The Flowery Tale of the Treasures of Rennes-le-Château

Photo from Aaltopiiri

Rennes-le-Château is the closest approximation of the ‘treasure island’ that you may find in the real world. It is an abode of Christian legendary possibilities including the Holy Grail and Christ’s tomb and has remained the timeless backdrop for the works of a score of thrill and adventure writers. One of the most recent authors to use this Chateau in his literary work is none other than Dan Brown for his best seller The Da Vinci Code.

Rennes-le-Château from the air / Photo from Barefoot InTheHead

Rennes-le-Château is a small castle village situated in Aude department of Languedoc in southwestern France and pertains to the medieval period. Thanks to the illusive possibility of an alternate religious history, the Chateau is haunted by ten thousand visitors annually. However, its soothing scenic setting is the first thing to captivate you. There is much to explore in the mountainous and serrated topography surrounding the village.

Photo from Giorgio82!

Tower of Magdala / Photo from rosaluxemburgo64

The history of the Rennes-le-Château is equally varied and colorful. From being a prehistoric encampment site, the village is assumed to turn into a Roman colony and a Visigoth site in the following centuries. You may find a number of source documents backing up the Visigoth connection of the Rennes-le-Château. The monograph ‘Rhedae’ by Louis Fédié and ‘L’histoire de Rennes-le-Château’ by Narbonne are some of these.

Photo from Seracat

The Languedoc region remains a historical site for the 13^th century hostility between the Catholic Church and the Cathars. You will find several castles in the neighboring regions built for this purpose. The other most striking architectural structure of this zone is the Church of Mary Magdalene. When this ancient church was rebuilt, Father Bérenger Saunière had a major role to play in its interior designing. Apart from the statuettes inside the church, Saunière got the inscription ‘Terribilis est locus iste‘ ( ‘This Place Is Terrible’ ) overhung upon the front entrance.

‘Terribilis est locus iste’ ( ‘This Place Is Terrible’ ) / Photo from ESTRIGOIU

Saunière also financed the construction of other structures dedicated to Mary Magdalene, including a tower and a promenade adjacent to the Villa Bethanie. The massive investment that Saunière made during the construction work set tongues babbling about the source of his wealth. While some suggested he had spied for the Germans during the World War I, others construed tales about hidden treasures.

Gate to cemetery / Photo from petit.anglais

Soon the rumors were furthered by the restaurateur Noël Corbu to attract business. His strategy worked and by 2006, the Rennes-le-Château turned into a hot spot for tourists arriving by thousands to ‘dig up’ treasures. Thus, enshrouded by a mist of fantasy, the Chateau attracted the attention of pranksters like Pierre Plantard who wanted to contribute to the French history. He and his associates planted false documents in the Chateau relating to the Priory of Scion and claiming Plantard to be a royal descendent. He supported the scum by asking a friend to forge a false piece of literary evidence.

Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rennes-le-Château / Photo from skyllion

Church of Rennes-le-Château / Photo from alexmatkin

A book in Latin thus published had sensational responses by the British actor Henry Lincoln who claimed to decode certain parts of the raised alphabets. The message, accordingly, when translated into French stood for ‘This treasure belongs to King Dagobert II and to Sion, and it is death’. Hence, the fairytale behind the Rennes-le-Château mystery was illustrated in the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail , written jointly with Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent.

Asmodeus or the Devil in the Rennes-le-Château Church / Photo from alexmatkin

In spite of all these evidences, journalists refused to believe in the story about the descendents of Jesus and Mary Magdalene connected to the French royalty. This was partly because some of the co-conspirators of Plantard admitted to the fabrication and since older authentic documents failed to mention the existence of some of the structures erected by Saunière. As for Saunière, all his rumored wealth was the result of a scandalous selling of masses, which he denied during his trial on August 23rd of 1910.

“Visigothic pillar. The pillar originally held the previous altar. The cross is called the “cross of silence” (la croix du silence”). Apparently, what puzzled many people is that Father Sauniere had it put the wrong way up and he had Mission 1891 carved on it (this was the date of the end of restoration)” / Photo from Greer Gavin

Efforts had been to give Rennes-le-Château the status of an eternally unsolved mystery, placing it in the same line with Bermuda Triangle. But John Edwin Wood’s and Bill Putnam’s book The Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau: A Mystery Solved has rubbished all the claims of fabricated history. This disclaimer was supported by writer Laura Miller who aimed to strip Rennes-le-Château of all its falsely invested glory.

Read more about Mystery of Rennes-le-Château [ All about Rennes-le-Château ]

Vertical Tombstone of Marie de Nègre d’Ables / Photo from Patrick Ciebilski