Rennes-le-Château is a medieval
castle village and a commune in the Aude département,
in the Languedoc area in southern France, an area known for
its towering mountains, deep gorges, forests, caves, wild
remote plateaus and access to the Mediterranean.
History of the Village
This predominantly rural area has a very rich history, as
evidenced by its castles, cathedrals, vineyards and museums.
Mountains frame both ends of the region - the Cevennes to
the northeast and the Pyrenees to the south. Jagged ridges,
deep river canyons and rocky limestone plateaus, with vast
caves beneath, make it one of the most scenic spots on
earth.
Over the centuries religious and political conflicts have
caused much havoc in the area. The ruined castles which
cling precariously to hilltops played a leading role in the
struggles between the Catholic church and the Cathars at the
beginning of the 13th century. Others guarded the volatile
border with Spain. Whole communities were wiped out during
the campaigns of the Catholic authorities to rid the area of
the Cathar heretics during the Albigensian Crusades and
later, when Protestants fought for religious freedom against
the French monarchy.
Modern fame
The modern reputation of Rennes-le-Château rises from
rumours dating from the mid-1950s and not from the lifetime
of a local nineteenth century priest Bérenger Saunière, who
was alleged to have mysteriously acquired and spent large
sums of money (despite the existence of much evidence
proving the contrary). Published by French Editions Belisane
from the early 1980s onwards, the evidence ranged from the
archives in the possession of Antoine Captier, which
includes Saunière's correspondence and notebooks, and the
minutes of the ecumenical Trial between Saunière and his
bishop between 1910-1911 which are located in the
Carcassonne Bishopric. All of the evidence demonstrates that
Saunière's source of wealth lay in the trafficking of
masses: this is not "opinion", but historical fact,
emphasised by French authors like Rene Descadeillas and
Jean-Jacques Bedu. He was even said to have visited several
heads of state, though there is no evidence for this
whatsoever. These rumours were given wide local circulation
in the 1950s by Noel Corbu, a local man who had opened a
restaurant in Saunière's former estate who probably hoped to
attract business. They moved from local to national
importance when they were incorporated by Pierre Plantard
into his mythology of the Priory of Sion, which influenced
the authors of the popular 1982 book Holy Blood, Holy
Grail.
From this point on Rennes-le-Château became the centre of
conspiracy theories claiming that Saunière uncovered hidden
treasure and/or secrets about the history of the Church that
threatened the foundations of Catholicism. Since the
mid-1950s, the area has become the focus of increasingly
sensational claims involving the Knights Templar, the Priory
of Sion, the Rex Deus, the Holy Grail, the treasures of the
Temple of Solomon, the Ark of the Covenant, ley lines,
geometric alignments, and others. Elements of these ideas
were later incorporated into Umberto Eco's 1989 novel
Foucault's Pendulum, Michael Baigent's, Henry Lincoln's
and Richard Leigh's bestselling The Holy Blood and the
Holy Grail, Dan Brown's bestselling 2003 novel The Da
Vinci Code (which borrows heavily from the Holy Blood,
Holy Grail above), and the computer game Gabriel Knight III.
The village now attracts visitors who look for hidden
treasures and evidence of conspiracy, much to the
displeasure of the locals.
Sceptical views
Almost all historians reject these conspiracies as
nothing more than fantasy.
According to writers such as Paul
Smith, Monsignor George Boyer in 1967
(Vicar General of the parish of Carcassonne), Rene Descadeillas, Jacques Rivière, Jean-Luc Chaumeil,
Jean-Jacques Bedu, Vincianne Denis, Bill Putnam, John Edwin
Wood, and Marie Francine Etchegoin - the stories of
Saunière's "mysteries" were based on nothing more than a
minor scandal involving the sale of masses, which eventually
led to the disgrace of both Saunière and his bishop. His
'wealth' was short-lived and he died relatively poor. Other
aspects of the Rennes-le-Château legend derive from
forgeries created on behalf of Plantard.
From
Wikipedia, the free encylopedia
