Rennes-le-Château
This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. (November 2019) |
Rennes-le-Château
Rènnas del Castèl (Occitan) | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 42°55′41″N 2°15′48″E / 42.9281°N 02.2633°E | |
Country | France |
Region | Occitania |
Department | Aude |
Arrondissement | Limoux |
Canton | La Haute-Vallée de l'Aude |
Government | |
• Mayor (2020–2026) | Alexandre Painco[1] |
Area 1 | 14.68 km2 (5.67 sq mi) |
Population (2021)[2] | 89 |
• Density | 6.1/km2 (16/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
INSEE/Postal code | 11309 /11190 |
Elevation | 272–568 m (892–1,864 ft) (avg. 435 m or 1,427 ft) |
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. |
Rennes-le-Château (French pronunciation: [ʁɛn lə ʃato] ⓘ; Occitan: Rènnas del Castèl) is a commune approximately 5 km (3 miles) south of Couiza, in the Aude department in the Occitanie region in Southern France.
This hilltop village is known internationally; it receives tens of thousands of visitors per year,[citation needed] drawn by conspiracy theories surrounding a putative buried treasure discovered by its 19th-century priest Bérenger Saunière, the precise nature of which is disputed among those[who?] who credit its existence.[3]
History
Mountains frame both ends of the region—the
Rennes-le-Château was part of Septimania in the 6th and 7th centuries. It has been suggested that it was once an important Visigothic town, with some 30,000 people living in the city around 500–600 AD. Until 1659–1745 the area was not considered French territory, being part of the Catalan Country since 988.[5][6][7] However, British archaeologist Bill Putnam and British physicist John Edwin Wood argued that while there may have been a Visigothic town on the site of the present village, it would have had "a population closer to 300 than 30,000".[8]
By 1050 the Counts of Toulouse held control over the area, building a castle in Rennes-le-Château around 1002,[9] though nothing remains above ground of this medieval structure—the present ruin is from the 17th or 18th century.[10]
Several castles in the surrounding Languedoc region were central to the battle between the
Population
Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
---|---|---|
1968 | 90 | — |
1975 | 80 | −1.67% |
1982 | 63 | −3.36% |
1990 | 88 | +4.27% |
1999 | 111 | +2.61% |
2009 | 82 | −2.98% |
2014 | 64 | −4.84% |
2020 | 91 | +6.04% |
Source: INSEE[11] |
Church of Saint Mary Magdalene
The village church dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene has been rebuilt several times. The earliest church of which there is any evidence on the site may date to the 8th century. However, this original church was almost certainly in ruins by the 10th or 11th century, when another church was built upon the site—remnants of which can be seen in Romanesque pillared arcades on the north side of the apse. This survived in poor repair until the 19th century,[12] when it was renovated by the local priest, Bérenger Saunière. Surviving receipts and existing account books belonging to Saunière reveal that the renovation of the church, including works on the presbytery and cemetery, cost 11,605 Francs over a ten-year period between 1887 and 1897.[13] With inflation that figure is equivalent to approximately 30 million Francs as of 2019, or 4.5 million Euros.
Among Saunière's external embellishments was the Latin inscription Terribilis est locus iste displayed prominently on the lintel of the main entrance; its literal and most obvious translation is "This place is terrible";[14] the rest of the dedication, over the doors' arch, reads "this is God's house, the gate of heaven, and it shall be called the royal court of God." The quotation comes from Genesis 28:17.[15]
Inside the church, one of the figures installed by Saunière was of the demon
The new figures and statues were not made especially for this church,[19] but were chosen by Saunière from a catalogue published by Giscard, sculptor and painter in Toulouse who, among other things, offered statues and sculptures for church refurbishment.[20][21]
Saunière also funded the construction of Tour Magdala, a tower-like structure originally named the Tour de L'horloge and later renamed after Saint Mary Magdalene. Saunière used it as his library. The structure includes a circular
Following Saunière's renovations and redecoratations, the church was re-dedicated in 1897 by his bishop, Monsignor Billard.[24][25]
In 1910–1911, Bérenger Saunière was summoned by the bishopric to appear before an ecclesiastical trial to face charges of trafficking in masses. He was found guilty and suspended of the priesthood. When asked to produce his account books, he refused to attend his trial.
Supporters[who?] of the hypothesis that Rennes-le-Château and its environs enshrine unsolved enigmas have suggested that Saunière's estate was set up on a large-scale checkerboard,[26] while others[who?] have suggested that Saunière produced a Mirror image of selected architectural features of his property. They[who?] also claim that Maurice Barrès's novels Roman à clef and The Sacred Hill[27] are largely based on the Rennes-le-Château story involving Bérenger Saunière (while novels by Jules Verne are cited to show that the enigma predates Abbé Saunière).[28]
Modern fame
The modern reputation of Rennes-le-Château rests mainly in claims and stories, dating from the mid-1950s, concerning the 19th-century parish priest Bérenger Saunière, leading researchers Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln to write The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which became a bestseller in 1982; their work in turn fuelled the premise of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, published in 2003, as well as other media.
The first known popular article about Saunière was written by Roger Crouquet in the Belgian magazine Le Soir illustré, published in 1948.[29] The author was visiting the Aude to meet his friend Jean Mauhin, a Belgian who had moved to Quillan to open a bell and hat factory, and at his suggestion visited Rennes-le-Château. There Crouquet collected testimonies from villagers about Saunière. One person[who?] told how the priest "preferred wine and women to practising the priesthood. At the end of the last century he had a rather original idea. He placed in foreign newspapers, especially in the United States, an advertisement announcing that the poor priest of Rennes-le-Château lived among heretics and had only the most meagre of resources. He moved the Christians of the whole world to such pity by announcing that the old church, an architectural gem, was heading for unavoidable ruin if urgent restoration work was not undertaken as soon as possible."[citation needed] Crouquet added: "The stoup which decorates the entrance to the chapel is carried by a horned devil with cloven hooves. An old woman remarked to us: 'It's the old priest, changed into a devil'."
Crouquet's article faded into obscurity and it was left to Noël Corbu, a local man who had opened a restaurant in Saunière's former estate (called L'Hotel de la Tour) in the mid-1950s, to turn the village into a household name. Corbu began circulating stories that, while renovating his church in 1892, Saunière had discovered "parchments" connected with the treasure of Blanche of Castile, and which "according to the archives" consisted of 28,500,000 gold pieces, said to be the treasure of the French crown assembled by Blanche to pay the ransom of Louis IX (a prisoner of the infidels), whose surplus she had hidden at Rennes-le-Château. Having found only part of it, Saunière continued his investigations beneath the church and in other parts of his domain.[30]
Corbu, followed by
Corbu's story was published in the book by Robert Charroux Trésors du monde in 1962,
Corbu's story inspired author Robert Charroux to develop an active interest, and in 1958, he, along with his wife Yvette and other members of The Treasure Seekers' Club which he founded in 1951, scoured the village and its church for treasure with a metal detector.[36]
In 1969,
The bloodline hypotheses of Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh, and their connection with Rennes-le-Château, have been picked up in various media, including by Jane Jensen in the 1999 adventure game Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, set in Rennes-le-Château and surrounds, and later in 2003 by Dan Brown in his bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code. While Brown's novel never specifically mentions Rennes-le-Château, he gave some its key characters related names, such as 'Saunière' and 'Leigh Teabing' (anagrammatically derived from 'Leigh' and 'Baigent'). The latter two authors brought (and lost) a plagiarism suit against Brown in 2006. The extraordinary popularity of The Da Vinci Code has reignited the interest of tourists, who visit Rennes-le-Château to view the sites associated with Saunière.[citation needed]
Excavations
The sudden interest in Saunière's church generated by the stories circulated by Noël Corbu in the 1950s inspired two excavations of the church of St Mary Magdalene. The first, in May 1956, was conducted by Dr André Malacan who, after excavating the subsoil of the church at a depth of approximately one metre, discovered bones that included a skull bearing an incision, but failed to unearth anything else of interest.[38] Dr Malacan died in 1997, and the skull remained in the possession of his family until May 2014, when it was finally handed back to the village following several years of legal wrangling[39](carbon-dating of the skull has dated it to between 1281 and 1396).[40] Between 1959 and 1963, Jacques Cholet, a Parisian engineer, conducted several digs in the church, failing to discover anything noteworthy.[41]
In November 1956, Monsieur Cotte of the Société des arts et des sciences de Carcassonne asked the membership during its monthly session about the treasure of Rennes-le-Château, which led to an investigation of the subject. Two members[who?] conducted on-the-spot research in March 1957 that lasted one year. Local historian René Descadeillas commented: "They found no evidence anywhere to support the assertion that, down the ages, any individual, family, group or clan could have accumulated a precious treasure-hoard at Rennes and then concealed it in the locality or its environs. What is more, the activities of the Abbé Saunière were undoubtedly eloquent of the sort of stratagems that he was accustomed to using in order to enrich himself."[42]
In more recent times, following up claims by a Canadian[who?] purporting to be related to one of the foremen[who?] who supervised Saunière's works, a much-publicised[where?] 2003 excavation of the floor of the Tour Magdala by the Mayor of the village failed to exhume any anticipated treasure.[43] A simultaneous request to excavate the church met with refusal from the Directions Régionales des Affaires Culturelles (or DRAC), the archaeological body of France.
Fables, stories and conspiracy theories
In the 1950s and 1960s, the entire area around Rennes-le-Château became the focus of sensational claims involving
Christiane Amiel has commented:
No new theory has ever succeeded in entirely replacing any of the previous ones and, as the researches have intensified, so the various lines of investigation have accumulated and crossed in a system of ramifications in which criticism of one line of approach simply gives rise to others[50]
and
Today the vogue is for analyzing and checking the most minute details, for comparing and contrasting rival theories, for reviving old and unexplored lines of enquiry in a new guise, and for an unbridled pluralism which mixes together erudition and extrapolation, and makes recourse to geology, history, prehistory, esotericism, religious history, mysticism, the paranormal, ufology and other fields.[50]
Rennes-le-Château conspiracy theories continue to be a popular ingredient in a publishing industry that is growing exponentially, and are the subject of press articles, radio and television programs, and films. Websites[51] and blogs devoted to the acknowledged historical mysteries present at Rennes-le-Château and environs exist in many different countries; authors' interviews can be accessed on podcasts.[citation needed]
Criticism
Archaeologist
Laura Miller, contributor to The New York Times books section, commented how Rennes-le-Château "had become the French equivalent of Roswell or Loch Ness as a result of popular books by Gérard de Sède."[54]
Christiane Amiel commented in 2008 that the treasure of Rennes-le-Château "seems to elude all the investigations that people make into it. Like the fairy gold which, in the popular fables, turns into manure as soon as a human being touches it, it remains impalpable. It can only exist as long as it remains on the distinctive level of the dream, between the real and the imaginary."[55]
See also
- Noël Corbu
- Émile Hoffet
- County of Razès
- Beale ciphers, for a somewhat similar lost treasure story in Virginia
- Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, 1999 computer game which takes place in the town
- Revelation (2001 film)
- Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra
References
- ^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
- ^ "Populations légales 2021". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
- ISBN 978-2-7351-1210-4
- ISBN 0-7509-4216-9.
- ISBN 9781902636870. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
- ISBN 9781448183425. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
- ^ "Rennes-le-Château visit, photos, travel info and hotels, by Provence Beyond". beyond.fr. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
- ISBN 0-7509-4216-9.
- ^ Abbé Sabarthès, Dictionnaire topographique du Département de l'Aude, comprenant les noms de lieux anciens et modernes (1912).
- ISBN 0-7509-4216-9
- ^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE
- ^ An architectural report of 1845 reporting that it required extensive repairs.
- ^ Jacques Rivière, Le Fabuleux trésor de Rennes-le-Château, page 130 (Editions Belisane, 1983).
- ^ The Oxford Latin Dictionary (1990)
- ^ http://www.ballyroanparish.ie/parish-information/parish-history Ballyroan Parish History, reference to the Entrance Antiphon from the Common of a Dedication of a Church
- ^ Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (Harcourt, 1983)
- ^ Midi Libre, 23 April 1996.
- ^ Lawrence OP (1 September 2013), Frustrating the Devil!, retrieved 9 July 2022
- ISBN 0-7509-4216-9
- ^ Marie de Saint-Gély, Bérenger Saunière, prêtre Rennes-le-Château 1885–1917 (Bélisane, 1989; 2005), p. XLII, XLIV and XLV, which has reproduced pages from the Giscard catalogue.
- ^ "Downloadable Giscard & Co catalogue from 1914" (PDF). rennes-le-chateau-archive.com. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
- ^ Jacques Rivière, Le Fabuleux trésor de Rennes-le-Château, Editions Belisane (1983)
- ^ Jacques Rivière, Le Fabuleux trésor de Rennes-le-Château, page 175 (Editions Belisane, 1983).
- ^ Jacques Rivière, Le Fabuleux trésor de Rennes-le-Château, Editions Belisane (1983)
- ISBN 2-910730-12-3), p. 14; 45–46.
- ^ Alain Féral, editor, Rennes-le-Château: Clef du Royaume des Morts, Éditions Bélisane, 1997.
- ^ Gérard de Sède, L'Or de Rennes, page 57 (René Julliard, 1967).
- ISBN 9781594771613. Translation from the French first published 1984.
- ^ Roger Crouquet, Visite a une ville morte: Rennes-le-Château, autrefois Capitale du Comte de Razès, Aujourd'hui bourgade abandonne ("Visit to a dead village: Rennes-le-Château, former capital of the county of Razès, now an abandoned village"), in Le Soir illustré, pages 16-22 (number 819; March, 1948).
- ^ Albert Salamon, D'un coup de pioche dans un pilier du maître-autel, l'abbé Saunière met à jour le trésor de Blanche de Castille ("With one blow of the pick-axe in a pillar of the main altar Abbé Saunière uncovered the treasure of Blanche de Castile"), in La Dépêche du Midi dated 12, 13, 14 January 1956.
- ISBN 2-9506938-0-6
- ^ ISBN 0-7509-4216-9
- ^ Jean Fourié, Rennes-le-Château: L’Histoire de Rennes-le-Château antérieure à 1789, Notes Historiques, Editions Jean Bardou, Esperaza, 1984.
- ^ Robert Charroux, Trésors du monde: enterrés, emmurés, engloutis (Paris: Fayard, 1962).
- ^ Gérard de Sède, L'Or de Rennes, ou La Vie insolite de Bérenger Saunière, curé de Rennes-le-Château (René Julliard, 1967).
- ^ Robert Charroux described his activities in Rennes-le-Château in his 1962 book Trésors du Monde enterrées, emmurés, engloutis (Fayard), that was published in English in 1966.
- ISBN 0440036623.
- ^ Descadeillas, Mythologie du Trésor de Rennes, 1974.
- ^ L'Indépendant, 31 May 2010; La Dépêche du Midi, 19 May 2010; 4 June 2010; 30 June 2014.
- ^ La Dépêche du Midi, 6 July 2015
- ^ Atelier Empreinte 1997-2005. "Rennes-le-Château, The Cholet Report (a translation of his Report dated 25 April 1967)". renneslechateau.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ René Descadeillas, Mythologie du Trésor de Rennes, pages 57-58 (Éditions Collot, 1991 reprint of the 1974 edition).
- ^ "La Dépêche 21 August 2003". ladepeche.fr. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-00-726694-4.
- ISBN 0-7126-7533-7.
- ISBN 0-316-04275-7.
- ISBN 0-283-06341-6.
- ISBN 2-228-85020-9.
- ISBN 2-85707-463-8
- ^ ISBN 978-2-7351-1210-4.
- ^ "Home". sauniere-society.org.
- ^ Kennard, Garry (2007). "Bahn, Dr. Paul". Art and Mind. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012.
- ^ Paul G Bahn, "The ruins of a mystery" (Times Literary Supplement, 29 March 1991).
- ^ Miller, Laura (22 February 2004). "THE LAST WORD; The Da Vinci Con". The New York Times.
- ISBN 978-2-7351-1210-4.
Further reading
- Christiane Amiel, "L’abîme au trésor, ou l’or fantôme de Rennes-le-Château" in, Claudie Voisenat (editor), Imaginaires archéologiques, pages 61–86 (Ethnologie de la France, Number 22, Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2008). ISBN 978-2-7351-1210-4.
- Richard Andrews & Paul Schellenberger, The Tomb of God, Little, Brown & Co., Boston. ISBN 0-316-04275-7.
- Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (Jonathan Cape, 1982, ISBN 978-0-224-01735-0, reprinted 1996, 2005, 2006).
- Jean-Jacques Bedu, Rennes-Le-Château: Autopsie d'un mythe (Portet-sur-Garonne: Ed. Loubatières, 1990). ISBN 2-86266-372-7
- Claude Boumendil, Gilbert Tappa (editors), Les Cahiers de Rennes-le-Château, Archives – Documents – Études, Number 11 (Éditions Bélisane, 1996). ISBN 2-910730-12-3. [1]
- René Descadeillas, Mythologie du trésor de Rennes: histoire véritable de l'abbé Saunière, curé de Rennes-le-Château (Mémoires de la Société des Arts et des Sciences de Carcassonne, Annees 1971–1972, 4me série, Tome VII, 2me partie; 1974). Reprinted by Savary, Carcassonne in 1988, then by Editions Collot, Carcassonne, in 1991.
- Christian Doumergue, L'Affaire de Rennes-le-Château, 2 volumes (Marseille: Ed. Arqa, 2006). ISBN 2-7551-0014-1(volume 2).
- Jean Fourié, L'Histoire de Rennes-le-Château, antérieure à 1789 (Esperaza: Éditions Jean Bardoux, 1984).
- Abbé Bruno de Monts, Bérenger Sauniére curé à Rennes-le-Château 1885–1909, Editions Belisane (Collection les amis de Bérenger Sauniére, 1989, 2000). ISBN 2-902296-85-1
- Bill Putnam, John Edwin Wood. The Treasure of Rennes-le-Château: A Mystery Solved (Sutton Publishing Limited, 2003) ISBN 0-7509-4216-9.
- Jacques Rivière, Le Fabuleux trésor de Rennes-le-Château, Editions Belisane (1983). ISBN 2-902296-42-8.
- ISBN 2-85-707082-9
- David Rossoni, L'histoire rêvée de Rennes-le-Château: Eclairages sur un récit collectif contemporain (Books on Demand Editions, 2010). ISBN 2-8106-1152-1.
- Gérard de Sède, L'or de Rennes ou la Vie insolite de Bérenger Saunière, curé de Rennes-le-Château, Paris: Julliard, 1967. Reprinted in paperback with the collaboration of Sophie de Sède entitled Le Trésor maudit de Rennes-le-Château, J'ai Lu (L'Aventure mystérieuse series), 1968.
External links
- Village's official website
- Par ce geste le Prieuré de Sion embrasse Rennes-le-Château (2017), on LaDepeche.fr
- Photos of Rennes-Le-Château
- The Secret of the Priory of Sion, CBS News '60 Minutes' (CBS Worldwide Inc.), 30 April 2006, presented by CBS correspondent Ed Bradley, produced by Jeanne Langley