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Introduction

There are twenty-odd people living full-time in the small village of Rennes-le-Château. There are nevertheless hundreds of books written about the village, and its enigmatic priest, Saunière.
Rennes-le-Château is located on a small hilltop, just above the tranquil town of Couiza, on the main road connecting Carcassonne to the foothills of the Pyrenees. As you approach Couiza from the north, you can see Rennes-le-Château located at the top of the hills, disappearing from view as you enter Couiza. Once beyond the main crossroads, a small road begins the three miles climb. People with little experience in driving cars with manual gears best stick to second, though many have revved the engine up the hill all the way in first.
Probably the most illustrious visitor to this small village was presidential candidate Francois Mitterrand, who visited Rennes, the church and the priest Bérenger Saunière’s domain on March 2, 1981, during his presidential campaign. He was not the first nor the last visitor. Millions have come to admire “Saunièreland”, the church and domain of the priest, who acquired a fortune through unknown means and who is believed to have left clues as to the origins of his wealth in his church and/or domain – depending on which theory you adhere to.
The town has over one hundred thousand visitors each year and is at the origins of world-renowned bestsellers like Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”, Kathleen McGowan’s “The Expected One” and Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln’s “Holy Blood, Holy Grail”. All of them were written because of the enigma that was – and remains – Bérenger Saunière, the “billion dollar priest”. He was able to build a massive domain and execute enormous restorations to his village church, even though his official income was that of a village priest. Rumors that he discovered an immense treasure was what initially – in the 1950s – brought treasure hunters to the village, including in 1958, Robert Charroux, one of France’s best-known authors and treasure hunters of the genre.
They have – unfortunately – never left, even though none have ever found anything. As a consequence, as you enter the town, on the right hand side, there is a sign saying “Les fouilles sont interdites sur le territoire de la commune de Rennes-le-Château” – digging is illegal. The original sign was placed in 1965, when the local council confirmed that it was illegal to dig, making Rennes-le-Château one of the very few villages in France where treasure hunting was one of the council’s primary problems. Some time before, Alain Chatillon had heard of the treasure of Rennes, came to the village, bought a house from which he was sure he could discover the treasure, bought dynamite from the mayor, and blew many of the windows in the village to pieces when he underestimated the force of the explosion with which he thought he would discover the secret. A decade ago, the village was without drinkable water for several months as a team of Scandinavian treasure hunters had dynamited sections of the water supply. For months, drinkable water had to be driven up the hill from Couiza, in a tank, to which the locals needed to go to collect their drinkable water.

A century after Saunière lived in the village, despite what some authors will have you believe, we do have some answers, if not all the answers as to what was the enigma of Saunière. We know where his money came from: donations. People helped this priest because he was part of an underground network of “heretics” – people who had been raised in a heretical tradition, which placed extraordinary importance on the role of Mary Magdalene, whom they knew to be Jesus’ wife and executor of the message he was preaching. Saunière’s church was dedicated to her; all who had a devotion to her, were willing and eager to help a fellow heretic in creating and maintaining a beautiful oeuvre dedicated to her. For everything the priest did, he did in her name, including his own Villa Bethania and the Tour Magdala, both named after the principal sites in the Bible linked with the Magdalene.
But, one may ask, why here? There are several churches dedicated to Mary Magdalene in this region, yet none have the extraordinary luxury in which the church of Rennes is draped. Indeed. Rennes is more special than others. For there is something about the location of this village that has made it special; something, it seems, which our ancestors knew long before Saunière became village priest. That “something special” is that Rennes was a place “out of time”. The veil between the worlds is specifically thin in Rennes, which is why there has been a religious sanctuary on this site for many thousands of years. Saunière, a child of the area, knew this and made sure that he was able to tap into this energy, and inject it into the very buildings he was creating. When one speaks of the magic of Rennes-le-Château, one is not talking symbolically; it is to be interpreted literally.

Part I: Background

Chapter 1: History of a Village

The mystery of Rennes-le-Château is popularly known to begin in the late 19th century, but the village dates back many centuries, if not millennia, before. Southern France has revealed some of the earliest traces of Mankind; Tautavel, approximately a two hour drive to the east, has some of the earliest human skulls, dating to half a million years ago, while cave art dating back 20,000 years has been found to the north and south of this region. Graves dating back 50,000 years have been found in the general vicinity of Rennes.
The specific region around Rennes became more important as civilization spread. Around 300 BC, there were signs of Celtic occupation, known as the “Redones”, the name of which lived on as Rhedae, the capital of Septimania, during the Visigothic era, which was the early 5th century. It is commonly believed that Rhedae was located at Rennes-le-Château. In my opinion, Rhedae was the general area around Rennes, including the twin hilltop next to Rennes, le Casteillas, which has received all too little attention in this enigma.
The area was next occupied by the Romans, whose presence is clearly visible in Alet-les-Bains and Rennes-les-Bains, but less so in Rennes-le-Château. It is said, nevertheless, that on a hill near Rennes, there was once a Roman or Greek temple, which was completely removed some years ago. Equally, it is believed that there was a religious structure in Rennes itself, and that the current church of Mary Magdalene and/or the old village church of St Peter was constructed on top of this sanctuary, which is commonly believed to have been a temple of Isis. Temples dedicated to Isis often became Christianized as churches dedicated to Mary Magdalene, if only because her feastday, July 22, coincided with the rising of the Dog Star, which in Ancient Egypt was sacred to Isis.
Archaeological evidence for the existence of a Temple of Isis in Rennes is currently missing, but it is known that there are a series of underground tunnels underneath all of thesstructures in the village. Equally, it is known that under the church once sat a water reservoir, which was intricately linked with the crypt of the lords of Rennes. Such networks in remote times were often the seat of mystery cults, in which an initiate was led down these tunnels, to the central hall, where there was often an encounter with a priestess or prophetess. The waters that led to this central hall were often linked with the waters of the River Styx, the River of the Dead. It is highly likely that once the Romans forbade such initiatory practices, the central hall was later reworked into the crypt where the lords of Rennes would rest, and likely still rest. Once a Kingdom of Dead, always at kingdom of the dead, it seems.

There are various documents that paint a widely diverse history as to which saints were worshipped in the various churches of the village. In the 8th century, there were apparently two churches, one dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the other to John the Baptist. At the time, there was apparently a “third section” in the village, known as la Capello, and there were the vestiges of an ancient church. In 1059, the chapel of the Lords, linked to the castle, is believed to have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and it is believed that this is now known as the church of Mary Magdalene, though other sources argue this church was dedicated to Mary Magdalene, not the Virgin Mary.
In 1062, the Franks invaded Rhedae, which is said to have had 30,000 inhabitants. It is simply impossible that 30,000 people lived on the small hilltop of Rennes, so it is clear that if Rhedae was Rennes-le-Château, these people lived in the valleys and surrounding area, maybe as far down the hill as Couiza.
In the 12th century, the Lord of Bézu and two brothers of the de Reddas family, became Knights Templar. The name “de Reddas” is thought to be linked with Rennes – Rhedae – but there is no absolute certainty about this. One Pierre de Redas became Pierre de St Jean when he entered the order and it is thought that he was far more of a monk than a warrior. In 1156, he became the master of the Order of the Temple in the Aude region, underlining the importance of the family in local history.
The entire region suffered greatly from the Cathar Crusade which occurred at the start of the 13th century. The reason is simple: most of the people in this region were adherents of Catharism and many, to this day, have not forsaken their alliance to his “heresy”. As a rule, French noblemen from the north were given territory in the south for their support to the crusade. Simon de Montfort, the brutal leader of the Papal forces, is said to have given Rennes-le-Château to Pierre de Voisins, the family that would take up residence in the castle that would give the town the second half of its name.
Under their rule, Rennes was attacked a number of times, in 1360 by thieves and brigands, and in 1362, by the count of Trastamarre. These raids destroyed the town and the church of St Peter was forever abandoned as a place of worship. If you venture out into the village, you will come upon a small building, now used as a shed, which is all that remains of this church, the little square on which it stands still retaining the name of Peter (Pierre in French).
On June 3, 1422, Jeanne de Montesquieu married Pierre-Raymond de Hautpoul. As a result of this union, the barony of Rennes was bequeathed to the Hautpoul family. In 1762, the last heir to the title of Hautpoul died, leaving Marie (born Negri Dables) a widow. In 1781, she died at the age of 67, leaving the village priest, Antoine Bigou, to organize her burial. It is Marie’s tomb that is said to have started the mystery.
A decade later, Bigou himself was forced to flee the region as a result of the French Revolution. It is said that he left clues behind for one of his eventual successors, so that he could understand the mystery of Rennes, which Bigou and likely many of his predecessors had kept. It is believed that Saunière, a century later, was “the one” who understood the clues and continued what had been interrupted by the French Revolution. It was what would make Saunière “the billion dollar priest”.

Chapter 2: The Enigmatic Bérenger Saunière

Bérenger Saunière was born in the small village of Montazels, on April 11, 1852, the eldest son of the seven children of Joseph and Marguerite Saunière. In 1874, he began his training for the priesthood. Ordained in 1879, in 1885, he was appointed to Rennes-le-Château, close to his native home.
It is with this appointment that the mystery of Rennes-le-Château truly began, though it is said that it was only in 1891 that he stumbled upon a veritable treasure, which would allow him to create a very imaginative church and estate. However, more than a century onwards, no-one has been able to identify what precisely Saunière found. But an analysis of his income makes it apparent that the mystery began years before 1891.

When he arrived in the small village, Saunière found the presbytery uninhabitable, forcing him to take up lodgings with the Dénarnaud family. Their daughter Marie would remain his companion for the rest of his life and would become the heir to his estate and possessions. Though they for obvious reasons could never marry, they did raise children together – she adopted – and whenever there is talk of the mystery of Saunière, one should truly add Marie to it.