On Saturday I went to Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin which is just about a twenty minute drive from Edinburgh, if that. I went with my flatmate Sophie and our friend Mags. It was a great quick trip to see something new especially since I've been craving a bit of an exploration. I'm too busy with school work right now to take any weekend trips so this gave me enough travel and history to last a little bit.
We headed up in time for the 2pm tour. I knew we'd have to pay a bit but I thought the price was for the tour. I was fairly shocked to learn you had to pay just to see the building. They have it set up so that you can't walk up to it unless you go through the gift shop/entrance and pay. While I know the 6.10 pounds (student concession price) I paid was going to the conservation of the building, I feel like you should at least be able to walk around the outside without having to pay since it is, after all, a working chapel with Sunday service. But I didn't mind too much.
You couldn't take pictures of the inside of the chapel so I bought a postcard. The carvings were magnificent! I can't imagine how long it took to make it. The guided tour was nice (although calling it a tour was a bit of a stretch...someone just talks in the centre of the chapel and it's so small that you'd hear what they were saying anyway) and I learned a lot about the history.
This chapel was used in The Da Vinci Code. They built a recplica of the church since it was going under reconstruction and only did one small scene inside. The movie makers added a Star of David over the stairwell downstairs and when they took it off, it left a white circle from the glue. Attendance has gone from 30,000 a year to 175,000 a year since The Da Vinci Code came out. The chapel is supposedly filled with the treasures of the world, as well as the Holy Grail.
After the tour, we went outside to take a few pictures. A nice old man came up to us and offered to take the picture of the three of us. And then he offered to tell us the secrets of Rosslyn Chapel. I can't remember everything he said. It was one of those occasions where I wish I'd been carrying a pen and paper or a recorder. It was one of those things where if he hadn't offered to walk around the outside of the tiny chapel with us, we would have missed all of this great information. His history was all about the Templar Knights while the tour guide kind of scoffed at the idea with a 'you see what you want to see' kind of thing.
We walked around to the back of the chapel and he pointed out into the distance and told us that there are two hills that meet and at the point where they meet, it is exactly east on the compass. Twice a year on the solstice, the sun lines directly up with the hills and once every seven years, Mercury lines up there as well. There is also a time every now and again (can’t remember) where Venus meets up there. If you look behind you, there is a stone carving of the (Roman) god Mercury in his winged helmet looking out over this.
According to this mysterious man, a skull and cross bone marks the sign of a Masonic graveyard. Two skulls on a crossbone marks the burial of a Knight of the Templar. There was one on the chapel. He said there are a number of knights in full armour buried in the crypt.
He also pointed out to us that the sign of the Knights are four swords meeting together to form the shape of a cross. He said that at one point it is believed the Knights Templar left France with their treasure and that half of it landed at Leith (Edinburgh's port). The castle at Roslin was once where the chapel was but the lord moved the castle a little bit aways and built the chapel over its dungeons. Now, why would he do that if he wasn't hiding an amazing treasure and needed to prevent people from digging? The church made the ground consecrated. :)
I'm so happy the nice old man approached us. Even if what he was saying wasn't true, it was fun to hear the stories. No wonder Dan Brown chose to write about all this! I wouldn't have been able to resist it all either!
