August 2026 - Cathedrals

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Location

  1. After he became a cardinal, what was the friar called?
  2. I wonder if the friar left any directions in his diary?
  3. See if you can find any cardinal directions hidden in the text of the diary.
  4. Given the directions, try to follow them starting at the church with the twin bell towers.
  5. Do the paths look like any familiar codes?
  6. Use morse code in the direction of the paths to decode the message.
  7. WELL ORGANIZED

Notre Dame

  1. Some of the clues help you match up statues and pedestals.
  2. The statue with a square has the pedestal with POETS on it.
  3. Chaplin (with his characteristic bowler hat) is ABOVE.
  4. The FIEND has the outline of India on its belly.
  5. Some of the clues help you position the pedestals directly.
  6. AGREE is the very last pedestal.
  7. PARIS is the second to last pedestal (left to right).
  8. The first blind statue (with four dots) is in the third position, so the other blind statue (with three dots) must be in the sixth position.
  9. Since the first and last statues have wings and AGREE is the last pedestal, the WEIRD "flying pig" must be the first pedestal.
  10. Since the Chaplin ABOVE statue/pedestal has the SCARY pedestal to the left and a blind statue to the right, it must be in the fifth position.
  11. Since the last four pedestals are in reverse alphabetical order, the POETS statue/pedestal must be in the seventh (third from last) position.
  12. Since there are two pig-faced statues next to each other, the remaining pig-faced statue must be on the eighth PARIS pedestal.
  13. The pedestals in order should be: WEIRD FIEND ISN'T SCARY ABOVE WITHA POETS PARIS AGREE
  14. Each of the symbols on the statues represents some sort of code--can you identify them all using the code sheet?
  15. The symbols/codes used by the statues are the NATO phonetic alphabet, braille (blind statues), pigpen (pig-faced statues), hexadecimal, and (not on the code sheet) Roman numerals.
  16. Each statue clues a single letter. The letters don't make up a word, but rather the nonsense YIGNCFERF
  17. The ninth pedestal has some of the grooves filled in. Why might that be? Are there any codes on the code sheet you haven't used?
  18. Using the symbols on each statue--determine the corresponding binary encoding and use that to determine which characters of the pedestal words to use.
  19. WE DIDN'T CARVE THE SPIRE

Monreale

  1. There are ten sections and each section has an angel plus a number of different symbols. Can you figure out what the symbols are?
  2. Each of the angels has their wings in different positions. Can you figure out what they are signalling?
  3. There must be some way to determine the order of the angels. Maybe the symbols in each section are helpful?
  4. The middle right section has a Scorpion, an Iris, an X-ray--what do the initials spell?
  5. Now we can order the angels--but the semaphore spells ZPZDVHZDVI.
  6. The flavor text mentions a Caesar shift in 3 A.D.--that was in the THREE section. Can you shift the letters in the angels' message using the number of each section?
  7. ARCH ANGLES

León

  1. This almost looks like a normal crossword puzzle, but the cells are irregularly shaped.
  2. Each of the clues has the number of letters indicated, and a tiny L indicating where it should be placed in the larger window.
  3. Only one of the across clues in the upper left has 3 letters. Perhaps that goes in the last row of that section?
  4. Fill the answers into the puzzle across and down, allowing for the irregular shapes - the small triangles might fit more than one letter into a row and column.
  5. Use the shapes below the window to extract the answer.
  6. A HUGE PANE

St. Vitus

  1. The Knights of Columbo are big fans of chess. How do knights and bishops move in the game of chess?
  2. Since chess bishops only move diagonally, what color squares will the Bishop of Sydney use? Which ones can he not reach?
  3. Since the Bishop wants to avoid the attention of the Knights, eliminate all of the squares that are threatened by the Knights.
  4. Find a path through the cathedral that avoids these squares, going as far as you can before turning each time.
  5. In the bottom wing, the Knights are blocking all available white squares in the bottom two rows.
  6. Since the Bishop must stop before turning, the last square he can reach in that wing is the "K".
  7. Since he "stops every chance he can" (where Knights are not looking), which squares would the Bishop "take in"?
  8. What non-eliminated letters do you cross along the way?
  9. The path crosses the letters EACH KNIGHT DOWN TWO.
  10. NAVE-L GAZING

Meta - Winchester

  1. You only need to use part of the answers from the feeder puzzles. Does something stand out to you about these answers?
  2. Each architectural component found in the 4 feeder puzzles can be placed on one row of pews to help complete the answers to the clues"
  3. The parishioners on the side fill the remainder of the pews to complete the clue answers. Each row will have 2 clue answers when complete
  4. Top pew spells GRASP and IRELAND
  5. TAKE A SEAT

Bonus - St. Stephens

  1. Use logic to determine which paths to take. If a crypt has only two available paths, one must be in, and one must be out. Don't worry about order yet.
  2. If a crypt already has two paths in and out, then you know you won't use the other paths in/out of that crypt since we don't want to backtrack.
  3. Once you've found the order, you can determine how many lit torches you have at any given time.
  4. Index the name in each crypt according to the number of torches in the current crypt plus the number in the prior crypt (starting with one torch for the first crypt, Fabius).
  5. BECAUSE OF ALL THE COFFIN