THE DA VINCI CODE’S ROSSLYN CHAPEL
A virtual tour of The da Vinci's Code's Rosslyn Chapel, Edinburgh.
by Michelle Bienias
Rosslyn Chapel Panoramas
See what the fuss is about via to two panoramas taken inside Rosslyn Chapel by photographer Jonathan Greet of DumDivision.
Rosslyn Chapel 1
Rosslyn Chapel 2
Thanks to the Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel, The Da Vinci Code, thousands of the curious have been making their way to Rosslyn Chapel - the Midlothian church which was highlighted in the novel and was used in the upcoming movie - in the hamlet of Roslin, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. In The Da Vinci Code, Brown claims the Holy Grail was once hidden at Rosslyn and that the descendents of Jesus and Mary Magdalene can be traced to the gothic chapel.However, long before Brown’s controversial book Rosslyn Chapel roused much discussion and speculation. Various authors have claimed to show that Rosslyn is the resting place for a range of esoteric artifacts including The Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, the lost Scrolls of the Temple and even the real version of Scotland's own Stone of Destiny. Rosslyn’s famous stone carvings, many of which are the best examples of their kind in Europe, depict symbols relating to Old Testament text and characters, Freemasonry (the church is widely regarded as a site of international significance in the history of Freemasonry), and the medieval order of the Knights Templar. Some carvings even seem to depict American plants such as maize and aloe vera, carved some 50 years before Columbus’ voyages, while others still defy interpretation. Sir William St Clair built Rosslyn Chapel in 1446 as the choir to a planned huge Catholic church, which was never completed. It was stripped and totally neglected for over two hundred years when Scotland embraced Protestantism. The chapel is quite a bit smaller than most visitors expect, and ornate, with devils, angles, crowns of thorns, stars, pyramids, roses, elephants, green men and patriarchs. Whether you regard Brown’s novel as raising legitimate questions, preposterous nonsense, or just a well-crafted jolly good thriller, is Rosslyn Chapel worth a visit? If you’re in Scotland, the Chapel is only about an hour’s trip from Edinburgh, but expect to have a lot of company. VisitScotland has teamed up with its French counterpart, Maison De La France, and the UK-wide agency, VisitBritain, to promote the historic Midlothian site and surrounding areas. The Scotsman reports that visitor numbers have soared from 30,000 a year to more than 110,000 in 2005, and that figure is expected to increase when the film version of Dan Brown's novel is released in May 2006. Some are starting to worry about the record crowds of tourists, such as former curator of the chapel Judith Fisken, who said predicted estimates of visitors next year touring a building measuring just 69 ft. by 35 ft. would create a situation “nothing short of madness”. Recent discovery may yield code
A recent discovery reported in The Scotsman may add more fuel to that fire. Edinburgh composer Stuart Mitchell believes he has solved the mystery of the 213 decorated cubes on the ceiling: they hold a code for medieval music. Mitchell hopes that the music, when played on medieval instruments, will resonate throughout the chapel unlocking a secret in the stone. If you’re hoping that this is just another crazy plot line out of The Da Vinci Code you might be out of luck. As The Scotsman reports: | The breakthrough to interpreting the notation came when Mitchell's father discovered that the markings carved on the face of the cubes seem to match a phenomenon called Cymatics or Chladni patterns. Chladni patterns form when a sustained note is used to vibrate a sheet of metal covered in powder producing marks. The frequency used dictates the shape of the pattern, for example; the musical note A below middle C vibrates at 440 KHz and produces a shape that looks like a rhombus. Different notes can produce various shapes including flowers, diamonds and hexagons - shapes all present on the Rosslyn cubes. Stuart Mitchell believes this is "beyond coincidence" and has assigned a note to each cube. Ernst Chladni first documented the phenomenon in the late 18th century - yet it appears to be present in a 15th century building. Which begs the question: 'Was Sir William St Clair (the man who built Rosslyn Chapel) familiar with sciences far in advance of his time?' Stuart Mitchell believes a link between the Knights Templar – who may have gleaned advanced Eastern scientific knowledge during their stay in Jerusalem during the Crusades – and Rosslyn could explain the encoded musical notes. "The symbolism in Rosslyn is reaching back to times of a civilisation that is lost to us now that had sciences that are the roots of all the mechanics of the universe," says Mitchell. If this science was used in the carvings at Rosslyn, then there needs to be an explanation of how this information came to be lost for centuries. According to Mitchell, the Church suppressed the knowledge as a means of controlling the public. "What it points towards is the church system denying people certain knowledge because knowledge is awareness. People who knew too much were burnt as witches." Mitchell doesn't believe that the notes were carved there simply to record a piece of music. He hopes that the repeated frequencies in the music will resonate within the building and unlock a medieval secret. "Hopefully, knowing masons of this period of time were aware of the acoustic properties and the effect of resonance upon stone, we're hoping something falls loose… it's like a safe. This is why we think he [St Clair] has gone to so much trouble." The Da Vinci Code Rosslyn Chapel Summary A quick brush up on events in The Da Vinci Code pertaining to Rosslyn Chapel (from Wikipedia). The docent at Rosslyn Chapel is giving a guided tour to Langdon and Neveu when he sees the rosewood box they are carrying and realizes that it seems to be an exact duplicate of a box owned by his grandmother, who is the head of the trust that oversees the chapel. He is revealed to be Sophie's brother. The Guardian of the Rosslyn Trust is, in fact, Marie Chauvel, the wife of Jacques Sauničre and Sophie Neveu's grandmother. The docent is Sophie's brother. Believing that they had been targeted for assassination by the Church for knowing the powerful secret of the Priory of Sion, she and Sauničre agreed that she and Sophie's brother should live secretly in Scotland. Only Sophie's parents were in the car at the time even though the whole family was supposed to be there. Sauničre told the authorities that Sophie's grandmother and her brother were in the car. She tells Neveu and Langdon that although the Holy Grail and the secret documents were once buried in the vault of Rosslyn Chapel, they were removed to France by the Priory of Sion only several years ago. Reading the parchment inside the second keystone, she realizes where the Grail is now hidden, but refuses to tell Langdon, saying he will figure it out eventually on his own. According to her, the Priory of Sion never intended to reveal the secret of the Grail according to any set timetable. She believes that such a revelation is unnecessary anyway, since the true nature and spiritual power of the Grail is emerging into the world without the location of the actual artifact being revealed. She also informs Sophie Neveu of her true identity through her bloodline. |
Related Links:
- View Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper in hi-res detail
- View more da Vinci Code Locations on panoramas.dk
- See more of Jonathan Greet's work including his artists portraits, Channel 4’s Big Brother House and an ancient yew tree.
Email Jonathan Greet: jonathan_greet[at]dumdum.co.uk
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