Andrew Gough's Arcadia

The legend of the Abbe Bérenger Saunière is synonymous with Rennes-le-Château. Seemingly, one does not exist without the other. Hundreds of books, websites, television documentaries, and now, even movies, have professed to have solved the riddle, and identified the treasure.

So what do we really know?

We know from the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus that the Roman General Titus sacked Jerusalem in 72 AD, and pillaged the Temple of Solomon and its treasure. Then in 410 AD, Rome fell to the Germanic tribe, the Visigoths, who proceeded to re-establish their kingdom in and around the Pyrenees. The historian Procopius claims to have inventoried their booty, and concluded that it was intact, minus the Ark of the Covenant, which had been missing from the historic record for some time.

It is here that the treasure of Solomon and other ancient relics come directly into the provenance of the Rennes-le-Château legend.

The vicinity around the new kingdom of the Visigoths soon became the focus of the Cathars, Knights Templars, Lords of the Grail Castles, The Hapsburgs, the Priory of Sion and the Nazis. Each laid claim to a treasure. Was it spiritual or physical? Just what was its true nature?

In the region of the Visigoth Empire, near what would later become the Cathar fortress of Montségur, we uncover a memory of the treasure of Solomon. Legend tells us that the Visigoth King Roderic searched for Solomon's treasure in the colossal caves of Lombrives. Here, in the care of the hermit Trevizent, he discovered an emerald table and a chest containing three cups. Curiously, Trevizent is the name of the hermit who initiates Parzival in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. A little known fact is that Eschenbach never wrote fiction, only history. Thus, one must ask, could the treasure of Solomon be the source of today's grail legends?

Now, how romantic is that? But hold on! We have not even begun and already we have abandoned Occam's Razor. It is that easy to do. Let us return to the plot; just what did Abbe Saunière discover?

In the early moments of Steven Spielberg's film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Professor Jones, played by Harrison Ford, informs his college history class that "archaeology is the search for truth - not fact. And X never ever marks the spot!" As one might expect, it's not long before Indiana Jones is proved wrong on both accounts! Sometimes archaeology is all about fact, and sometimes 'X' does mark the spot, as we shall soon see.

If the legend of Bérenger Saunière and Rennes-le-Château were an Inspector Morse or CSI episode, then the restorations that Abbe Saunière designed for his church and village would represent damning evidence for the prosecution. They are incredibly revealing, and offer us our most plausible application of Occam's Razor yet. So what do they include?

Saunière began restoring his church, home and grounds in 1891, funded by an initial donation from the Countess of Chambord, the same shadowy figure who funded Louis de Coma's building projects (which, the reader will remember, were predominantly dedicated to Mary Magdalene and the remembrance of the biblical 'Gethsemane'). Saunière's restorations are covered in minute detail in many books, websites and documentaries, so I will only briefly mention them here, before moving onto his less referenced and more revealing work, namely the Tour Magdela.

Abbe Saunière's restorations include:

The Interior of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene
Some of Saunière's most revealing, albeit macabre, restorations are on the inside of the church of Saint Mary Magdalene, although an interesting one greets you before you even enter. Carved in masonry above the entrance is the now famous Latin inscription TERRIBILIS EST LOCUS ISTE, or 'This Place is Terrible'. This seemingly inappropriate greeting is actually quite ordinary, meaning 'great, amazing, wonderful, etc' and not anything sinister.

This Place is Terrible - the entrance to Saunière's Church

The Abbe's most famous restoration is a statue of the devil, immediately to the left as one enters the church. It is believed to represent Asmodeus, keeper of secrets and guardian of treasure, most notably Solomon's. Alternatively, it is said to represent Rex Mundi, the Cathar God of evil. Sceptics will state that this is not the only church to have a statue like this, but to date, they have only provided evidence of one other (just west of Carcassonne).

Asmodeous: Cathar King or guardian of treasure?

Beyond the statue, on the west face of the church interior, the abbe commissioned an extraordinary mural. This emotive and lucid fresco depicts the biblical, Sermon on the Mount. What makes it special is the presence of a bag erupting with gold at the foot of a hill before Jesus. Undisturbed by this provocative site, Jesus' beloved followers remain transfixed, devout in their adoration and seemingly oblivious to the gold! Most interpret this as evidence of a hidden treasure in the region of Rennes-le-Château. While I would agree, the treasure, I believe, is spiritual, not physical, as vindicated by the fact that Jesus' followers appear to ignore the gold completely.

Saunière's Sermon on the Mount: is the treasure spiritual or simply gold?

Close-up of the bag of gold

The Stations of the Cross are also suggestive of concealed knowledge. While most are standard, albeit unusually lavish (being the most expensive versions available, purchased from the same manufacturer that provided the west wall fresco), some have been personally modified by the priest and his trusted advisors. And the modifications are very unusual. For instance, one depicts a night scene, complete with a full moon, of Christ being taken down from the cross. The implication is that Christ never died on the cross. Another hints at treasure concealed in local mines.

But these are a mere warm-up for clues Abbe Saunière left closer to the altar, and beyond.

Saunière added the night and moon to a traditional day scene. Why?