Grail Quest Part I: Rennes-le-Chateau

My introduction to the mysteries of Rennes-le-Chateau came via, of all things, a computer gaming magazine. My dad pointed out a review of the supernatural adventure game Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, set in the real-life village of Rennes-le-Chateau in the south of France. The reviewer mentioned that the town had become a Mecca for mystery-hunters, historians, and conspiracy theorists thanks to Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the 1982 book that suggested Christ had eloped to France with Mary Magdalene. I’d seen copies of this book in used bookstores - it was almost as common as Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock at the time - so I picked one up on my next out-of-town trip. Intrigued by the central mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau - How did a priest get so rich? - I read everything available (which didn’t amount to much at the time). What follows is drawn mainly from HBHG, Rennes-le-Chateau: Its Mysteries and Secrets by Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe, and the online book Tamed Eyes by Nicolas Mazet. These days the ‘Net is positively crawling with sites about Rennes-le-Chateau, and most of them are so New Age-y and bizarre as to be nearly worthless. The best one I’ve found so far is the more down-to-earth site http://www.rennes-discovery.com/, maintained by amateur historian Alan Scott.

The most vexing mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau is, perhaps, how it came to be such a mystery. The seemingly straightforward story of a French priest who inexplicably became very wealthy somehow expanded, over a century, to include all the most important figures and events of Christian history: the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar, the Cathar heresy, the lost treasure of Jerusalem, even Christ himself. The mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau has inspired some of the most controversial literature of the twentieth century, the most recent being Dan Brown’s 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. It has spurred countless seekers to launch modern-day Grail quests. It has spawned hundreds of speculative books, pamphlets, and documentaries that claim to reveal the truth at the heart of the mystery. It seems to be the foundation for one of the most audacious hoaxes ever perpetrated. Yet the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau has never been resolved.

The altar of the church at Rennes-le-Chateau, as seen in Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Holy, Blood of the Damned