Though I had explored the Valley of Ruz (Val-de-Ruz) in Switzerland several times I had never visited the village of Engollon. It was just a name and speck on the map like so many other farming villages. One day a friend mentioned that a small church in Engollon was decorated with murals, hundreds of years old. I hopped in my car and drove off with hopes on finding the small church. I wandered the Val-de-Ruz for a while with map in one hand and my steering wheel in the other.

Several false turns later I found the village if you can call it that. There is no real downtown. Except for some farm houses, barns, fields and a few fountains for watering farm animals, and two small churches there is not much to look at. The village of Engollon itself is just a small rural community.

No signs pointed to a church much less a church with murals. But then I saw a small building more the size of chapel with a steeple than a church. I pulled in behind the church, and walked to the front. A small cemetery housed former inhabitants of the village though none of the graves were very old. The front door of the church was locked. I walked to the side of the church, and found a small side door. The door was unlocked. I walked in. The church was lit only by small windows set in thick walls. It took some time for my eyes to adjust. When my eyes had become accustomed the colors of the frescos came into view - hundreds of years old they have survived these many years in fairly good condition.

Strangely, there was no caretaker and no one guarding these ancient remnants of generations past. If this unguarded unlocked church had been in Los Angeles or many other cities throughout the world, the faces on frescoes would be over painted with beards and mustaches, and graffiti would mar the remaining walls. I did not want to write about the murals or give the location of the church for fear some ignorant or artistically irreverent imbecile would choke this beautiful voice from the past. So, I did not write about the church.

In 2005 I read in a local Swiss newspaper that excavations were underway on the interior floor of the church and that skeletons had been found. I drove out to the Val-de-Ruz to have a look. The church doors were locked, but out on the church grounds stood a baptismal font, a pile of the flagstones that once made up the floor of the church, a pile of earth and a trench surrounding the the church about two feet lower than ground level. In this trench was a long bone that look to be to be human.

I returned to the church from time to time hoping to find the church open and the archaeologists digging away. One day my hope was realized. The side door was open, and just inside the doorway the 'floor' dropped away. A bright spot light shown in the room. I hung on the door post and poked my head in the door. The entire church's floor had disappeared since I had last visited, and an open pit about four feet deep replaced it. In the pit on the right side two men were working, on kneeling one laying down in the dirt. In the pit on the left another man was gently hacking the brown earth with a pick. Near the men lay two skeletons, one headless.

"Do you mind if I take photos?"

"What do you want to use them for?"

"For a travel website on Switzerland."

"Yes, you can take photos on two conditions. One, you don't come down into the pit and disturb the dig. Second, you get permission to use the photos on your website."

I agreed, of course, asked for the email address of organization to whom to ask permission, and snapped away for about half an hour. Later I emailed the Service de la Protection du Monuments et des Sites in Neuchâtel providing copies of the photos I was intending to use. In a few days I got my permission to use the photos.

Considering articles on the church and the dig appeared in newspapers I was no longer reluctant to write about it The word was out. I could not protect the church or the murals with my silence any longer.