The Curse of Oak Island: HIDDEN INSCRIPTION Linked to Knights Templar (Season 9)

Rick Laguino,
his nephews Peter and Alex,
and Oak Island historian Doug Krull,
Korean, yeah, good morning, welcome to
Portugal. Thank you.

Have traveled some 2,800 miles east to the city of Povo de la Yoso, Portugal.
Can I introduce you to Zhuao?
He’s a historian and he’s an expert in the Knights Templar.
Portuguese, you’re welcome to Portugal.

Upon the invitation of researcher Corey and Maul,
Rick and the team are here to investigate potential clues that Corey believes could tie the 14th-century sect of the Knights Templar, known as the Knights of Christ, to a number of discoveries that have been made over the last two years on Oak Island,
and which are believed to be of Portuguese origin.

These finds include the stone road or wharf uncovered in the triangle-shaped swamp,
a fragment of a ship’s cannon,
and two stone cannonballs, one of which was found deep in the money pit area.

To begin their investigation, they have arrived at the historic Church of Fontarcada.
Is Corey correct? He tells me that this is the first land granted to the Knights Templar in Portugal.

Yes,
it is documented that in 1126,
the mother of our first king, Lady Teresa,
donated to the Templars Fonte d’Arcada,
probably one of the oldest churches that we have in Portugal.

In 1126, during the Crusades,
members of the military order of monks known as the Knights Templar
arrived in Portugal at the invitation of King Afonso the First.
In exchange for their service in battle against Islamic wars across the Iberian Peninsula,
the king granted the order both land and great wealth that would help expand their influence across Europe and the Holy Land,
where they are believed to have later obtained priceless religious treasures.

Treasures that some researchers suggest are buried today on Oak Island.

We might be looking at what I think is,
you know, the oldest Templar commandery or place in Portugal, maybe in Europe.
Wow.

What that tells me then is whatever the earliest understandings and foundations of who the Templars were might reside within the church.
Correct?
We will not find written things,
we will find symbolism in some details of the church.
That was what they did at the time.
Cool, let’s go to church.
Let’s go to church, I’ll tell you.

Oh, wow. Why don’t we split forces?
Peter, Alex, why don’t the three of us look for symbols on this side, and we can look for symbols on that side?
Okay, yeah.
Okay, let’s see what we can find.

Every one of them has a symbol.
It’s just unbelievable how many symbols there are on a wall here, and so many different ones.
Yeah, if we are really tracking the Templars or Masonic connections to Oak Island,
we need to look at the Mason’s marks and see if they actually mean something.

It may only take one, just one clue, one strange symbol that says,
“Here, here is what you seek.”

Hey, generational,
you might be interested in this one over here.

Oh yeah, yeah, oh, that’s interesting. I can see it from here.
So this symbol is definitely on the 90-foot stone.
Actually, I have a copy of that picture right here, right there.
Yeah, look at this,
right there, it’s perfect. Yep.

A symbol found on the walls of a 12th-century Templar church,
matching one from the mysterious inscription that was reportedly carved on the legendary 90-foot stone.

You know, it’s curious. It’s even got the same slant.
I know, I know.
This is the only one of these maker’s marks we’ve seen.
This is unique right here.

Did the person who carved the 90-foot stone have a connection to the Knights Templar and Portugal?
We know that that type of symbology has the potential to tell us many things.

So the first thing to do is do a comprehensive study of the Mason’s marks.
But one of the things about the 90-foot stone we’ve always tried to evaluate is,
is there a clue to who wrote it in the symbols that were used to formulate the cipher?

Yeah, now we have another option to consider.
Yeah, maker’s marks.
But what did that mark mean to the person who carved it?

Right, we’re not certain of the characters on the 90-foot stone, but as we understand it, that symbol is on that stone.
We should check outside.
You think there’s something you should see?
Yeah, love to.

You have to take that information and think to yourself,
“Okay, is this part of a Mason’s mark, and does that make it imperative that we understand what these marks possibly are telling us?”

I’m curious your take on this, your interpretation job.
Do you feel that the H.O. stone could be Portuguese in origin?

It’s very interesting.
It could be.
Definitely European.

If we’re saying that the Portuguese were in Oak Island,
it would be something made by them.
Seeing the O symbol on the H.O. stone represented on the wall of the church,
that means something. That represented something. It’s not decorative, and I think there is a direct connection to Oak Island.

So there’s some information there, I just don’t know what it is at this point.
I believe, if I’m not mistaken, we have the identical symbol over the original entrance to the Castle of Tomar, where the Knights Templar and later the Order of Christ had their headquarters.

Yes.
Tomar is from the 1160s,
the capital of the Templar Knights in Portugal.

So if we’re looking for evidence that the Templars were connected to Oak Island,
either through symbolism or anything else, that’s where we need to go, and that’s significant because the Portuguese Age of Discovery was completely fueled and driven by the people in Tomar.

Yes.
So any journey that would have landed on Oak Island in the 16th century would have departed from Tomar.

To me, it’s pretty simple, right?
We also must take a voyage, a very short one.
We need to go to Tomar and figure out how it might affect our search.

Yep, we do.

So off we go, some 2,800 miles to the east, in the town square of Tomar, Portugal.

And welcome to the Templar city of Tomar.

So this is the town center. This is the Church of Saint John the Baptist,
who was the patron saint of the Knights Templar.
I see the sun is shining on the statue that we’ve come to see, correct?
Yes.

And guarding Paege,
he was made Knight by our first King Alphonse Rich in 1157,
after a successful military campaign in the Holy Land,
where the Templars were headquartered during the Crusades.

While Dean Pais returned to Tomar, Portugal, where he became the fourth Grand Master of the Order,
there he would make Tomar the new Templar headquarters in Portugal.

And according to some researchers,
the temporary hiding place for their priceless religious treasures.

It was 1307 when King Philip and the Pope actually brought them to their knees.
That’s the official abandonment of the Knights Templar organization, was 1307.

However, it is believed that several hundred knights escaped with their sacred treasures.
Some went to Scotland, while others fled back to Portugal and were renamed the Knights of Christ.

But to this day,
no one knows for sure what became of their priceless treasures.

The Portuguese King Denise did something very clever. He just rebranded the Templars into the Order of Christ.
So what he did, he invented a new name and a new logo.

So instead of the Templar cross that we will see on the shield of Gualdim,
he made a square cross with the flattened edges and another cross in the middle.
This is the cross that you will see, for example, on the ships that went to America,
and then over time it got a little bit longer until it ended like this today.

So on the church,
you see the elongated cross of the Order of Christ.
Wow.

So when we look at that representation that you have this one here,
yes, when I look at Nolan’s cross on Oak Island and I see this representation, the longer part of the stem,
Nolan’s cross possibly could indicate Portuguese influence.

Can we make that assessment?
Yes, if the cross you have, it’s in this shape.
So it’s kind of like a fingerprint then,
if they created Nolan’s cross, it would be in the form of the elongated cross.
Yes, put it that way.

Could Rick Laguino be correct that the megalithic cross formation of boulders that was discovered in 1981 by Fred Nolan on Oak Island
is a representation of the symbol for the Portuguese Knights of Christ?

The long-stemmed Templar cross and Nolan’s cross, they are quite similar. The stem is much longer than the arms.
There’s something to this.

An actual connection between Portugal and Oak Island.

The thing we’ve found on Oak Island is even the most subtle clue might have impact.
Right, might have import.

And that’s why we’re here, right?
Looking for clues.