"Today in Santiago,
in the environs of the Cathedral it's the only topic
of conversation". "The political class,
cultural institutions, historians, are all lamenting
the disappearance of this book: it is like something out
of the pages of a mystery novel". A press conference was held
that very morning. All the media was there,
local, national outlets, and that was when
the Dean gave the first real news... because everything up to that
point had been hearsay and rumour. On Tuesday, the cathedral's medievalist, while closing up the archive, noticed the Codex
was missing from the safe. When we were absolutely sure that it was not there, I called the police. -I remember that day
because the Dean wanted to speak to the Unit Head,
as a matter of urgency. Nervous is about
the least of the words we could use to describe him. He was deeply affected
psychologically. As far as he was concerned it was the holy of holies
among the books there. The Heritage Crime Unit
are investigating the crime. The Codex Calixtinus,
one of the jewels of literature... -Of priceless literary-historic
value. Not a trace of the Codex Calixtinus. -A twelfth century jewel. Missing
from the Cathedral since Tuesday. One of the most important
books in the world. A marvel of the twelfth century. NACHO ABAD
JOURNALIST My co-ordinator called me screaming: "Nacho, they've stolen the Codex,
they've stolen the Codex". "See if you can find out anything".
I said: "I'll get back to you". "But what is the Codex?". CHAPTER 1
THE THEFT -The Codex is like the DNA
of the Pilgrim Route to Santiago. We know it is
of twelfth century origin but we don't know
who was behind it. It's a guide for the pilgrims
who come to Santiago. -Fruit of the propaganda built up
around the cult of Saint James and the pilgrimage to Santiago. There was a need
for a mysterious legend about how his remains ended up where they did plus a compendium
of his miracles. -It's amazing that such an
out of the way place like Santiago overtook other popular
pilgrimage destinations. It can be considered the founding
document of Galicia as a European nation. The cathedral
came to be a the centre of what was almost a show;
it was an imposing building, but also provided a spectacle. A musical performance comparable to modern festivals
of today like Sónar, you know? -For musicians,
the Codex Calixtinus has a value
that cannot be measured. It includes the first written
form of polyphony. One specific piece is maybe the first
for three voices in the history of music. Though that might not be the case. In fact, the whole of the time
I was at the Cathedral I spent a lot of time
delving into the subject without finding an answer. (Ecclesiastical song) ALBERTO ORDÓÑEZ
RADIO GALEGA JOURNALIST I remember an art expert
friend of mine called me, he called me really shocked
and told me: "Look, some journalists
called me and asked me about the value
of the Codex Calixtinus". It could reach one million euros, five million euros, one hundred
millions, one thousand millions... It's incalculable, right? I was told that its value fell between six million euros
in the least optimistic cases to the most optimistic
which put it at ninety million. Given the importance of the subject the Heritage Crime Unit
had to get involved. ANTONIO TENORIO
HEAD OF INVESTIGATION I was taken by surprise as
I was about to take some leave because I was due
to have an operation on my back the following day. So I thought:
"I'm going to miss out on this". But it didn't turn out that
way because the investigation carried on for some time. -I was working at the Heritage
Crime Unit that morning when the boss got a call from
the local station in Santiago informing us of the theft
of the Codex Calixtinus. I remember looking up Codex
Calixtinus on Google cos I didn't really know
of its existence. It was something of a bombshell. ÓSCAR LIZ
HISTORICAL HERITAGE BRIGADE We were totally amazed. There were articles from
France and even Germany where it was spoken of as the crime
of the century in Spain. 7 JULY 2011 CODEX CALIXTINUS MANUSCRIPT STOLEN
IN SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA 7 JULY 2011 CODEX CALIXTINUS STOLEN
FROM THE CATHEDRAL OF SANTIAGO 7 JULY 2011 CODEX CALIXTINUS MISSING
FROM THE CATHEDRAL OF SANTIAGO 8 JULY 2011 POLICE EXPERTS QUESTION THE ACCURACY
AT THE WORK SAFEKEEPING Given the special relevance
of the missing object, the investigation would
have to adapt to the circumstances and be somewhat special too. -I went home, packed quickly
and off we headed to Galicia. (Police radio) I remember getting several
phone calls on the way. The first hypotheses:
"How was it done?". "What was it that happened?". We also had to find
a place to stay. The work, from the XII century,
was kept in an armored security chamber
of the Cathedral's archive. An extensive police operation
is activated to find the Codex Calixtinus. (Church bells) The archivist, José María Díaz, was one of the first people
under investigation. The police thought of the
possibility he had been careless, according to his age, so the theft
of the Codex was easier. -The meeting with the Dean, who was the Cathedral archivist and head of the canonry,
was a little over eighty. He was a hierarchical personage, polite, cold, distant. It was plain to see how nervous
he was. -The then Dean of the Cathedral,
was in closest contact with, and had a special affection
for the book... liked to show it off, had shown
it to a group of tourists that very same morning, it had markers between
its fine pages, because there are in fact five books
within a single binding. PEDRO DÍAZ
CATHEDRAL DEAN BROTHER My brother José María
is ten years older than me. One thing about my brother, besides his intelligence, is his photographic memory. So he didn't just know
the archive, he knew exactly where every single document was. And in many cases knew where the most interesting pages were. -He was a man who had carried out
serious work on the archive. He had overseen more
than twenty PhDs and had transformed the archive, into a place where it was an honour
and a pleasure to work. -He dedicated his life to this
process of renovation; cataloging and taking care
of the library's contents. The Codex Calixtinus
was the centrepiece of the cathedral archive, and so he worried about
it more than anyone else. Logically, being the archivist, the responsibility was his alone. As if the Director of the Prado
had lost "Las Meninas". Security is controlled
by the canonry, but the canonry
has a dedicated archivist, who is yours truly. And so it is my responsibility
alone. Every day, before leaving, I left the Codex in its place. I didn't do it that day. And then they thought it was due to my carelessness, that I hadn't keept it well. I blamed myself a bit. -The Codex Calixtinus
suffers from a dreadful curse. Any one who damages
it will in turn be hurt. -The self-proclaimed author
of the work is Pope Callixtus II, who relates all the adventures
he underwent with the Codex: Shipwreck, fire, robbery... but he always ended up
with the same phrase: "But the Codex and I survived". In fact the Codex Calixtinus, like other manuscripts, contains a threat for those who would try to remove it from the Cathedral at Santiago. The kind of typical medieval
curse found in many books: "Habent sua fata libelli". Books have their own fate,
their own destiny. (Church bells ring) -When you arrive
at the Cathedral as an investigator into a crime,
it's overwhelming. The crime itself,
its seriousness, all the unknown nooks
and crannies the Cathedral hides. -The cathedral is magnificent. -So many locks,
so many passageways, the towers all
so difficult to get to. The archive is inside the atrium and you have to pass through
the sacristy to get there. The most secret and unknown places,
it wasn't easy. -And what we know about
the place is the following: there are no traces, no sign that any of the doors
were forced open, no indication as
to who was there that day. Nothing that set the investigation
in a particular direction. There was nothing at all. -When things like this happen, the less certainty there is, the more hypotheses spread. And nothing was certain at all. Only the fact it had gone. I thought:
"It has been stolen to order". The police have set up roadblocks in the search
for the Codex Calixtinus in case the thieves are planning
on taking it out of the country. The police are yet to reveal
any hypotheses, although the one gaining most
traction is a robbery to order. "It has been confirmed that more resources are being given
over to the investigation". Or maybe a terrorist theft. At that time there was
a lot of concern about islamist terrorism. Even the cathedral, at that time was a specially watched target since there were many menaces
of possible terrorist attacks. Some very strange theories
have cropped up: it has been stolen by Arabs and taken to Saudi Arabia. Our main worry was that -seeing that it was made out
of parchment- was that it had been taken out
of Galicia. Of course, there was the chance
some magnate or oligarch, call them what you will, had stolen it on a whim so that it would be for his eyes only. Like the person in Texas,
say, who has a famous painting
on his wall. -Everything was on the table. Maybe it was connected
to the glory days of famous international art thieves. Interpol was informed right
from the start so it could be put on
their data base. That meant 190 countries
more or less. The whole world, in effect. I was told that the police
were looking at all the well-known art thieves. THE ART OF STEALING ART One called Cisco,
who is known as the Usain Bolt of art theft, cos he's so fast they
never catch him. He had stolen maps and similar
from libraries all over Spain. But he was ruled out from
the start as at the time of the robbery he was on holiday
Torremolinos. Anyone with the slightest
knowledge of the market for medieval
manuscripts and how a library like the one
in the Cathedral of Santiago works, would know that
this theft was carried out by someone who knew the weak points of the cathedral archive in detail. -The room was not broken into,
nothing at all was forced open. It was very unsettling
because it pointed to negligence in the security system. Anyone could have taken it
in an unguarded moment. Anyone who had access. But you need to know how to get in. The archive is near the cloister, next to the sacristy. ARCHIVE ENTRANCE The book was held in a safe. You have to locate the mechanism, and if you look from outside, you might not find it. -Another thing would be
if a hole had been drilled there but that wasn't the case. The first thing that
the police did was to check where the security cameras were. There were some 16 cameras
permenantly on so it was possible to see all
the movements inside the cathedral. So the first thing
that needed to be done was to find the footage,
there wasn't much. -Unfortunately, at night the light from the cloister
burnt out the image, so at that hour
nothing could be clearly seen. The camera. What would I care
if the camera is there? With that spotlight turned on
the camera was rendered useless. That's when we started
to see how we could get specific ideas to find out who might have
had access. I have to stress once more that
access would have been difficult unless you had inside knowledge, so that helped us to see where
we might start looking. -We had to determine
who had had access to the archive
and to the security camera as well or to the book itself. Who had keys to these areas and who who have a motive
to steal it. (Sound of church bells) Obviously, people like ourselves,
from National Spanish Television, we couldn't talk about any kind
of unconfirmed hypothesis, but there were some co-workers
who began to wonder whether:
"it was an inside job". Like Agatha Christie's
"And Then There Were None". The police began to find
possible candidates, they eliminated them from the list as they went along,
reducing it further. At first there were
13 possible suspects who might be the thief
of the Codex Calixtinus. -They took statements
and put out feelers as they say, from all those involved
in research: they were quickly ruled out as
they all worked from facsimilies of the Codex. -The Dean, who is the priest
who leads the Canonry was also the head archivist,
the maintenance staff, father and son, who could move freely
throughout the whole building, the security staff. SECURITY STAFF
SUSPECT # 3 The cleaning staff turned out to be one person
who'd spent all their life there and had access to the area
where the Codex was kept. The cathedral organist,
Joaquín, "el teclas", who practised in the early hours. The night guard who stayed
in the empty cathedral at night. He could go where he wanted. Manolo, the electrician, who had worked for 30 years
in the building and knew the cathedral like
the back of his hand and had been fired without
any compensation. One of the first things
the investigators did was to look into the assets
of each suspect. Some had huge amounts of money
in their accounts that couldn't be explained away
by their daily work. -There were some
with bulging bank accounts. It was inexplicable that a person without
a decent income would have 300 or 400 000 euros
in their account. What can we do?
How do we proceed? No one was arrested. If the powers that be wanted
to look into it, so be it. Our objective was to find the Codex and to get it back
whatever it took. -Entering the cathedral
was like going back in time. -The canonry was what it was. -It worked along lines that
resembled the ancien regime. There was a great deal of tension, different ways of
looking at the cathedral. They seemed to spend their lives
arguing. The kind of tensions that
one can see in the Vatican, are reproduced on a smaller scale in smaller institutions in which the Church
has deep roots as in the case of Santiago. -There was a lot of back-biting,
a poisonous atmosphere. (Ecclesiastical song) -The Cathedral had... It had its secrets. Getting inside this world, getting inside, is very difficult. One started to see the quarrels
between the people who worked in the cathedral, as well as in the canonry
and the lay people there. -We had to find out about
the relationships and the general atmosphere of the Cathedral.
Two people were identified. One was the electrician. The other occupied a post
inside the Cathedral. (Bells ringing) -We requested permission
to access telephone recordings Those of the electrician and... MANOLO, ELECTRICIAN And those of the organist... JOAQUÍN, ORGANIST And the Dean too. MR JOSÉ MARÍA, DEAN We got a lot from
the organist's phone-line. -Calls to and from Switzerland
and Germany just before the robbery and afterwards as well. Calls and messages that he didn't
want to pick up. -We asked the authorities
in those countries to investigate phone
lines to see if they might have something
to do with the Codex Calixtinus
and a possible buyer. -The organist was the person
who had the greatest access and was in the Cathedral
for the longest time. I did spend many hours,
when I was not playing, inside the Cathedral archive enjoying the company
and the erudition of José María. He also found an empty house
for me, belonging to the canonry,
close to the Cathedral. Which meant I could go
and practice at any time, so I became a kind of duty organist. (Organ music) At first the organist came across
as an extremely polite person, of exquisite taste, he liked being the Cathedral
organist and it showed. Once I played nine services
in a day. Plus the fact that I practised
the organ at night, sometimes until the early hours. We saw that at night...
he took people... I suppose he wanted to show off
his position in the Cathedral. - I even indulged in a certain
irreverence while there. I was always worried about how
the organ sounded at different points in the nave. One time an American organist
was with me while I was there one night
and while he played, I rode up and down the nave
on my old clanger of a bike. In this way I could see how the piece of music
sounded at different places something I probably couldn't have
done otherwise. It was odd, because this person
had a lively nocturnal life. So, as part of the investigating
team I had to go out and enjoy
the Santiago nighlife so as to get to know his contacts,
his routines and any kind of strange
movements he might make. (Disco music) One of the nuns let it be known that he was a person
who led an odd life. I had a good relationship
with everyone until suddenly everything got
twisted around. (Ecclesiastical song) It happened when the soloist
in the Cathedral changed. Sister María Asunción was guided
by one simple rule: the accompanist
had to follow the singer. I tried to show her it was
difficult to follow her rule when 4000 Germans are singing
in perfect time and she is the only one who isn't. In the end,
the Police discovered that the nun was upset
with the organist because according to her: "When I sing, he starts to play
louder and drowns me out". The nun got the technicians
to put in a hidden device that she could operate and in this way
increase the volume, but what she didn't realize
was that when she did this with her new amplification I was obliged to increase
the volume of the organ as it was a question of balance. She wanted the organist to leave and to replace him with one who
didn't overshadow her that way. A whole bunch of...
musical questions turned into a whole lot
of personal questions. (Bells ringing) (Bells ringing) -Furthermore,
the nightwatchman told us that the organist
often went to play at night, sometimes alone,
sometimes in company. And apart from that, we discovered
that the organist had been there inside the Cathedral on the night
of the robbery. -The first interviews with
the police were perfectly okay however, things started to happen
that were quite disturbing. If I went to have lunch
with my mother there would be a guy
five metres behind the bus. Plus the fact that the police
were from Madrid and Santiago is a small city. We all know one another,
and to put it crudely they stuck out a mile. NOVEMBER 2011 Three months since the disappearance
of the Codex Calixtinus The program Reporteiros
could affirm that no progress has been made
in the police investigation. There was a lot of pressure both from the media and from
the police, as you might expect. In fact we had no idea
where the Codex was. -In January, Antonio Tenorio
came once his leave was over. -Tenorio turned up and it was obvious he wanted
to get this over with. To do it quickly and without
beating around the bush. He began to forge a
closer realtionship with the Dean. MR JOSÉ MARÍA, DEAN We began to close in more
tightly on the Dean's circle. He felt like a target,
not of the investigation, as a possible suspect, but that
his circle was being investigated. It wasn't that we were after him... Well, yes we were.
But not focusing on him alone. It is true that he was very
distant from the get go. He gave us very little information. JOSE ANTONIO VÁZQUEZ TAÍN,
INVESTIGATING JUDGE -He lied a great deal, he hid certain truths.
He tried to get the Codex back on his own. On his own.
Doing really outlandish things. There was a parallel operation
carried out by the Cathedral. They were really closed off
from us and didn't tell us all they knew as we found out in the end. If they had collaborated,
in the way that they should, it would have taken a month. Certain things the Dean did
just didn't feel right. -Such as when a man called
asking him for money. Though it seemed more like
a demand than a request, because on one occasion
when the Dean, told him he wasn't going
to send the money, the guy said: "Well,
we'll see what happens then". It felt like a threat. The Dean said later
that he was a charitable man. So we agreed to drop the subject, because I had come, or we had come, with the intention of
widening the investigation towards other questions. Shall we say,
to more personal issues within the...
church authorities themselves. ALBERTO ORDÓÑEZ.
RADIO GALEGA JOURNALIST People talked about all kind of
relationship between them, enemies, one of them
at the dean's house, whatever, other one going to a certain house, even matters of cohabitation... There were dark matters. We considered a sexual motive, we considered a motive
of power ambition, We considered
the economic motive... As I said,
any possibility was dismissed... Any absurd possibility, I mean, We started at a situation where we found
some inconsistencies, regarding some people
and some behaviors that we considered they were not justified
inside the cathedral. A new supposition is being
investigated for a month together with those
in consideration, that were reported
during that time in the media. Basically, a supposed cassock war. One of the main theories was
focuesed, since the beginning, in the alleged inside conflicts
within the Church. In a possible revenge against
the dean, Mr José maría Díaz. His appointment in 2006 made the most conservative sector
of the church umconfortable. The incumbents of the Cathedral
published a statement pointing out
they don't have any evidence with the disappearance
of the Codex. 19 September 2011.
22 canons under suspicion. They investigate if they hid
the Codex Calixtinus in the temple to sink the dean. The theft would be the latest
conspiration against the dean "They want to sink him anyway. They
spread rumors over his sexuality -There were personal
and ideological differences between them. There were different factions, some spoke about
getting rid of such and such a person...
looking to get them fired. There were comments
that I should resign. And, in fact, the incumbents stopped
supporting me. (Ecclesiastical song) -The person most deeply affected
by the theft of the Codex was treated as
if he was guilty of the crime. By his own colleagues. We were the ones who suffered
the most throughout all this. (Bells ringing) (Bells ringing) -Sources inside the Canonry
indicated that the organist was someone worth looking into. JOAQUÍN, ORGANIST We couldn't rule him out. The fact I spent so much
time in the archive, and that I had a very close
freindship with José María... I suppose it made me
the perfect candidate. José María had been my protector right
from the first moment. Several members of the Canonry had
been teachers when I was at school. And when I began to
play at the cathedral, I was subject to
personal attacks, regarding aspects of my private life with efforts to cast me
as someone wholly inadequate to be playing in a setting such
as the Cathedral of Santiago. They were judging a 40 year old for things that he had supposedly
done as a 14 year old. That was when José María
struck a blow on my behalf. -Those circumstances,
the access he enjoyed, those international calls, he was to blame, if I can put it like that, for all the fingers
pointing at him. -When you are being followed when they're listening
in to your phone calls when you have no private
life to speak of because there is someone watching
when you step onto the street... It even reached the point that
I ran headlong into one of the policemen who was
following me in a back alley. The Cathedral authorities had fomented
such a stifling atmosphere, an atmosphere of mistrust. I have
to say, I was frightened to death. -In his paranoia, he saw policemen
everywhere he knew he was under invstigation he thought, well, this investigation is directed at me. On the other hand,
there were crazy theories going around the city
that the Archbishop himself had stolen the Codex
and hidden it away so it was really difficult to hang on to
any kind of coherent theory. What is undeniable is
that I was living in a house that belonged to the Cathedral,
where there were areas to which I did not have access,
used as storage spaces, and to which various employees
of Catedral had keys. And there was a moment when
I thought that maybe I was being set up as a possible scapegoat
and they would be able to hang the theft of the Codex on me. -He went so far as
to search his own house, to lift up floorboards,
to go up to the attic, to look into the remote corners, requesting a police presence. I called the police so that
they might search my residence. -From 2:00 in the morning he called four or five times. (Ring tone) So many times that at 07:00
he was still calling. (Ring tone) I called Antonio Tenorio
and told him I suspected that there was a possibilty
that someone had placed the Codex Calixtinus in my house. They told me not to touch anything and came to carry out the search. (Doorbell) (Footsteps) They went to the place
I thought was the most likely, which is a kind
of false shelving. And they broke the wall
at the back of the shelf, where we knew there was a gap. We did in fact find a locked
suitcase in there by the way. With a cloth of blue felt. There you go, crystal clear. (POLICE RADIO) "Go ahead". (Sirens) But it wasn't there. It was...
it was a facsimile. They found one of the facsimiles
of the Codex Calixtinus the one which I normally
used in the archive for study purposes... and... it has to be said, without the Dean's permission. I kept it among the Cathedral's
sheet music in my cupboard. They aren't cheap. In a shop they'd be 3000 euros
or so. Physically they closely
resemble the real Codex. At that time
I didn't dare take the book back given that the archive
was cordoned off while the investigation went on and I was scared that I'd have
to give explanations; I'd taken the book home
provisionally. When things calmed down I'd be able
to take it back to the archive. I had no intention whatsoever
of keeping the book. I didn't lie to the police. I told them it belonged to
the Cathedral, that it wasn't mine. Of course this led to his arrest on suspicion of theft. I have to say that I slept
soundly in the cell as I hadn't slept for
five nights straight. So when I was put in the cell I went out like a light. They woke me up the following morning. When I got up
they took me to a desk where I was subjected
to a vicious interrogation. -We spoke to him for
nine hours straight. Nine hours. -Remember that they had not caught
the person who stole the Codex and the police thought
that my story was a simple smokescreen to draw attention away. That is why I was interrogated
about the theft of the Codex. In one moment,
in anger, I said: "If you want to accuse me
of taking it, accuse me". My real worry was
that they let me out of there so that I could play
in the cathedral at 12:00. I didn't want to go to court. He admitted having stolen it. But I told him... that... if he had talked to me before,
I could have said... that I had...
that he had borrowed it. Perhaps he didn't deserve it. He had a difficult childhood. He was overprotected by the Dean. I'm sorry about it all. I'm really sorry about
what happened to Joaquín. But he was to blame
up to a point. That day I got myself into a real
mess, without realizing it. -The organist was ruled out
after his arrest. JANUARY 2012 After having ruled out the organist
as the possible thief, we decided to pull the noose tighter and we took statements
from people who were close to the Dean
and to other canons. -We went to the Seminary as we wanted to speak to one
of the seminarians. We rang the bell.
We asked for the young man. We took him to the police station and had a chat with him. And during this conversation, his mobile went
three or four times. We told him not to answer,
just to see who it was. And it was... it was the Dean. I don't know why; was he suspicious because
we were speaking to the boy? He got in touch with us
in any case and said -without giving it
any importance- "I think you should come and see a room that hasn't yet
been searched". So we went over to see him. He pointed to a small door on the right of the morning chapel on the right as you entered, padlocked; he thought that it
hadn't been searched. So we went in. And what was in that room? Well, there were black bin bags
full of papers, bits and pieces, left-overs of electrical
bobbins and stuff. Things that belonged to Manolo. And during the search
we found some keys: keys that had a label which said "Arch cat". Yes, there was a set of keys
marked Cathedral Archive or "Arch cat",
with a keyring and a note. Undoubtedly, all of these things
were connected to the person who had been the electrician. MANOLO, ELECTRICIAN -Power in the Cathedral was measured by the number
of keys that you had. To have the keys to a door
in the Cathedral meant access to a particular room
and all that went on in it. -We were taken aback. Because Manolo had told us that he never had keys to the archive, or to any other place in fact. But what was clear now, an indisputable fact, was that he had had keys. He... was convinced that
keeping the key... made him control everything. -Logically, one asks:
"If there are security cameras in the Cathedral of Santiago,
why not look at them?". They would have helped find
the thief at the outset. But no. There were several problems. The first surprise is that, if the images apparently
showed the person accessing, a deeper analysis,
a reconstruction of the events, shows that one person getting closer
to that corner disappears from
the angle of the image. I mean, it seems the camera is well placed,
it is well focused, but anybody could have moved it,
or it has any positioning defect, and so, that area
was not well focused. What can we see on that camera? It recorded a group. No use at all. It shows the Dean coming and going.
No use. Then it shows Manolo... Going up one side of the cloister and entering the bathroom. He was going to the bathroom. A minute later he comes out. He continues. He goes toward the door. He's right up against the wall and there is a blind spot
that the camera doesn't catch. And he disappears. Just over minute later he appears. It was a really,
really strange movement. You have to see it. I mean, imagine a person.
Look, I'll show you. He wore a green overall, I think he wore the same overall
all year long, always walking the same way,
bent over. -Well that was one the firmest of reasons to take a closer look at him. The police had this in mind
but the timing would be crucial. The police didn't jump the gun,
they took their time. -On July 8th, 2011, a colleague said that José Manuel
Fernández Castilla was the thief. Manolo the sparks. No one
thought it was the electrician. It went from being
"Ocean's Eleven" to being more like "Police Academy". -The search of the morning
chapel was a before and after moment. So Manolo was called
in to the police station. And when he got there he began to joke around
as always. If this was all about
the quarrels among the canons; he came out with all
the usual gossip and so on. (POLICE RADIO) "Over". -We decided to let him talk, to ramble on to get comfortable. Until the moment we put the keys on the table. And from the moment Tenorio
showed him the keys, his attitude changed. He was overwhelmed. I... I'm serious, shall we say. I put pressure on him. Please understand me. In the good sense of the word. I insisted. He began to clam up
and he even got angry. And he left. He said that he was meeting
his wife for lunch. It was very early.
"No, my wife knows nothing". Things which... "She knows nothing about it". I said okay. I said: "Yes". "Go and have lunch with your wife". "On the understanding that we will carry on speaking about
this later this evening". And he didn't show up. We have no doubt that he knew he was under
investigation that he could feel us breathing
down his neck. The sensation that there was
a satelite watching him. Watching his every move. -The pressure
came from the statements made by his wife and son. They were summoned to the station. That was where they found out
that Manuel had been fired from the Cathedral. They thought that he was still
working there. JULY 2011 MILLADOIRO -I was in the kitchen on that day. Something came on the tele. The Codex Calixtinus, kept inside the archive of the
cathedral of Santiago, is missing since last Tuesday. I didn't know what
the Codex was. The Codex and so on. He was outside and I said: "Look, look, something's
missing from the Cathedral". And he comes in. He watched for a while. "What's it about?".
He says: "Nothing, the Dean'stuff". "The Dean's stuff", he said.
And he went outside again. He didn't pay much attention
even when they fired him. I didn't even know what it was.
He told me later it was a book. I didn't know if it was like
this or like that. (TV) "This priceless jewel...". "A jewel among books...". Said nothing about the Cathedral. Nothing. I didn't know what he earned,
or what his work involved. I just knew what I saw on
the televsion, but our life carried on as normal. Until the day they came to search the house. -And in relation to the case, it was the son
of Manuel Fernández Castiñeiras, who was in the worst place
at the worst time. J. SON OF MANUEL,
CATHEDRAL ELECTRICIAN We know that he had
a little office. And inside it was Manuel's
underground world. -We arrived home and he noticed
that his office was a mess it wasn't the way he had left it. Did you come here last weekend? (SON) I came to the entrance last
weekend, I took a bag... But did you come to this room? Okay, then we have to look that,
since they came there. (SON) Use a security camera, use it.
-Why? No, no. Use a camera. (SON) Shit! What's he got there? Just shit. What
the fuck are they going to look at? DIRECTION SCRIPT RTVE PLAY CONTENT DIRECTION RTVE EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION CUARZO EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION CUARZO PRODUCTION MANAGER RTVE PRODUCTION CUARZO CREATIVE MANAGER DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. EDITION EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT CONTENT ASSISTANTS CUARZO PRODUCTION MANAGER CUARZO PRODUCTION UNIT
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS. CONTROLLER. CUARZO POSTPRODUCTION
COORDINATOR CUARZO FILMING MANAGER
GRAPHISM. COLOR CORRECTION CAMERA OPERATORS
RETAKES. CAMERA ASSISTANT PHASE LIVE SOUND
SOUND POSTPRODUCTION CUARZO DOCUMENTATION
RTVE PLAY DOCUMENTATION
