a view down the spiral staircase in the Tour Magdala in Rennes le Chateau
Rennes-le-Château (Rènnas del Castèl in Occitan) is a small medieval castle village and a commune in the Aude département, in the Languedoc area in southern France. It is known internationally, and receives tens of thousands of visitors per year, for being at the center of various conspiracy theories. Starting in the 1950s, a local restaurant owner, in order to increase business, had spread rumors of a hidden treasure found by a 19th century priest. The story achieved national fame in France, and was then enhanced and expanded by various hoaxsters, who claimed that the priest, Father Berenger Sauniere, had found proof of a secret society known as the Priory of Sion. The story and society were later proven to be a hoax, but became the origin for hypotheses in documentaries and bestselling books such as Holy Blood Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code, and the village is now often cited in various elements of popular culture as the center of many mysterious happenings. Looking beyond the wild claims and red herrings which have been propagated the village is still found by "spiritual tourists" to be packed with clues to an alternate view of religious history which has long existed in the area.
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Photo credit: © Philip Welding / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: berenger, blood, chateau, code, conspiracy, da, descending, discovery, father, france, grail, holy, languedoc, le, mystery, priory, rennes, sauniere, sion, southern, spiral, staircase, stone, theories, tourism, tourists, vinci, visitors
