Interest in the mystery of Rennes-le-Château,
revived by Dan Brown's book The
Da Vinci Code, has a much longer history. This section is
dedicated to students of the mystery and associated areas of interest
including the Cathars
and Catharism, the Priory
of Sion, the Knights
Templars,
Learn about the mysterious treasure discovered by Abbé
Bérenger Saunière, a French priest in the South
of France. Was it treasure hidden centuries earlier by the Visigoths,
or by the Cathar
refugees from Montsegur,
or by a powerful Knights
Templars?
The area overflows with history. It was here that the Troubadours
emerged, bringing the new concept of Courtly
Love to Europe. At the time the Languedoc was not part of France,
but an independent state under the famous
Counts of Toulouse. It was because the Counts permitted Catharism
to flourish in their lands that the Roman
Catholic Church launched a crusade against the people of the
Languedoc, leading to the siege of famous cities like Carcassonne,
the creation of the Dominican Order, the foundation of the first
Papal Inquisition, and ultimately the annexation of the Languedoc
by the French Crown.
The Cathars
of the Languedoc were accused of Dualism
& Heresy though in truth, they preserved a very early form of
belief from the Early
Christian Church which we now know from recently discovered
Gnostic
Gospels.
Before its annexation the Languedoc was culturally far in advance
of the rest of Europe. Jews were not persecuted as they were throughout
Europe, but allowed to flourish. It is here that the medieval Jewish
Kabbalah was invented, not far from where the The
Tarot was developed, and not far from the birthplace of Nostradamus.
You can read about a number of modern theories. Was the treasure
of Rennes-le-Château
a relic from ancient times, perhaps the Holy
Grail or the Ark
of the Covenant? Is Sacred
Geometry embedded in the Languedoc Countryside? What was the
connection between the Templars
and the Shroud
of Turin? And did the Cathars preserve their teachings in the
mysterious Voynich
Manuscript?
If you want to learn more about these questions from experts like
Henry Lincoln, on location in the Languedoc, you might be interested
in Templar Quest Tours.
If you are more interested in the Cathars of the Languedoc, you
might be more interested in Cathar Country Tours.
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