by S. J. Hodge
Out of 15 churches on Bornholm Island, four are round. Built in the 12th century, some historians believe they were put there for both religious and defence purposes (island inhabitants were frequently attacked by pirates). Although conical now, originally the roofs of the churches were flat, possibly so that they could be defended from any angle, while the current cone-shaped roofs were added several centuries later. Yet the small scale of these churches makes it difficult to see how they were used as defence; there is not much room inside to contain a large force of fighting men. During the time they were built, there were fortresses on the island that would have been far more effective as places of refuge, although the round churches could nonetheless have been used as lookout posts.
There are no other round churches in Scandinavia and the mystery of why they were built on Bornholm Island at that time has been the subject of much speculation. At least two authors theorize that they were built by the Knights Templar. In their book of 1992, The Templars’ Secret Island, Erling Haagensen and Henry Lincoln present evidence that connects the four round churches of Bornholm Island with the Knights Templar. These churches, of Østerlars, Nylars, Ølsker and Nyker, according to Haagensen and Lincoln, are complex structures that incorporate the equilateral six-sided shape which forms the star of David and is based on the theories of sacred geometry that also appear in buildings constructed during earlier periods in the Holy Land.
In 2010, Haagensen carried out two investigations of the churches using electronic equipment. The investigations discovered a deep underground structure beneath the Østerlars church that mirrors a similar chasm under the church of Rennes-le-Château in France. Although this cellar had been long forgotten, nothing has been found in it, so its original function has not been ascertained. The upper windows in the Østerlars church are positioned to align with the sunrises of the winter and summer solstices, as it is claimed also featured in the ancient Temple of Solomon. With their complex structures, the churches must have been built by knowledgeable architects, not local builders, but this still does not establish that they were built by the Templars. Even before the Order had been founded, round churches had been built on the model of the Holy Sepulchre and they became particularly common after the First Crusade. Most military orders built them. According to Haagensen and Lincoln, historical evidence reveals a plan made between the Danish Archbishop Eskil of Lund – a friend of Bernard of Clairvaux – and the Templar Grand Master Bertrand de Blanchefort. From 1161 to 1167, Eskil stayed at Bernard’s monastery Clairvaux, approximately nine years after Bernard had died, and made plans with Bertrand de Blanchefort. In this plan, the Knights Templar were to be responsible for supplying the Christian fleet on the Baltic Crusades. The Baltic Crusades were a series of campaigns fought during the 13th century that aimed to conquer and convert the pagan tribes of northeastern Europe around the Baltic Sea. Bernard of Clairvaux had supported these wars, despite their lack of a pilgrimage element, and other military orders were involved, but there is no historical evidence that the Templars took part, nor of any Templar activity or settlement in Denmark at any time. Documentation exists that the Teutonic Knights took a prominent role in the Baltic Crusades, but there is nothing to indicate that the Knights Templar did. If the churches on Bornholm were built by any of the religious-military orders, it would more likely have been the Hospitallers or the Teutonic Knights than the Templars, as they had documented connections in Scandinavia.
Haagensen and Lincoln suggest that the Templars might have used the churches on Bornholm as a hiding place for the secret treasure that they had found under Temple Mount early in their existence. Bornholm Island was remote, unknown and unlikely to be disturbed, but with no apparent connection with the Order or any reliable documentation or proof to support the claims, no further investigations have been undertaken of the location or the churches.
Rennes-le-Château, France
The treasure that the Templars allegedly possessed has been debated countless times by people with varying interests in the subject. Connections and suppositions have been made with and about several locations across Europe and beyond. Without any tangible confirmation, these locations are variously described as being the hiding place for this treasure either from relatively early on in the Order’s existence, or from the time of their suppression. Nearly all these claims have been made since the 20th century. One location associated with several legends concerning Templar treasure and other mysterious notions is Rennes-le-Château, a tiny village in southwestern France that was once populated by the Cathars and still bears visible scars from the Albigensian Crusade. During the 1950s and 1960s, the entire area around Rennes-le-Château became the focus of sensational claims involving Blanche of Castile, the Merovingians, the Knights Templar, the Cathars and the treasures of the Temple of Solomon. From the 1970s, the claims extended to include the Priory of Sion, the Holy Grail, sacred geometry, Christ’s remains and notions that Mary Magdalene settled in the south of France after Jesus had been crucified.
Rennes-le-Château began as a prehistoric encampment, but by 1050, it was controlled by the Counts of Toulouse, who allowed Cathars to live peacefully in the area. Even after their persecution and annihilation, Rennes-le-Château returned to being a quiet, remote village until the middle of the 20th century. Then, in the 1950s, a local hotel owner spread a rumour that a priest, Abbé Bérenger Saunière (1852–1917), had found some valuable documents there in the 19th century – and everything changed. From 1887 to 1897, Father Saunière had renovated the local church of St Mary Magdalene and then had further buildings constructed in the area: the Villa Bethania and the Tour Magdala. In 1946, seven years before she died, Saunière’s former housekeeper and secretary, Marie Dénarnaud (1868–1953), sold Father Saunière’s estate to Noël Corbu (1912–68), an entrepreneur who had recently moved to the area with his wife. Along with the buildings constructed by Saunière, Corbu obtained the priest’s papers. Corbu transformed the Villa Bethania into a hotel and opened a restaurant beneath a belvedere that connects the Tour Magdala to an orangery. He told his guests that Father Saunière had discovered something extremely valuable nearby. The hotel was soon inundated with bookings.
In January 1956, the local newspaper, La Dépêche du Midi, featured an interview with Corbu, who said that Father Saunière had discovered 28,500,000 gold pieces that had been hidden at Rennes-le-Château by Blanche of Castile in 1250. Corbu claimed that this had been amassed by Blanche, widow of King Louis VIII of France, to pay the ransom for her son Louis IX who had been captured by Muslims while on the Seventh Crusade. Blanche, however, became ill and died before she could send the money to the Holy Land. (In the end, Louis raised his own money for his release.) According to Corbu, the stash of money had been left in its hiding place for over six centuries, until Father Saunière discovered it. Corbu also claimed that in 1892, Saunière had discovered ‘parchments’ while renovating the local church, which were ‘written in a mixture of French and Latin, which at first glance could be discerned to be passages from the Gospels’.
Saunière had begun renovating the church in 1887, and was still doing so in 1892, so this is not completely inconceivable, but none of these ‘parchments’ have been seen by anyone else, so there is no proof that they ever existed. Corbu also claimed that Saunière had only found one part of Blanche’s treasure, and that before she died, Marie Dénarnaud had said: ‘Pray do not worry yourself, Monsieur Corbu. You shall have more money than you will be able to spend!’ However, even though Corbu was joined by others in the hunt for this treasure, nothing was ever found. In July 1965, the local council was compelled to introduce a by-law prohibiting further excavations in the village.
Holy blood, holy Grail
Corbu’s account of Father Saunière’s discovery of the documents was later quoted in Gérard de Sède’s book L’Or de Rennes (The Gold of Rennes), or The Strange Life of Bérenger Saunière, Priest of Rennes-le-Château, published in 1968, but the information in the book was lat
er discovered to be fictitious, invented by de Sède and another author Pierre Plantard. The claim in the book was that Saunière found parchments proving that the line of the Merovingian king, Dagobert II, who was assassinated in 679, did not die with him as had previously been thought. Instead, Dagobert’s son had escaped the family’s enemies and had taken refuge at Rennes-le-Château. The genealogical documents that de Sède declared Saunière had found led to an imaginary secret organization, the Priory of Sion, and Pierre Plantard claimed to be descended from Dagobert II. The book was later proved to be a complete fabrication. Documents the authors said verified it all were proved to be hoaxes, the Priory of Sion never existed and Pierre Plantard did not descend from the Merovingian kings. Yet, after scriptwriter Henry Lincoln read the book, he used the story as the basis for three television documentaries and a bestselling book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which he wrote in conjunction with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh in 1982. The book was later used as source material for the bestselling 2003 novel by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code.
A 13th-century illumination showing King Louis IX of France and his mother Blanche of Castile, whom Corbu claimed had accumulated an incredible amount of money for her son’s ransom, but had left it hidden in Rennes-le-Château when she died.
According to the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, the documents that Saunière supposedly found in the late 19th century had been hidden by one of his predecessors, the Abbé Bigou, who had been chaplain to the Blanquefort family, descendants of one of the early Templar Grand Masters. The Blanquefort family had given Bigou a great secret to hide, a secret which had been passed down by their Templar predecessor. This was the first link of Rennes-le-Château with the Templars, but the notion was never developed and nothing pertaining to it was found. Whatever it was that the Blanquefort family were supposed to have had was never explained and although several suggestions were made, nothing was ever proved or established.
The church of St Mary Magdalene at Rennes-le-Château has been rebuilt several times over its history. The earliest church on the site was probably built in the eighth century, and another built on the same spot in the tenth or eleventh century. When Father Saunière renovated it at the end of the 19th century, he added some unusual statuary and sculpture, including a red demon being crushed under the font and an inscription that has been pondered over extensively. Above the front doors, the Latin words read ‘Terribilis est locus iste’, which translates as ‘This is a place of awe’. On the arches over the two front doors, the dedication continues ‘hic domus Dei est et porta coeli’, meaning ‘this is God’s house, the gate of heaven’. Many claims have been made about the phrases, suggesting that they had deeper meanings than appeared superficially, but the same inscriptions featured in other churches and they were not particularly unusual, being extracted from a range of Christian sources including medieval chants, songs, old Bible annotations and more. It is probable that Saunière selected the phrases for no greater reason than they were traditional and he liked them.
Saunière’s secret money
One of the biggest mysteries, and the main issue that has provoked such extravagant speculation about Rennes-le-Château, is that Saunière’s receipts and account books, which were handed down to Corbu, reveal that the renovation to the church, the presbytery and the cemetery cost 11,605 francs. This was a huge amount of money and far more than Saunière’s monthly wages. It is not clear how a local priest could have paid for it. After the church remodelling, Saunière also paid for the two other buildings to be constructed in the village: the Villa Bethania and the Tour Magdala. Resembling a small medieval tower, the Tour Magdala, named after Mary Magdalene like the church close by, overlooks surrounding villages, and Saunière used it as his library. He said that he had the Villa Bethania built as a retirement home for priests, although it was never used as such. Between 1898 and 1905, the buildings and land cost Saunière 26,417 francs.
Visitors to his home attest that he also owned valuable books and furniture that were not documented in his accounts; neither did he include any travel or personal expenses. But, although the sensational theories claim that he had found great treasure, he died in poverty, and his housekeeper and secretary Marie Dénarnaud was also destitute, suggesting that this elusive great treasure never existed. It is far more probable that Father Saunière committed simony or Mass trafficking. This meant that he charged the faithful to say Mass for them. Father Saunière was certainly not the only priest of the time to do this. Requesting a Mass was accepted by many to be costly and they were often said by priests without anyone even being present. It is known that Saunière also spent a great deal on postage, as he wrote to his parishioners in alphabetical order, offering to say Masses for them in return for a fee. It appears he was extremely good at this form of marketing. Priests were allowed to say no more than three Masses a day, but from his records, it can be seen that Saunière was asked to say thousands of Masses, far more than he could ever actually conduct, for which he received hundreds of thousands of francs.
The Tour Magdala in Rennes-le-Château, France. Built as a library c.1900 for Abbé Bérenger Saunière, it is a bold example of his eccentric and decadent tastes.
In January 1909, the Bishop of Carcassonne transferred Saunière to the village of Coustouge. This was usual practice within the Catholic Church – priests only stayed in one place for a short time, until the Bishop moved them elsewhere – but Saunière refused to go and continued as an unofficial priest of Rennes-le-Château. In 1910, he built a conservatory adjacent to the Villa Bethania as a private chapel, where he continued to celebrate Mass as he could no longer use the church. That same year, he was summoned to appear before an ecclesiastical trial to face charges of simony or Mass trafficking. He was found guilty and suspended from the priesthood. When asked to account for his expenditure, he reported that he had received 82,800 francs in gifts between 1885 and 1905 from several benefactors, most of whom were anonymous. Allegedly, he was also having an affair with a wealthy woman, and the seven collection boxes in his church gained a steady income, but with no records of these either, the precise amounts are unknown. As a priest, he earned 900 francs a year. As well as charging for Masses, in another enterprising move, he had postcards made of the village, which he sold to visitors. He never recorded the proceeds from these sales, and his hobby of restoring old furniture and selling it was also omitted from his records. When asked to produce his account books, he refused to attend his trial. After he had been dismissed from the Church, he died in poverty – hardly the ending of a life of a man who had found secret, priceless treasure. After his death in 1917, Marie Dénarnaud remained living in the presbytery but she ran into debt and tried several times – unsuccessfully – to sell the Villa Bethania. It was not until Noël Corbu bought the property in 1946 that her debts were settled. When Corbu and his wife turned it into the Hotel de la Tour, it was the first time the Villa Bethania had been occupied.
Another suggested mystery about Rennes-le-Château and the Knights Templar is that the buildings are based on the same construction methods and ratios as numerous churches and other buildings erected by the Order. Those who claim this allege that Saunière’s buildings were deliberately placed according to a geometric pattern that is echoed elsewhere, particularly in the Holy Land. These are broad claims that have not been corroborated. Additionally, similarities appear in many other buildings across Europe, constructed by various orders, both military and purely religious.
Friday the 13th
Much of the furore attached to the Templars was intended to inflame the widespread superstitious fears of the time. Not all issues relating to their trials, however, had achieved the desired effect then. Some superstitions emerged centuries later. One of these is the idea of Friday the 13th being unlucky. On Friday the 13th of October, 1307, the Templars were arrested in France. King Philip had written the order for the arrests a month earlier and the operation was meant to be kept in strict secrec
y. On the appointed day, it is believed that simultaneously hundreds of the king’s men opened copies of his written order and then went to every Templar property in France to arrest all ordained Templars. About 15,000 Templars were arrested, with an average age of 41. As the average life expectancy for men at that time was under 50, it is not really surprising that many of them died while in prison over the next few years. But it was not until relatively recently that the date and day upon which they were arrested has been considered specifically unlucky.
Although historically the number 13 was considered by some to be ill-omened and Friday was occasionally associated with misfortune, the amalgamation of the two traditions did not occur until relatively recently. The number 13 was considered unlucky as there were allegedly 13 people at the Last Supper, with Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, supposedly being the 13th guest to sit down. There are 13 witches in a coven, and in Norse mythology a dinner party of the gods was ruined by the 13th guest called Loki, who caused the world to be plunged into darkness. Thirteen was also perceived as one too many: there were 12 apostles, there are 12 hours in a day, 12 months in a year and 12 zodiac signs.
Friday being ill-fated was more obscure. Jesus was crucified on a Friday (although that went on to be called Good Friday as he rose again two days later). The next known reference to the idea is probably a line in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, written in the late 14th century: ‘… and on a Friday fell all this misfortune’. The idea of the day being associated with bad luck, however, did not become established until about three centuries later, when it obscurely became accepted by some Christians that certain things should not be undertaken on a Friday – travel, marriage or a new job for instance. One of the most enduring but enigmatic sailing superstitions is that it is unlucky to begin a voyage on a Friday, but the origins of this superstition remain obscure. However, while Friday has always been held to be unlucky by some, others – such as many who live in the Scottish Hebrides – consider it to be lucky and the day on which seeds should be sown.
