It is uncertain if the bones belonged to the Saint, according to Heritage Daily, even though others were discovered in Bari and Venice that matched the same individual.
However, in 2024, archaeologists found a limestone coffin in the church’s two-story annexe, which they think could have belonged to Saint Nicholas.
Hatay Mustafa Kemal University Associate Professor Ebru Fatma Findik led the dig.
The professor told Turkiye Today that researchers from the “Legacy for the Future Project” who were on the scene said that.
The stone coffin was six feet deep and that they didn’t realize they were on a graveyard until they discovered animal bones and pieces of clay lamps.
Since there have been long-standing theories over the site of Santa Claus’s real grave, it is still unknown whether the coffin actually belongs to him.
