Rennes
le Château
by
TempleofMysteries.com
Copyright 2012 TempleofMysteries.com
Smashwords Edition
The
Mystery
The
Setting
Saunière's
Find
Inside
Saunière's Church
Saunière's
Story
The
Parchments
The
Stones
History
of a Mystery
The
Dossiers Secrets
The
Powers That Be
The
Kaleidoscope Quest
The
Locality
A
Secret Brotherhood
The
Dark Web
The
Solution?
The
London Connection
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THE PRIEST, THE DEMON AND A MOST CURIOUS FRENCH VILLAGE
It is the hiding place of the Holy Grail, or a great secret that will rock the Church. It is a place of hidden treasure and dark knowledge. It is the place where Jesus is buried... These are just some of the many theories now current about the village where a Victorian priest became strangely - and massively - rich, and where he left clues to a great mystery in the very fabric of his church. What is the truth about Father Sauniere and the now-famous village of Rennes-le-Château?
THE SAUNIERE STORY
François Bérenger Saunière - he preferred to use his middle name - was born in 1852 in the village of Montazels, just 3 miles (5km) as the crow flies from the place with which the priest is now synonymous: the remote hilltop village of Rennes-le-Château, in the Languedoc area of south-west France.
Sauniere was the eldest of seven children - one of his brothers, Alfred, also became a priest. His father was the estate manager for the Marquis de Cazemajou, who was related to the former lords of Rennes-le-Château, the Hautpoul family.
In that impoverished region of France, there were only two ways for a young man of intelligence to make a living - clerical work, such as becoming a notary or an official in the local prefecture, or the priesthood. As Saunière preferred the outdoor life - walking, hunting and fishing - becoming a priest offered more opportunity than office work.
Although strong and very physical, he was also intelligent and well-read. In addition to the Latin that all priests learn, he also knew ancient Greek and, since he later subscribed to a German newspaper, presumably he spoke that language too. Later he assembled an eclectic collection of books that he housed in his curious custom-built library, the Tour Magdala (Magdala Tower).
Saunière was ordained a Catholic priest in 1879 and then was for three years parish priest of the small mountain village of Le Clat. (Perhaps significantly, his predecessor as priest of Rennes-le-Château a hundred years earlier, Abbé Antoine Bigou - who appears to have played his own part in this drama - was also its priest.) But on 1 June 1885 Saunière took up his new post in the parish of Rennes-le-Château, by his day only a small and insignificant village, although one with a long and chequered history. In the foothills of the Pyrennees, Rennes-le-Château is in the Languedoc, a region with a colourful and turbulent past, many chapters of which may have a bearing on the discoveries that changed Saunière's life.
A TROUBLED START
Home to a mere 300 villagers - now just 100 - Saunière found himself master of the ancient and run-down church of St Mary Magdalene and a presbytery so derelict as to be virtually uninhabitable. He took up lodgings instead with the Dénarnaud family. Their young daughter, 18-year-old Marie, was to give up her job in a nearby hatmakers to become his housekeeper - and perhaps the sole confidante of his secret.
St Mary Magdalene's church was originally the private chapel of the lords of Rennes-le-Château, whose castle, which gives the village its name, stands nearby. The last noble family to inhabit it were the Hautpouls, the last of whom, Marie de Nègre d'Ables, Dame d'Hautpoul-Blanchefort, died on 17 January 1781, a few years before the French Revolution, and during the tenure of Abbé Bigou.
Within a few months of arriving in Rennes-le-Château, Saunière was in trouble.
The burning political issue in France at that time was whether it should continue as a republic or return to a monarchy. The monarchists were pro-Catholic and supported the Church, whereas the Republicans wanted the separation of Church and state - in which they were successful in 1905.
The elections of October 1885 saw this inflame the public as the major issue. In one of his sermons, Saunière delivered a stridently anti-Republican speech, urging his flock to vote against it, declaring 'all our forces must be employed against our adversaries.' For this, the local authorities wanted him dismissed, but the Bishop of Carcassone compromised by sending him to a seminary at Narbonne for some months.
Back in his parish, Saunière received a gift of 3000 francs from Marie-Thérèse, the Countess of Chambord, the widow of the main claimant to the French throne, presumably for supporting her husband's cause. He used this to undertake some renovations in his old and decrepit church, installing a new altar and replacing some of the stained glass windows.
What exactly happened next has been the subject of debate ever since. What is clear is that, at some point in the following years, something happened that made him an immensely wealthy man. It is generally assumed that he found something, either a horde of treasure or a secret of great value. But exactly what he found - and when - is the core of the mystery.
DEEPER INTO DARKNESS
Whatever Saunière found or discovered, it changed his life and created a mystery that has become one of the most famous in the world. Over the years many claims - some based on fact, others on rumour and sometimes blatant fabrication - have been made about the subsequent events of Saunière's life.
According to the most widely-known version of the Saunière story - thanks mainly to the success of the 1982 bestseller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln - what he actually found was not gold or jewels, but parchments containing coded messages.
According to this version, he took the documents to show to his bishop, Félix-Arsène Billard, at Carcassone, only to be despatched to Paris to consult an expert in codes, Émile Hoffet. This is where the story begins to take on a dark and even occult character.
It is said that while in Paris Saunière made contacts in the burgeoning occult scene, particularly with the world-renowned opera singer Emma Calvé, who was also deeply interested in the occult. They are even supposed to have become lovers. The whole Paris episode is, however, very controversial. If it happened at all, it is uncertain when - although 1891 is the date most researchers favour.
It was in that year that Saunière's inexplicable expenditure started. Although his salary was just 900 francs a year, his accounts show that in some months he spent as much as 160,000 francs - a huge sum. The work he undertook in the church, and the building of his lavish domaine cost in the region of 200,000 francs. His surviving - but incomplete - papers and accounts record expenses of around 660,000 francs. Between 1897 and 1899, his monthly outgoings averaged almost 47,000 francs.
Although changes in and revaluation of the French currency, as well as inflation, make it difficult to give an exact modern equivalent, his total known expenditure equates, conservatively, to around 25 million francs, or about £2.5 million.
Saunière was not afraid of splashing money around: his housekeeper Marie Dénarnaud dressed in the latest Paris fashions - for which the villagers nicknamed her 'the Madonna' - while they also spent immense sums on entertaining, eating the best and quaffing large amounts of the finest wines.
He and Marie got up to some very strange activities in the village. In 1895, the villagers complained to the prefecture about their nocturnal activities in the graveyard, saying that they were digging and disturbing the graves - but why, no one knew. Saunière seems to have shown a particular interest in the grave of the Dame d'Hautpoul-Blanchefort, Marie de Nègre d'Ables. Her gravestone, which bore a curious inscription, is one of many enigmatic monuments and stones that are connected with the mystery.
INSIDE SAUNIÈRE'S DOMAIN
The legacy left by Saunière - which fuels a tourist attraction that brings some 25,000 visitors a year and from which has risen a veritable publishing industry in France - are the strange statues and images with which he decorated his church. Superficially the decor may seem like that of any Catholic church of its time and place, but a closer look reveals strangely disturbing - and perhaps even unChristian - imagery that can unsettle the soul, including a hideous grimacing plaster demon crouched just inside the door, and had the words 'This Is A Terrible Place' inscribed over the porch.
And Saunière's plans did not end there: he had an ambitious vision of how he would transform the village, making it a suitable setting for his increasingly lavish lifestyle as virtually lord of the manor.
Saunière bought up land in the village - although everything was put in Marie Dénarnaud's name - and then, in the early 1900s, built himself an extravagant and ostentatious domaine, the centrepiece of which was a grand house, the Villa Bethania (Bethany Villa). Saunière claimed that this was intended as a home for retired priests, although it was never used for such a purpose. Strangely, he chose not to live in it, preferring instead the run-down presbytery that he shared with Marie, although he did use the Villa for their lavish entertaining. His visitors included local notables and others from further afield, some say as far as Paris.
Saunière also had an ornate garden laid out, and built ramparts along the edge of the village, at one end of which is his most enigmatic creation, the Tour Magdala (Magdala Tower), in which he housed his library and which he used as his study.
It is significant that he named both the buildings after places connected with Mary Magdalene - the Tour Magdala and the Villa Bethania, or Bethany (the home of Mary Magdalene, her sister Martha and brother Lazarus, according to the New Testament). Saunière seemed to be obsessed with the Magdalene, the woman believed by Christians to have been a prostitute who was converted by Jesus.
UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS
But not long after his domaine was completed Sauniere's fortunes began to change - apparently as the result of the death of his bishop, Monseigneur Billard, in December 1901. Billard had turned a blind eye to the activities of his subordinate, and perhaps had even acted as Saunière's protector. However, his successor, Paul-Félix de Beauséjour, soon began to ask questions about the source of Saunière's mysterious wealth.
Saunière's impertinent and arrogant attitude to the bishop's questions - effectively telling de Beauséjour that it was none of his business - did not endear him to his superior, who obviously suspected that something underhand or even criminal was behind it all.
In 1909, Saunière was officially removed from his post and ordered to another parish, being replaced by Abbé Henri Marty. Astonishingly, Saunière refused to go, remaining in the Villa Bethania and even creating a small altar in order to celebrate mass for the villagers, who ignored Marty and the church. (The villagers' attitude to him seems to have changed since he came into money.)
He wrote to the bishop:
Monseigneur, I have read your letter with the most extreme respect and I have taken note of the intentions that you would impart to me. But if our religion commands us to consider above all our spiritual interests, and if these are assuredly of the highest, they do not order us to neglect our material interests, which are of this world. And mine are in Rennes and not elsewhere. I declare to you, no, Monseigneur, I will never leave.
In 1910 he was tried by the diocese of Carcassone, who eventually pronounced him suspens a divinis for life for 'revolt against the religious authority' and 'insubordination towards his superiors'. This meant that he was unable to administer the sacraments, a ruling that was only lifted at the moment of his death six years later. (Even then, he was not described as a priest in his obituary in the diocese newspaper.)
Saunière refused to give a detailed account of where he had got the money, producing only a short list of his expenditure on the church and his domaine which totalled 193,000 francs - a huge sum, well over £700,000 in modern terms, but plainly nowhere near the full amount.
Saunière suffered a severe heart attack on the terrace of his domaine in January 1917 - it is said on the significant date of 17 January, although this may be later romanticisation. After lingering for a few days, he died on 22 January. His last confession was heard by a priest from nearby Espéraza, and although what he said isn't known, the confessor was reported to have been shocked for the rest of his life.
Saunière was buried in the graveyard of Rennes-le-Château.
AFTER SAUNIÈRE, THE MYSTERY ONLY DEEPENS
After Saunière's death, Marie Dénarnaud continued to live in the domaine, although she had difficulty in maintaining it. The source of income had dried up with the death of the priest, although Saunière left everything to her in his will.
When Nazi officers were billetted in the Villa Bethania during the Second World War, Marie Dénarnaud is reported to have been appalled at their arrogant manners, particularly the way they wiped their boots on the curtains! What these Nazi officers were doing there is unknown - why would they have been posted to such an out-of-the-way place? There are rumours that the Nazis were looking for something in or near Rennes-le-Château, exploring caves and excavating in the region, but there is no hard evidence for this.
It is said that, in the aftermath of the war, when a new currency was issued in France, Marie was seen burning stacks of now-useless banknotes. Others say that she was burning documents.
For many years, Marie resisted all attempts to buy the domaine. Significantly, there is evidence that the Church was trying to gain possession of it.
Finally, in on 22 July 1946 (perhaps coincidentally the feast day of Mary Magdalene) she struck a deal with a businessman named Noël Corbu, selling him the villa and domaine in return for his keeping her for the remainder of her life. Corbu had apparently first visited Rennes-le-Château during the war, and over many visits had gradually befriended Marie and gained her trust. There is a suggestion that Corbu may have been acting as an agent for the Church.
A businessman with interests in Morocco, Corbu was deeply interested in archaeology, science - he corresponded with Marie Curie - and esoteric matters, particularly hypnotism and spiritualism. He claimed in 1957 of an apparently out-of-the-body experience:
I have achieved the splitting of the personality. It is a curious experience: I have voyaged in space, nonchalantly contemplating, stretched out on a bed, my carnal envelope.
Corbu was also a writer of detective novels and a musician, having been a pupil of the organist Marcel Dupré, and a great jazz afficionado.
Marie lived with the Corbus for the remaining seven years of her life. Noël Corbu's daughter Claire (who married Antoine Captier, the great-grandson of Saunière's bell ringer) recalled that Marie would visit Saunière's grave every day and night. His former housekeeper said nothing definite about the priest's wealth, but did drop the occasional hint, often implying that he had left something behind, saying, 'With what Monsieur the curé has left, one could feed all of Rennes for a hundred years and it would still remain.' She did, however, add, 'I cannot touch it'.
According to Corbu, Marie promised him: 'When I die, you will be rich... immensely rich, richer than you can even imagine.'
Was she simply spinning a line to make sure that Corbu continued to look after her as she wished, or did she really know Saunière's great secret?
However, in her final months Marie suffered a stroke that rendered her unable to speak. She died in January 1953, and was buried in a grave next to Saunière.
Originally the Villa Bethania was the home of Corbu and his family. When his business (a sugar refinery) in North Africa failed in the mid-1950s he converted the villa into a hotel-restaurant. He used to entertain his guests with the tale of Saunière, eventually taping a short account of the affair. This has led sceptics to suggest that Corbu effectively invented - or at least exaggerated - the whole story in order to attract guests to this otherwise out-of-the-way restaurant.
MYTH IN THE MAKING
Since the first newspaper accounts of the priest's story appeared in the regional press in the mid-1950s, the whole thing has grown and grown to become an internationally famous mystery that attracts visitors from around the world.
Of the many books on the subject, none was more influential at an international level than the massive 1980s bestseller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by British authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. They claim to have come across documents, known as the Dossiers secrets that revealed the existence of a secret society called the Priory of Sion, which, it was claimed, had been somehow involved in the Saunière mystery and was alleged to exist to protect the sacred bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene....
However, as the mystery has taken on imaginations all over the world, many other theories, from the mundane to the wondrous, have been put forward to explain Saunière's unaccountable wealth and the secret that he discovered.
It may even be that the village of Rennes-le-Château itself is almost a red herring, for other places in the surrounding area also have their own mysterious and strange stories to tell. And recent research has revealed that other local priests - including Saunière's own brother - were involved in similar strange machinations. Indeed, evidence has emerged to link Saunière himself with certain influential secret societies that still exist today.
What was the secret of Rennes-le- Château?
AT LAST - THE ANSWER?
In the absence of solid evidence, for decades the answer to the Saunière mystery has lain in the realms of speculation and theory. Researchers have unearthed fragments of information, which have been painstakingly pieced together, but none have given a conclusive answer. However, all that may be about to change…
In 2001, it was revealed that Bérenger Saunière had buried something - a chest or box - beneath the foundations of the Tour Magdala. In April, a team of specialists, funded by an American foundation and led by Dr Robert Eisenman, one of the world's leading authorities on the origins of Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls, used ground-scanning equipment to confirm that something does indeed lay beneath the tower.
An international project has been set up to excavate beneath Saunière's tower. Does the chest contain the solution to the mystery - or will it only lead to further questions?
THE LONDON CONNECTION
The Priory of Sion brings claims that the Rennes-le-Château mystery is connected to world-shaking secrets and a centuries-old conspiracy, one that is still very much alive in the modern world. It involves high-level political intrigue - with figures as highly-placed as French President François Mitterand (who visited Rennes-le- Château in 1981) - and the shadowy world of the intelligence agencies.
While all eyes are on the mysterious village itself, the area around Rennes-le-Château has a chequered and ancient history that should not be ignored - and may even provide exciting clues to the Saunière story.
The tiny hilltop village of Rennes-le-Château lies in the foothills of the Pyrenees, which form the border between France and Spain. It lies within the region known as the Languedoc, after the language formerly spoken there - the Language of Oc or Occitan. It is in the départment (administrative region) of the Aude, named after the main river than flows through the area - Rennes-le-Château overlooks the valley of the Aude. The village lies between the historic walled city of Carcassone to the north and Perpignan to the south. The nearest town is Limoux, famous for its blanquette or sparkling wine. The surrounding area is also known as the Corbières. The rural area of the Aude is among the poorest in France.
After the break-up of the Roman Empire, this part of Gaul was settled by the Visigoths, who migrated into France from central Europe. They sacked Rome in 491 and are known to have carried off the sacred treasure that the Romans had taken from the Temple of Jerusalem, including the fabled Menorah. This treasure - of great material and symbolic value - is last recorded in the Visigoth treasury at Carcassone, but disappears from history after the Moorish invasions from Spain in the 8th century.
It is believed by many historians - although it is not conclusively proven - that Rennes-le-Château occupies the site of the 'lost' Visigoth stronghold of Rhedae, which is reported to have had a population of 30,000. The Visigoths dominated the Languedoc in the 5th-8th centuries, and Rhedae was their third largest stronghold after Carcassone and Narbonne, but its exact location is unknown. There are many remains of foundations and fortifications in and around Rennes-le-Château - at least indicating that it was once a major settlement.
Apart from the Romans and Visigoths, the region retains the memory of many other peoples who have, at one time or another, flourished there. After the Visigoths, the Arabs dominated the area for much of the 8th century. There was a substantial Jewish population in the region from Roman times - and astonishingly, in 768, following the pushing back of the Arabs, a Jewish principality, Septimania, was established there. Although it owed nominal allegiance to Pepin III, King of the Franks - who permitted it to be established in return for the Jews' help in forcing out the Arabs - in practice Septimania was autonomous. Even the Basques, that enigmatic people from western Spain and France, made incursions into the area during the 8th century. From the 8th to 12th century the area around Rennes-le-Château became known as the Comté (County) of the Razès.
HOME TO THE HERETICS
Until the 13th century the area was independent of the rest of France, the territory of the Counts of Toulouse - who, although nominally swearing allegiance to the King of France, were in practice independent and actually richer and more powerful than he was. The Languedoc also had its own distinct culture, which at that time - probably because of its closeness to the Arab kingdoms of Spain - was the most cultured and advanced in Europe. It was here that the semi-heretical Troubador movement flourished.
Rennes-le-Château's church, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, was built during this time, in the 11th century, although there has been a church on the site since Visigoth times - perhaps from as early as the 5th century.
In the 12th and 13th centuries the region was the heartland of the Cathar heresy. This gnostic form of Christianity, totally opposed to the materialism and authority of the Church of Rome, flourished in this cultured and freethinking environment. Inevitably, however, the Cathars attracted the wrath of the Pope who ordered a Crusade against them - the bloody and traumatic genocide of the Albigensian Crusade, so named after the major Cathar town of Albi. The crusade against the Cathars infamously ended at the siege of Montségur, the Cathar's mountaintop stronghold, in the Ariège about 50 miles from Rennes-le-Château.
The Albigensian Crusade marked a watershed in the history of the Languedoc, ending the south of France's independence: after this, much of the land passed into the possession of the northern knights who had used the Crusade as an excuse for plunder, and it was absorbed into the kingdom of France, becoming subordinate to the north - instigating a decline from which the region has yet to recover, 700 years later. Rennes-le-Château found itself with a new noble family, the de Voisins, after it was granted to one of the leaders of the Crusade. It was the de Voisins who built the château that gives the village its name.
The other major power in the medieval Languedoc were the Knights Templar, that mysterious order of warrior-monks formed during the Crusades who became the richest institution in Europe after the Church in the Middle Ages. Although the Templars were found throughout Europe, the greatest concentration of their lands - about 30% of all that they owned in Europe - was in the Languedoc and the neighbouring Roussillon region, and there is evidence that at one time they planned to create their own state there. The Templars were particularly well represented in the area around Rennes-le-Château.
There are many ruins of Templar commanderies and preceptories in the region, most of which have never been explored by archaeologists. Near Rennes-le-Château are the ruins of Le Bézu and the former Templar town of Campagne-sur-Aude, while not far away is the site of the major Templar commandery of the area, Mas Deu.
After the crusade against the Cathars, the Languedoc retained its heretical character. The first witch trials in Europe were held at Toulouse in the 14th century. In later centuries, it was famed as a centre for alchemists - the town of Alet-les-Bains, 5 miles north of Rennes-le-Château, being a particular centre for the so-called 'black art'. The family of the famous prophet Nostradamus is said to have lived at Alet-les-Bains.
Originally Rennes-le-Château had its own parish church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, but this was destroyed in 1362 by the soldiers of the Catalan adventurer Henri de Trastamare in an attempt to find some treasure that he believed was hidden there. He went away disappointed. (There was a also a chapel dedicated to St Peter, the foundations of which lie beneath one of the houses in the village.)
A WILL OF 'GREAT CONSEQUENCE'
In the 15th century the Hautpoul family became lords of Rennes-le-Château, remaining in power until the French Revolution of 1789. In 1732 François d'Hautpoul married Marie de Nègre d'Ables, who as his widow became the last of the family to live in the château in Rennes-le-Château, dying on 17 January 1781. François had been granted the title of the Marquis de Blanchefort. (Blanchefort is a small château - from the size of the ruins probably no more than a watchtower - to the east of the village. Why François wanted to carry its name in his title is unknown.) At her death Marie's full name and title was Marie de Nègre d'Ables, Dame d'Hautpoul de Blanchefort.
Interestingly, in 1780 the notary to whom the Hautpoul family will had been entrusted refused to show it to the head of the family, saying that 'it would be imprudent to give up a will of such great consequence.' What could have been in their will that was of such 'great consequence'?
Many believe that Dame Marie, as the last of the line to live in the village, and her loyal priest, Abbé Antoine Bigou - one of Saunière's predecessors - hold the key to the mystery. Certainly, Saunière seems to have shown a great interest in her grave and the headstone that Bigou erected. Bigou was named as a 'recalcitrant priest' after the Revolution, and went into exile in Spain in 1792, where he died the following year.
After the Revolution the story of Rennes-le-Château continued to be one of decline - many villages in the region have been completely abandoned as the population moved away in search of a better life. The same fate might have befallen Rennes-le-Château, had a young priest named Saunière not arrived there in 1885.
Most people believe Saunière grew wealthy as a result of making a discovery - uncovering a treasure trove or even some kind of documents that led him to a valuable, perhaps historic, secret - while excavating in the village church. But what did he find, and where?
Some researchers believe that the discovery was made during the renovation work of 1887-88, which Saunière undertook thanks to funds provided by the Countess of Chambord. During the course of those works two events in particular are highlighted:
1. The replacement of the ancient altar, which was supported by an ancient carved pillar from the Visigothic period (7th or 8th century). This was found to be hollow and documents of some kind were found inside - although Saunière told the village's mayor that they were simply papers relating to the building of the church and the altar.
The find was made by Saunière's bellringer, Antoine Captier, who was helping with the work. One of his grandsons, Barthélémy Captier, who was born in 1905 and was one of Saunière's choirboys, told the story in 1985:
My grandfather rang
the bells and, it's said, found a phial in a pillar in the church,
when he moved it. And then he gave it to the priest. And after, it's
said, the Abbé stopped the work that they were in the course of
doing, and afterwards, then it happened, the thing with the money.
My father, sometimes he would say: 'Perhaps that would have been you; you could have been rich.' If he had given it to grandfather, what he had there in the parchment, perhaps, yes, of course.