Courtesy of Tiani Jones/Trinity Church
The stained glass wall inside Trinity Church in New York City.
- The historic Trinity Church and cemetery are located in downtown Manhattan near Wall Street.
- The church, which has been rebuilt three times since 1697, featured prominently in the 2004 film "National Treasure."
- In the movie, a historian played by Nicholas Cage discovers hidden treasure under Trinity Church.
- In reality, there's no treasure in the building, but a Trinity Church archivist says it has plenty of other fun secrets.
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In the universe of the film "National Treasure," Trinity Church's imposing dark brick and skyward spire hide secrets and treasure.
In Disney's 2004 movie, Nicholas Cage plays a historian and treasure hunter who uses a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence to track down an assortment of gold, jewels, and artifacts buried in the catacombs of Trinity Church. The treasure was, according to the film's plot, hidden there by the Free Masons - a real secret society whose membership boasted revolutionaries like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton.
The true story of Trinity Church, which is located in the heart of Manhattan's financial district, involves a lot less gold and lot more history, according to church archivist Joseph Lapinski.
Fifteen years after "National Treasure" hit theaters - the movie came out in November 2014 - queries about the church's connection to the Free Masons' treasure have finally died down, Lapinski told Business Insider. (Nearly everything depicted in the movie pertaining to Trinity Church is untrue, he said.)
"Oddly enough, I don't get too many questions about 'National Treasure' to have a queued up list anymore," Lapinski said. He has worked at Trinity since 2013.
These days, visitors are more interested in the church's role in the American Revolution, since Alexander Hamilton and his wife Ezra (made newly famous by the musical "Hamilton") owned a pew, worshipped there, and were buried in the adjacent cemetery.
Here's what "National Treasure" got wrong about Trinity Church - and the real secrets the building holds, according to Lapinski.