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Rosslyn Chapel
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Rosslyn Chapel, also known as the Collegiate Chapel of Saint Matthew, is a 15th-century Episcopal chapel located in the village of Roslin in Midlothian, Scotland. The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness with a ground-breaking ceremony in 1456. After the Scottish Reformation in 1560, it was largely abandoned but, following a visit by Queen Victoria, it was rededicated in 1862. It was the target of a bombing in 1914 during the suffragette bombing and arson campaign. The interior contains some fine carvings which many historians have sought to interpret.
Key Information
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Since the late 1980s, the chapel has been the subject of speculative theories concerning a connection with the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail, and Freemasonry. It was prominently featured in this role in Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code (2003) and its 2006 film adaptation. Medieval historians say these accounts have no basis in fact. Rosslyn Chapel remains privately owned.
- North entrance
- South entrance
- Choir
- North aisle
- South aisle
- Lady chapel
- Altar
- Master pillar
- Apprentice pillar
- Sacristy
- Baptistery
- North transept
- South transept
History
[edit]Early history
[edit]The chapel is dedicated to Saint Matthew the Evangelist and was founded on a small hill above Roslin Glen as a collegiate church (with between four and six ordained canons and two boy choristers) in the mid-15th century. The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness of the Scoto-Norman Sinclair family. Rosslyn Chapel is the third Sinclair place of worship at Roslin, the first being in Roslin Castle and the second (whose crumbling buttresses can still be seen today) in what is now Roslin Cemetery.[2]
Sinclair founded the college to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours throughout the day and night, and also to celebrate Catholic Masses for all the faithful departed, including the deceased members of the Sinclair family. During this period, the rich heritage of plainsong (a single melodic line) or polyphony (vocal harmony) were used to enrich the singing of the liturgy. Sinclair provided an endowment to pay for the support of the priests and choristers in perpetuity.[3]
After the Scottish Reformation in 1560, Catholic worship in the chapel was brought to an end. The chapel's altars were destroyed in 1592.[a]
In 1842 the chapel, then in a ruined and overgrown state, was visited by Queen Victoria, who expressed a desire that it should be preserved. Restoration work was carried out in 1862 by David Bryce on behalf of James Alexander, 3rd Earl of Rosslyn.[5] The chapel was rededicated on 22 April 1862, and from this time, Sunday services were once again held, now under the jurisdiction of the Scottish Episcopal Church.[6]
1914 bombing
[edit]The chapel was the subject of a terrorist attack on 11 July 1914, when a bomb exploded inside the building.[7][8] This was as part of the suffragette bombing and arson campaign of 1912–1914, in which suffragettes carried out a series of politically motivated bombing and arson attacks nationwide as part of their campaign for women's suffrage.[9] Churches were a particular target during the campaign, as it was believed that the Church of England was complicit in reinforcing opposition to women's suffrage.[10] Between 1913 and 1914, 32 churches were attacked nationwide.[11] In the weeks leading up to the attack, there were also bombings at Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral.[9]
Restoration, conservation and tourism
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The Rosslyn Chapel Trust was established in 1995, with the purpose of overseeing its conservation and its opening as a sightseeing destination. The chapel underwent an extensive programme of conservation between 1997 and 2013. This included work to the roof, the stone, the carvings, the stained glass and the organ.[12] A steel canopy was erected over the chapel roof for fourteen years. This was to prevent further rain damage to the church and also to give it a chance to dry out properly. Three human skeletons were found during the restoration.[13] Major stonework repairs were completed by the end of 2011. The last major scaffolding was removed in August 2010.[14]
A new visitor centre opened in July 2011. The chapel's stained-glass windows and organ were fully restored. New lighting and heating were installed.[14] The expected cost of the restoration work is around £13 million, with about £3.7 million being spent on the Visitor Centre. Funding has come from various sources including Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland and the environmental body, WREN. Actor Tom Hanks also made a donation.[14]
Photography and video have been forbidden in the chapel since 2008. The chapel sells commercially produced photos in its shop.[15] In 2006, historian Louise Yeoman criticised the Rosslyn Chapel trust for "cashing in" on the popularity of The Da Vinci Code, against better knowledge.[16]
In the financial year of 2013–14, Rosslyn Chapel recorded 144,823 visitors, the highest number since 2007–08, when (at the height of popular interest induced by The Da Vinci Code), the number of visitors was close to 159,000.[17] The current owner is Peter St Clair-Erskine, 7th Earl of Rosslyn.[18]
Architecture
[edit]
The original plans for Rosslyn have never been found or recorded, so it is open to speculation whether or not the chapel was intended to be built in its current layout. Its architecture is considered to be among the finest in Scotland.[19]
Construction of the chapel began on 20 September 1456, although it has often been recorded as 1446. The confusion over the building date comes from the chapel's receiving its founding charter to build a collegiate chapel in 1446 from Rome.[20]
Although the original building was to be cruciform, it was never completed. Only the choir was constructed, with the retro-chapel, otherwise called the Lady chapel, built on the much earlier crypt (Lower Chapel) believed to form part of an earlier castle. The foundations of the unbuilt nave and transepts stretching to a distance of 90 feet were recorded in the 19th century. Construction of the planned nave and transepts was abandoned.[21]
The Lower Chapel (also known as the crypt or sacristy) should not be confused with the burial vaults that lie underneath Rosslyn Chapel.[2]
The chapel stands on fourteen pillars, which form an arcade of twelve pointed arches on three sides of the nave. At the east end, a fourteenth pillar between the penultimate pair form a three-pillared division between the nave and the Lady chapel.[22] The three pillars at the east end of the chapel are named, from north to south: the Master Pillar, the Journeyman Pillar and, most famously, the Apprentice Pillar.[23]
Apprentice pillar
[edit]
One of the more notable architectural features of the chapel is the "Apprentice Pillar, or "Prentice Pillar". Originally called the "Prince's Pillar" (in the 1778 document An Account of the Chapel of Roslin)[24] the name morphed over time due to a legend dating from the 18th century, involving the master mason in charge of the stonework in the chapel and his young apprentice mason. According to the legend, the master mason did not believe that the apprentice could perform the complicated task of carving the column without seeing the original which formed the inspiration for the design. The master mason travelled to see the original himself, but upon his return was enraged to find that the upstart apprentice had completed the column by himself. In a fit of jealous anger, the master mason took his mallet and struck the apprentice on the head, killing him. The legend concludes that as punishment for his crime, the master mason's face was carved into the opposite corner to forever gaze upon his apprentice's pillar.[25]
On the architrave joining the pillar there is an inscription, Forte est vinum fortior est rex fortiores sunt mulieres super omnia vincit veritas: "Wine is strong, a king is stronger, women are stronger still, but truth conquers all" (1 Esdras, chapters 3 & 4).[26]
The author Henning Klovekorn has proposed that the pillar is representative of one of the roots of the Nordic Yggdrasil tree, prominent in Germanic and Norse mythology.[27] The general form of the pillar has been related to a type described by the French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc as a "bunch of sausages."[28]
A full-size plaster cast of the Apprentice Pillar and the adjacent bay of the chapel was made in 1871, and is in the Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.[29]
Carvings
[edit]Among Rosslyn's many intricate carvings are a sequence of 213 cubes or "boxes" protruding from pillars and arches with a selection of patterns on them. It is unknown if these patterns have any particular meaning attached to them. Many people have attempted to find information coded into them, but no interpretation has yet proven conclusive. Unfortunately, many of these 'boxes' are not original, having been replaced in the 19th century after erosion damage.[30]
One recent attempt to make sense of the boxes has been to interpret them as a musical score. The motifs on the boxes somewhat resemble geometric patterns seen in the study of cymatics. The patterns are formed by placing powder upon a flat surface and vibrating the surface at different frequencies. By matching these Chladni patterns with musical notes corresponding to the same frequencies, the father-and-son team of Thomas and Stuart Mitchell produced a tune which Stuart calls the Rosslyn Motet.[31][32]
There are more than 110 carvings of "Green Men" in and around the chapel. Green Men are carvings of human faces with greenery all around them, often growing out of their mouths. They are found in all areas of the chapel, with one example in the Lady chapel, between the two middle altars of the east wall.[33]
Other carvings represent plants, including depictions of wheat, strawberries or lilies.[34] The authors Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight have hypothesised that some carvings in the chapel represent ears of new world corn or maize, a plant which was unknown in Europe at the time of the chapel's construction.[35] In their book they discuss meeting with the wife of botanist Adrian Dyer, and that Dyer's wife told him that Dyer agreed that the image thought to be maize was accurate.[35] In fact, Dyer found only one identifiable plant among the botanical carvings and suggested that the "maize" and "aloe" were stylised wooden patterns, only coincidentally looking like real plants.[36]
Crypt
[edit]The chapel has been a burial place for several generations of the Sinclairs; a crypt was once accessible from a descending stair at the rear of the chapel. This crypt has been sealed shut for many years, which may explain the recurrent legends that it is merely a front to a more extensive subterranean vault containing (variously) the mummified head of Jesus Christ,[37] the Holy Grail,[38] the treasure of the Templars,[39] or the original crown jewels of Scotland.[40]
In 1837, when the 2nd Earl of Rosslyn died, his wish was to be buried in the original vault. Exhaustive searches over the period of a week were made, but no entrance to the original vault was found and he was buried beside his wife in the Lady Chapel.[41]
Rooftop pinnacle
[edit]The pinnacles on the rooftop have been subject to interest during renovation work in 2010. Nesting jackdaws had made the pinnacles unstable and as such had to be dismantled brick by brick revealing the existence of a chamber specifically made by the stonemasons to harbour bees. The hive, now abandoned, has been sent to local bee keepers to identify.[42]
Burials
[edit]- William Alexander (1690–1761) Lord Provost of Edinburgh, outside to north-east
- Sir William Alexander (d.1842) outside, to north-east
- Sheila Chisholm (1895–1969), Australian socialite and "it girl" in British high society during and after World War I,[43] who was the mother of Anthony St Clair-Erskine, 6th Earl of Rosslyn
- William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness (in the choir)
- James St Clair-Erskine, 3rd Earl of Rosslyn
- James St Clair-Erskine, 2nd Earl of Rosslyn (in the Lady Chapel)
- Lady Angela St Clair-Erskine, daughter of the 4th Earl.
- Anthony St Clair-Erskine, 6th Earl of Rosslyn
In popular culture
[edit]Templar and Masonic connections
[edit]The chapel became the subject of speculation regarding its supposed connection with the Knights Templar or Freemasonry beginning in the 1980s.[44] This part of its history was referenced in the DC Comics storyline Batman: Scottish Connection, in which the hero Batman becomes caught up in an old vendetta between two Scottish clans during a visit to Scotland, this mystery including the discovery of an ancient treasure trove hidden in Rosslyn.[45]
The topic entered mainstream pop culture with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (2003), reinforced by the subsequent film of the same name (2006).[46] Numerous books were published after 2003 to cater to the popular interest in supposed connections between Rosslyn Chapel, Freemasonry, the Templars and the Holy Grail generated by Brown's novel.[47]
The chapel, built 150 years after the dissolution of the Knights Templar, supposedly has many Templar symbols, such as the "Two riders on a single horse" that appear on the Knights Templar Seal. William Sinclair 3rd Earl of Orkney, Baron of Roslin and 1st Earl of Caithness, claimed by novelists to be a hereditary Grand Master of the Scottish stonemasons, built Rosslyn Chapel.[48] A later William Sinclair of Roslin became the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and, subsequently, several other members of the Sinclair family have held this position.[49]
Robert L. D. Cooper, curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland Museum and Library, in 2003 published a 12th edition of the 1892 Illustrated Guide to Rosslyn Chapel with the intention of countering the "nonsense published about Rosslyn Chapel over the last 15 years or so".[50] Cooper in 2006 also published Rosslyn Hoax? in which he actively debunks this type of speculation at length and in great detail. An example is the comparison of the Rosslyn myth of the Apprentice Pillar with that of the allegorical references to Hiram Abiff in Masonic ritual, and in the process he debunks any similarities between the two. A minute comparison between the Rosslyn Myth and the Masonic allegory can be found in a detailed tabular form in The Rosslyn Hoax?[51]
Cooper further debunks other claims of a connection between carvings within Rosslyn Chapel and Scottish Freemasonry. The suggestion that the Apprentice Pillar is a physical reference to the Entered Apprentice degree of Scottish Freemasonry logically led to the conclusion that the other two pillars (in line south to north with the so-called Apprentice Pillar) represented the Fellow of Craft degree (middle pillar) and the Master Mason's degree (north pillar). This association of three pillars in the east part of Rosslyn Chapel with the three degrees of Scottish Freemasonry is impossible, given the fact that (according to Cooper) the third degree of Freemasonry was invented c.1720 - almost 300 years after Rosslyn Chapel was founded.[52]
The claim that the layout of Rosslyn Chapel echoes that of Solomon's Temple[48] has been analysed by Mark Oxbrow and Ian Robertson in their book, Rosslyn and the Grail:
Rosslyn Chapel bears no more resemblance to Solomon's or Herod's Temple than a house brick does to a paperback book. If you superimpose the floor plans of Rosslyn Chapel and either Solomon's or Herod's Temple, you will actually find that they are not even remotely similar. Writers admit that the chapel is far smaller than either of the temples. They freely scale the plans up or down in an attempt to fit them together. What they actually find are no significant similarities at all. [...] If you superimpose the floor plans of Rosslyn Chapel and the East Quire of Glasgow Cathedral you will find a startling match: the four walls of both buildings fit precisely. The East Quire of Glasgow is larger than Rosslyn, but the designs of these two medieval Scottish buildings are virtually identical. They both have the same number of windows and the same number of pillars in the same configuration. [...] The similarity between Rosslyn Chapel and Glasgow's East Quire is well established. Andrew Kemp noted that 'the entire plan of this Chapel corresponds to a large extent with the choir of Glasgow Cathedral' as far back as 1877 in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries. Many alternative history writers are well aware of this but fail to mention it in their books.[34]
As to a possible connection between the St. Clairs and the Knights Templar, the family testified against the Templars when that Order was put on trial in Edinburgh in 1309.[34] Historian Dr. Louise Yeoman, along with other medieval scholars, says the Knights Templar connection is false, and points out that Rosslyn Chapel was built by William Sinclair so that Mass could be said for the souls of his family.[53]
It is also claimed that other carvings in the chapel reflect Masonic imagery, such as the way that hands are placed in various figures. One carving may show a blindfolded man being led forward with a noose around his neck. The carving has been eroded by time and pollution and is difficult to make out clearly. The chapel was built in the 15th century, and the earliest records of freemasonic lodges date back only to the late 16th and early 17th centuries.[54] A more likely explanation, however, is that the Masonic imagery was added at a later date. This may have taken place in the 1860s when James St Clair-Erskine, 3rd Earl of Rosslyn instructed Edinburgh architect David Bryce, a known Freemason, to undertake restoration work on areas of the church including many of the carvings.[55]
Alternative histories
[edit]Alternative histories involving Rosslyn Chapel and the Sinclairs have been published by Andrew Sinclair and Tim Wallace-Murphy arguing links with the Knights Templar and the supposed descendants of Jesus Christ. The books in particular by Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins Rex Deus: The True Mystery of Rennes-le-Château and the Dynasty of Jesus (2000) and Custodians of Truth: The Continuance of Rex Deus (2005) have focused on the hypothetical Jesus bloodline with the Sinclairs and Rosslyn Chapel.[56]
On the ABC documentary Jesus, Mary and Da Vinci, aired on 3 November 2003, Niven Sinclair hinted that the descendants of Jesus Christ existed within the Sinclair families. These alternative histories are relatively modern - not dating back before the early 1990s. The precursor to these Rosslyn theories is the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (retitled Holy Blood, Holy Grail in the United States) by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln that introduced the theory of the Jesus bloodline in relation to the Priory of Sion hoax - the main protagonist of which was Pierre Plantard, who for a time adopted the name Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair.[57]
See also
[edit]
Notes
[edit]- ^ In 1590, the Presbytery forbade George Ramsay, Minister of Lasswade, from burying the wife of Oliver St. Clair in the chapel. The same St. Clair had been repeatedly asked to destroy the chapel's altars because they were taken to represent "monuments of idolatry". St. Clair's tenants were forced to attend the Lasswade Parish Church. In 1592, St. Clair, who had until then refused to destroy the altars, was summoned to appear before the Church of Scotland General Assembly and threatened with excommunication if the altars remained standing after 17 August 1592. On 31 August 1592, George Ramsay reported that the altars of Roslene were haille demolishit.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Rosslyn Chapel (LB13028)". Retrieved 30 November 2016.
- ^ a b Turnbull, Michael, 'Rosslyn Chapel Revealed' (Sutton Publishing Ltd., November 2007) ISBN 0-7509-4467-6 ISBN 978-0750944670
- ^ Klimczuk, Stephen; Warner, Gerald (2009). Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries Uncovering Mysterious Sites, Symbols, and Societies. Sterling Publishing Company. p. 9. ISBN 978-1402762079.
- ^ Carrick, John Charles (1908). The Abbey of S. Mary, Newbottle: a memorial of the royal visit, 1907. G. Lewis & Co. p. 153.
- ^ "Rosslyn Chapel papers available to the public for the first time". Historic Environment Scotland. 28 March 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ "Rosslyn Chapel: Knights Templars and the Da Vinci Code". The Herald. 14 November 2020. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ Metcalfe, Agnes Edith (1917). Woman's Effort: A Chronicle of British Women's Fifty Years' Struggle for Citizenship (1865-1914). B. H. Blackwell. p. 317.
- ^ "Suffragette bombings – City of London Corporation". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
- ^ a b "Suffragettes, violence and militancy". British Library. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
- ^ Webb, Simon (2014). The Suffragette Bombers: Britain's Forgotten Terrorists. Pen and Sword. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-78340-064-5.
- ^ Bearman, C. J. (2005). "An Examination of Suffragette Violence". The English Historical Review. 120 (486): 378. doi:10.1093/ehr/cei119. ISSN 0013-8266. JSTOR 3490924.
- ^ "The Chapel Today". rosslynchapel.org.uk. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ "Rosslyn Chapel remains reburied in grounds". heraldscotland.com. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
- ^ a b c "Rosslyn Chapel's resurrection revealed". The Scotsman. 12 August 2010. Archived from the original on 23 October 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ "Rosslyn Chapel - FAQs". Retrieved 18 October 2012.
- ^ "What really upsets me is that they know the Knights Templar connection is false, yet they still perpetuate the myth on their interpretation boards." "Historian attacks Rosslyn Chapel for 'cashing in on Da Vinci Code'". The Scotsman. 3 May 2006. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
- ^ "Scaffolding coming down helps visitor numbers go up". www.rosslynchapel.com (Press release). Rosslyn Chapel Trust. 7 April 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
- ^ "About Rosslyn Chapel". RosslynChapel.org.uk. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
- ^ Dunton, Larkin (1896). The World and Its People. Silver, Burdett. p. 66.
- ^ Cowie, Ashley (2006). The Rosslyn Matrix. Wicker World. p. 89. ISBN 978-0955362309.
- ^ Historical and descriptive account of Rosslyn Chapel and castle. Oliver & Boyd. 1827. p. 4.
- ^ Wallace-Murphy, Tim; Hopkins, Marilyn. Rosslyn: Guardians of the Secrets of the Holy Grail, Element Books, 1999, p. 8, ISBN 1-86204-493-7.
- ^ Cowie, Ashley (2006). The Rosslyn Matrix. Wicker World. p. 35. ISBN 978-0955362309.
- ^ Forbes, Robert An Account of the Chapel of Roslin. (reprint ed. Cooper, Robert L. D., Grand Lodge of Scotland, 2000. ISBN 0-902324-61-6)
- ^ Dr Forbes, Bishop of Caithness, An Account of the Chapel of Rosslyn, 1774; cited in Rosslyn Chapel (1997) by the Earl of Rosslyn, p. 27.
- ^ Black's Picturesque Tourist of Scotland. Adam Black. 1859. p. 93.
- ^ Klovekorn, Henning. The 99 Degrees of Freemasonry. Cornerstone, 2007 ISBN 1-887560-82-3.
- ^ Finlay, Ian, Scottish Crafts, Harrap (1948), p. 23, "On en voit un (pilier) composé de gros boudins en spirale dans l'église de Sainte-Croix de Provins," Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire Raisonné de l’Architecture Française du XIe au XVIe siècle/Pilier
- ^ "Casts in Focus: Rosslyn Chapel". vam.ac.uk. 20 September 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
- ^ Gardner, Claire (8 January 2009). "Japanese bid to solve mystery of the Rosslyn cubes". Rosslyn Templars. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ Mitchell, Thomas (2006). Rosslyn Chapel: The Music of the Cubes. Diversions Books. ISBN 0-9554629-0-8.
- ^ "Tune into the Da Vinci coda". The Scotsman. 26 April 2006. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
- ^ "Celebrating the 'Green Men' of Rosslyn Chapel". Midlothian View. 18 May 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ a b c Oxbrow, Mark; Robertson, Ian (2005). Rosslyn and the Grail. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-84596-076-9.
- ^ a b Knight, Christopher; Lomas, Robert. The Hiram Key. Fair Winds Press, 2001 ISBN 1-931412-75-8.
- ^ Turnbull, Michael TRB (6 August 2009). "Rosslyn Chapel". BBC. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
- ^ Laidler, Keith, The Head of God – The Lost Treasure of the Templars (1998).
- ^ Wallace-Murphy, Tim; Hopkins, Marilyn, Rosslyn: Guardian of Secrets of the Holy Grail (1999).
- ^ Robert Lomas, The Origins of Freemasonry
- ^ Ralls-MacLeod, Karen; Robertson, Ian, The Quest for the Celtic Key (2002).
- ^ Donaldson's Guide to Rosslyn Chapel published 1862.
- ^ "Rosslyn Chapel was haven for bees". BBC News. 30 March 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ Walker, Ruth (1 February 2014). "Remarkable journey of Margaret Sheila Mackellar". The Scotsman. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
- ^ The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982), Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry Hardcover John J. Robinson, Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry Hardcover (1989), Michael Baigent The Temple and the Lodge (1991), Coppens, Philip. The Stone Puzzle of Rosslyn Chapel. Frontier Publishing/Adventures Unlimited Press (2002).
- ^ Batman: Scottish Connection by Alan Grant and Frank Quitely, September 1998
- ^ "Hollywood legend Tom Hanks makes donation to Rosslyn Chapel restoration". The Scotsman. 6 February 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ e.g.: Mark Oxbrow and Ian Robertson, Rosslyn and The Grail. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing (2005), Ashley Cowie. The Rosslyn Templar (2009), Alan Butler and John Ritchie, Rosslyn Revealed, A Library in Stone (2006), Alan Butler and John Ritchie, Rosslyn Chapel Decoded: New Interpretations of a Gothic Enigma (2013).
- ^ a b Burstein, Dan (2004). Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind the Da Vinci Code, p. 248. CDS Books. ISBN 1-59315-022-9.
- ^ National Geographic Channel. Knights Templar, 22 February 2006 video documentary. Written by Jesse Evans.
- ^ "Book Review" at the Grand Lodge of Scotland website: "There has been so much nonsense published about Rosslyn Chapel over the last 15 years or so that it is now extremely difficult to know what is nonsense and what is accurate."
- ^ Robert L D Cooper, The Rosslyn Hoax?, Lewis Masonic 2006, pp. 173–4
- ^ Robert L D Cooper, The Rosslyn Hoax?, Lewis Masonic 2006, pp. 146–7
- ^ "Historian attacks Rosslyn Chapel for 'cashing in on Da Vinci Code'". The Scotsman. 3 May 2006. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
- ^ History page from the website of the United Grand Lodge of England
- ^ "The St Clair Family". rosslynchapel.org.uk. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
- ^ Wallace-Murphy, Tim; Hopkins, Marilyn (2005). Custodians of the Truth: The Continuance of Rex Deus. Red Wheel/Weiser. ISBN 978-1578633234.
- ^ Baigent, Michael; Leigh, Richard; Lincoln, Henry (1982). The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-01735-7.
Further reading
[edit]- Cooper, Robert L. D. The Rosslyn Hoax?. Lewis Masonic. 2006. ISBN 0-85318-255-8.
- Forbes, Robert An Account of the Chapel of Roslin. (reprint ed. Cooper, Robert L. D., Grand Lodge of Scotland, 2000. ISBN 0-902324-61-6).
- Hay, Richard Augustin, Genealogie of the Sainteclaires of Rosslyn. 1835 (reprint ed. Robert L. D. Cooper, Grand Lodge of Scotland. 2002. ISBN 0-902324-63-2).
- Thompson, John, The Illustrated Guide to Rosslyn Chapel and Castle, Hawthornden &c., 1st ed. 1892 (12th edition, Robert L. D. Cooper (ed.), Masonic Publishing Co. 2003. ISBN 0-9544268-1-9).
- Peter St Clair-Erskine, 7th Earl of Rosslyn, Rosslyn Chapel, Rosslyn Chapel Trust, 1997.
External links
[edit]
- Official Rosslyn Chapel website
- Congregation website
- Rosslyn Chapel's extraordinary carvings explained at last — an article on Rosslyn's Green Men, and an associated reading of its carvings, from The Scotsman
- QuickTime Virtual Reality Image of Rosslyn Chapel by Jonathan Greet, View 2
- "The Rosslyn Templar", a book about the pastel painting by R T McPherson in 1836 of a "Templar Knight at Roslin Chapel" with new photographs of the Chapel
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Rosslyn Chapel
View on GrokipediaFounding and Historical Context
Origins and Patronage
Rosslyn Chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, third Earl of Orkney and first Earl of Caithness, a prominent Scottish nobleman of the Sinclair family, as a private collegiate church intended primarily for familial worship and the performance of masses for the souls of the deceased.[5][2] The chapel was dedicated to St. Matthew in 1450, reflecting late medieval practices among wealthy patrons seeking to secure perpetual prayers through an endowed institution staffed by a provost, six prebendaries, and two chaplains.[2][6] The patronage arose from the Sinclair family's substantial resources, accumulated through their hereditary earldom of Orkney—originally granted by Norwegian kings in the 14th century—and extensive mainland Scottish estates, which provided the fiscal capacity to endow the chapel with lands such as those in Pentland for sustaining its clerical establishment.[7][8] This act of foundation aligned with causal incentives of medieval nobility: bolstering familial piety by ensuring intercessory rites to mitigate purgatorial suffering, while elevating the patrons' social and spiritual status amid the era's emphasis on posthumous salvation.[6] The Sinclairs' Norse-Scots heritage and prior roles in Scottish governance further contextualized such endowments as pragmatic assertions of influence, unencumbered by later speculative attributions to esoteric orders. The site was selected adjacent to Rosslyn Castle, the Sinclair baronial seat in Midlothian, to maintain proprietary oversight of the chapel's operations and integrate it into the family's fortified domain for exclusive access and defense.[9] This proximity facilitated direct patronage control, with initial endowments drawn from appropriated church properties, underscoring the era's interplay between secular nobility and ecclesiastical resources.[8]Construction Timeline
Construction of Rosslyn Chapel began in 1446, initiated by Sir William St Clair, 3rd Prince of Orkney and 1st Earl of Caithness, as a collegiate church intended for his family's use, with provisions for a provost, six prebendaries, and two choristers.[2] The project received papal endorsement via a founding charter issued that year, authorizing the establishment and directing masons in its execution under St Clair's oversight.[10] Foundations were laid progressively, reflecting meticulous planning evident in surviving mason's marks and preparatory drawings in the adjacent sacristy.[11] By 1450, the chapel was dedicated as the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, with the eastern end—including the choir and lady chapel—sufficiently advanced to support liturgical functions, prioritizing usability over full completion.[2] Construction advanced methodically thereafter, focusing on intricate stone vaulting and carvings, under the directive of St Clair family records and stylistic hallmarks of mid-15th-century Late Gothic architecture prevalent in Scotland.[1] Work culminated in the completion of the vaulted roof by 1484, coinciding with St Clair's death that year; he was interred within the chapel.[2] [1] The structure, limited to the choir, partial aisles, and eastern elements without the intended cruciform nave or western extensions, halted due to the patron's demise and subsequent funding constraints under his heirs, who opted to enclose the west end protectively rather than expand.[2] This incompleteness is corroborated by the chapel's floor plan remnants and historical accounts in Sinclair genealogies, underscoring reliance on the founder's personal resources.[1]Architectural Intent and Influences
Rosslyn Chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, 1st Earl of Caithness, as the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, designed to accommodate a body of priests performing daily masses for the salvation of his family's souls, functioning effectively as a proprietary mausoleum and private oratory.[1] The structure was envisioned as the chancel of a larger cruciform church, but construction halted with only this eastern segment realized by St Clair's death in 1484, after which his son Oliver completed the vaulted roof.[1] This intent underscores a practical emphasis on familial perpetuity through ecclesiastical patronage, leveraging the chapel's enduring stone fabric for perpetual commemoration amid Scotland's feudal nobility. The chapel embodies late Gothic architecture prevalent in 15th-century Scotland, marked by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and an exceptional density of carved ornamentation that prioritizes vertical emphasis and structural lightness derived from Romanesque precedents refined over centuries.[12] Stylistic influences stem from Anglo-Scottish interactions, incorporating linear window tracery and pendant fan vaults akin to English Perpendicular Gothic, alongside decorative exuberance echoing continental Rayonnant traditions, all executed by local masons possibly augmented by itinerant European craftsmen.[12] [13] Constructed from proximate Midlothian sandstone, these features highlight regional adaptations that amplified ornamental complexity without structural innovation, distinguishing it from plainer Scottish Gothic peers like Glasgow Cathedral while evidencing mastery of weight-distributing vaulting techniques.[12] Proportional schemas in the design may typologically reference Solomon's Temple—a recurrent Gothic motif symbolizing eschatological fulfillment and divine geometry in Christian liturgy—yet contemporary records and fabric analysis affirm no causal link to esoteric or non-European models, privileging instead empirical Gothic evolution through verifiable masonry precedents.[12] This causal realism aligns with the chapel's documented patronage as a conservative expression of orthodox piety, unburdened by later conjectures lacking archival support.
Architectural Features
Gothic Style and Structure
Rosslyn Chapel exhibits a compact rectangular plan, with an overall length of 69 feet, a width of 35 feet, and an interior height reaching 42 feet at the vault apex. The layout includes a main choir, a southeastern Lady Chapel projecting 7.5 feet deep and 15 feet high, a sacristy, and a substructure crypt designed for burials. These elements form a single-vessel nave typical of late medieval collegiate chapels, emphasizing verticality and enclosure without transepts or full clerestory.[3][14] The Gothic style is evident in the use of pointed arches rising from compound piers to support a ribbed barrel vault over the choir, spanning 48 feet and divided into five compartments by transverse stone ribs. This vaulting, constructed from finely cut local sandstone, distributes loads efficiently via radiating and intersecting ribs, a refinement of 12th-century innovations that allowed thinner walls and larger glazed areas. A south aisle and entrance porch, appended to the original footprint, extend the structure laterally after principal works ceased around 1484.[15][16][13] Engineering prowess is demonstrated in features like the Apprentice Pillar, an 8-foot-high spiraled column at the Lady Chapel's junction with the choir, which anchors vault ribs without auxiliary bracing. Finite element modeling and 3D laser surveys conducted in the early 21st century have quantified its load-bearing capacity, confirming compressive stresses within safe limits for the stone's tensile strength, thus validating medieval masons' empirical calculations amid the chapel's partial completion.[17][18]Iconographic Elements and Carvings
The interior of Rosslyn Chapel features extensive stone carvings that predominantly adhere to late medieval Christian iconography, including numerous foliate heads known as Green Men, where foliage emerges from the mouth and eyes of human-like faces. These motifs, appearing in over 100 instances across bosses, corbels, and arches, symbolize themes of rebirth and the cyclical renewal of nature, interpreted within a Christian framework as allegories for spiritual resurrection and the triumph of divine order over chaotic wilderness.[19][3] Such elements coexist with orthodox depictions of angels playing musical instruments, saints, and biblical narratives, underscoring the chapel's role as a didactic space for moral and theological instruction rather than esoteric deviation. Prominent among the moral carvings is an architrave on the south aisle bearing the Seven Deadly Sins—pride, gluttony, anger, envy, sloth, and lust—alongside the Seven Acts of Mercy, executed in 15th-century style to exhort viewers toward virtuous living in accordance with Catholic doctrine.[20][21] These paired reliefs, carved on opposing faces of stone blocks, reflect standard medieval didactic art intended for an illiterate congregation, emphasizing contrition and charity without evidence of heterodox intent. Additional biblical scenes, such as those from the life of Christ and Old Testament precedents, adorn pillars and walls, reinforcing the chapel's foundational purpose as a collegiate foundation for prayer and remembrance of the Sinclair patrons.[22] The vaulted ceiling incorporates 213 cubical bosses adorned with unique patterns of lines and dots, which some modern analysts have proposed represent an early form of musical notation, potentially encoding plainchant melodies associated with the chapel's liturgical use. However, no 15th-century documentation or decipherment key from the construction era substantiates claims of a deliberate "hidden symphony," rendering such interpretations speculative absent corroborative historical evidence.[3] Pillar capitals and the east window's tracery integrate naturalistic motifs of local flora and fauna with heraldic elements of the Sinclair family, such as engrailed crosses and mythical beasts, symbolizing the patron William St Clair's temporal authority harmonized with ecclesiastical piety. These decorative fusions, typical of Scottish Gothic workmanship circa 1446–1484, serve to glorify the founder's lineage while embedding the structure in its regional context, without indications of anomalous or pre-Christian symbolism beyond conventional medieval syncretism.[3][23]Notable Features and Legends
The Apprentice Pillar, located in the southeast corner of the chapel's nave, features a spiraling helical shaft adorned with intricate naturalistic foliage carvings, exemplifying advanced late medieval tracery techniques employed between 1446 and 1484 during the chapel's construction phase.[17] [24] This column, originally documented as the "Prince's Pillar" in an 1778 account of the chapel, demonstrates exceptional stoneworking skill through its twisted dragons at the base—symbolizing elements like the Tree of Life—and finely detailed vegetal motifs that rival contemporary continental Gothic examples.[25] A legend associating the pillar with a murdered apprentice, slain by a jealous master mason upon seeing the superior craftsmanship inspired by a dream, emerged later and lacks contemporary historical corroboration, serving more as an anecdotal moral fable than verifiable event; the tale's attribution underscores the pillar's evident technical prowess rather than authenticated biography.[17] [26] The chapel's crypt, or sacristy, beneath the main structure, functioned as a workshop during construction, with surviving wall drawings providing direct evidence of 15th-century masons' planning and techniques, but explorations in the 19th and 20th centuries—prompted by rumors of sealed chambers hiding artifacts—revealed only structural voids and no significant relics or hidden tombs, debunking sensational claims tied to speculative Templar lore.[11] [27] Externally, the chapel's decorative pinnacles and grotesques reflect the opulent commissions of elite patrons like the Sinclairs, with rooftop pinnacles—such as those dismantled in 2010 during conservation—concealing unexpected features like fossilized beehives accessed via carved floral openings, entered by bees possibly since the 19th century, highlighting unintended utilitarian adaptations amid ornate Gothic excess.[28] [29] Grotesque figures on the north wall and doorways, functioning as both aesthetic guardians and rainwater spouts, embody typical late medieval symbolic exhortations against vice, carved with vigor to adorn the facade's every surface despite weathering.[30] [12]Decline, Damage, and Revival
Post-Reformation Neglect
The Scottish Reformation Parliament of 1560 outlawed the Mass nationwide, curtailing Catholic liturgical use at Rosslyn Chapel, though its collegiate endowments were not immediately seized.[31] By 1571, these endowments were confiscated, compelling the provost and prebendaries to resign and dissolving the chapel's formal ecclesiastical status.[2] In 1592, local authorities ordered the destruction of the altars, with Sinclair family member Oliver St Clair complying and denouncing the structure as a "house and monument of idolatrie," after which it ceased operations as a place of worship and entered disuse.[2] This loss of institutional support and revenue directly precipitated physical deterioration, as the building—unmaintained and exposed—began accumulating damage from weather and neglect. In 1650, amid the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarian forces sacked adjacent Rosslyn Castle and stabled horses within the chapel but refrained from further structural harm.[1] Prolonged abandonment thereafter intensified decay, with unchecked exposure fostering weathering, vegetative overgrowth, and structural instability; by the 1780s, its dilapidated, ivy-clad appearance evoked romantic ruin for visitors like poet Robert Burns.[2] The Sinclair family's diminishing resources, strained by Jacobite allegiances in the 1715 rising and culminating in estate sales after the death of William St Clair in 1778, perpetuated this stasis.[32] Retention as private familial property, however, shielded it from the wholesale demolitions inflicted on state-held Catholic foundations elsewhere in Scotland during the Reformation era.[33]19th-20th Century Interventions
In the early 19th century, the chapel, long neglected after the Reformation, benefited from initial repairs overseen by Edinburgh architect William Burn, addressing structural decay to prevent further deterioration. These efforts laid groundwork for more extensive work, including vegetation removal from the walls and basic roof stabilization, undertaken by Sinclair heirs amid growing public interest in historic preservation. By the 1860s, James Alexander Wedderburn, 3rd Earl of Rosslyn, commissioned David Bryce to restore the interior, focusing on practical measures to render the building weatherproof and suitable for worship after over two centuries of disuse.[34] The restorations culminated in the chapel's rededication on 22 April 1862 by the Episcopal Bishop of Edinburgh, enabling the resumption of regular Sunday services under the Episcopal Church. Bryce's interventions prioritized functional conservation, such as securing vaults and carvings against ongoing exposure, over elaborate reconstruction, reflecting a pragmatic approach to sustaining the structure for ecclesiastical use rather than aesthetic idealization.[2] On 11 July 1914, the chapel sustained targeted damage from a suffragette-placed bomb—a tin of gunpowder ignited by a fuse on an interior window ledge—during the militant campaign for women's suffrage, which scarred the south wall but caused no casualties or widespread structural collapse. Repairs followed promptly, reusing original stone where feasible to maintain authenticity, with full restoration achieved by 1919 amid broader post-war recovery efforts for historic sites.[35][36] Mid-20th-century assessments, including a 1954 report commissioned by Scottish authorities, identified accelerating stonework erosion from weathering, prompting the Episcopal congregation of St. Matthew's—custodians since the 1862 rededication—to implement stabilization measures for the vaults and fabric, safeguarding against environmental decay without major alterations. These interventions underscored a continued emphasis on evidence-based maintenance to preserve the chapel's integrity for ongoing religious and historical purposes.[1]Modern Restoration and Conservation
The Rosslyn Chapel Trust, established in 1995 to oversee conservation and public access, undertook a major 16-year project from 1997 to 2013 focused on reversing damage from prior 20th-century repairs. This effort involved removing cement infills that had trapped moisture and accelerated decay in the chapel's sandstone carvings, meticulously cleaning accumulated grime and pollutants from surfaces using low-pressure water and specialist poultices, and installing protective glazing over vaulted ceilings to shield intricate stonework from weathering while allowing natural light. Funding totaled £9.3 million, sourced from grants including a £4.9 million award in 2007 and increased visitor admissions following the 2003 publication and 2006 film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, which enabled the trust to sustain these interventions without external debt.[37][38][39][40][41][42] Adjacent to the chapel, restoration of Rosslyn Castle ruins commenced in 2022 and concluded in July 2024 with a £4 million initiative fully funded by the Rosslyn Chapel Trust. The project reroofed the Great Hall and Tower for the first time since their destruction in 1650, consolidated unstable stonework using lime-based mortars compatible with historic masonry, and implemented a sustainable ground-source heating system to minimize environmental impact while enabling future adaptive reuse. Drone photography documented progress at hard-to-access heights, providing high-resolution records for ongoing monitoring without scaffolding.[43][44][45][46] From 2023 onward, conservation has emphasized eco-compatible methods amid sustained high visitor traffic, including minimal-intervention cleaning protocols that avoid chemical residues and integrate rainwater harvesting for site maintenance. The trust's sustainability framework prioritizes low-carbon materials and biodiversity enhancements around the structures, with 2026 planning incorporating visitor flow modeling to reduce footfall erosion on carvings. These measures build on post-2013 monitoring to preserve structural integrity against tourism-induced wear.[47][48]Burials and Memorials
Principal Interments
William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness and founder of Rosslyn Chapel, was interred in the chapel following his death on 9 September 1484.[2] His burial marked the cessation of major construction efforts on the incomplete structure.[2] Subsequent Sinclair family members were placed in vaulted tombs beneath the chapel floor, a practice that included interment in full armor as a knightly custom.[2] Sir William Sinclair of Rosslyn, killed at the Battle of Dunbar on 3 September 1650, represents the last documented such burial.[2] The chapel crypt and vaults have accommodated burials across multiple generations of the Sinclair lineage, underscoring familial continuity with the site since its 1446 foundation.[49] As an active Scottish Episcopal parish church, Rosslyn Chapel continues limited interments, including 20th-century Sinclair descendants associated with World War II aviation service, though precise records remain family-held or ecclesiastical.[7] Tomb iconography features Sinclair heraldic motifs, such as the heart-in-hand emblem denoting pledged loyalty and piety.[3]Symbolic Significance of Tombs
The tombs and memorials in Rosslyn Chapel reflect core elements of late medieval Catholic memorial culture, where physical interments and effigies functioned as prompts for intercessory prayers to aid the deceased's passage through purgatory, a doctrinal belief in temporary postmortem purification requiring the living's supplications.[50] Founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, 3rd Prince of Orkney, the chapel served as a collegiate foundation intended to sustain a body of priests dedicated to perpetual masses for the Sinclair family's souls, aligning with widespread pre-Reformation practices across Scotland and England where patrons endowed such institutions to secure spiritual benefits amid anxieties over salvation.[2] This causal mechanism—linking visible patronage to ongoing liturgical aid—underpinned the chapel's design, prioritizing the founder's legacy over esoteric symbolism. Effigies, such as those depicting Sinclair knights in full armor, exemplified standard medieval tomb iconography, portraying the deceased in eternal vigilance or piety to evoke prayers from clergy and visitors during masses, thereby invoking indulgences and alms that were believed to remit temporal punishment for sins.[50] Though specific inscriptions directly soliciting "orations" for souls are not prominently documented in surviving chapel records, the broader epigraphic tradition in comparable Scottish collegiate sites routinely included such pleas, reinforcing the tombs' role in a reciprocal economy of remembrance and redemption rather than secretive agendas.[27] The strategic placement of the family vault beneath the choir ensured proximity to the Eucharistic rites, maximizing exposure to the prayers offered at the altar and embedding the patrons' eternal welfare within the daily rhythm of worship, a layout common in 15th-century foundations to perpetuate familial influence through religious obligation.[2] Following the 1560 Scottish Reformation, which dissolved chantries and curtailed masses for the dead, these tombs faced neglect, yet their structural integrity endured, with comprehensive conservation from 1997 to 2013 stabilizing the vaults without necessitating relocations, preserving their original theological intent amid modern secular interpretations.[48]Legends and Controversies
Sinclair Family Traditions
The Sinclair family, of Norse-Scottish descent tracing to Viking progenitor Hrolf the Ganger (later Rollo) who established Normandy in the 10th century before Norman branches migrated to Scotland as Earls of Orkney, controlled the barony of Roslin in Midlothian from at least 1078.[51] [52] Rosslyn Chapel, constructed starting in 1446 under William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness and Baron of Roslin, capped their local estates as a planned collegiate church staffed by priests to perform masses for deceased family members' salvation, reflecting typical 15th-century noble patronage amid the family's Catholic adherence.[53] [54] Documented traditions emphasize hereditary guardianship, with the St. Clairs retaining ownership through centuries of upheaval, as verified in family charters and 18th-century compilations like Father Richard Augustine Hay's Genealogie of the Sainteclaires of Rosslyn (drawn from Sinclair archives around 1700).[7] [55] Hay's account, based on primary records rather than later embellishments, portrays stewardship as dutiful preservation of lineage, estates, and pious observances, including chapel upkeep despite post-Reformation disuse.[56] Empirically traceable lore distinguishes verifiable piety—such as the chapel's foundational bull from Pope Nicholas V in 1453 authorizing its religious role—from unsubstantiated claims of concealed esoterica, with no contemporary evidence in Hay or charters supporting encoded secrets beyond orthodox devotions for ancestral redemption.[5] Clan narratives, while fostering identity through shared descent, rely on oral elements unconfirmed by records, prioritizing historical continuity over speculative mysticism.[57]Templar and Masonic Connections
The Sinclair family, prominent Scottish nobles, supported Robert the Bruce during his campaigns, including at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, where family members fought despite Bruce's excommunication by the Pope, a status that fueled later legends of sympathy toward the Knights Templar following their papal suppression in 1312.[58] Rosslyn Chapel's location in Roslin, approximately 6 miles from the former Templar preceptory at Temple (once known as Ballantradoch), has been cited as circumstantial proximity suggesting possible ties, yet no historical deeds or records indicate transfer of Templar lands or assets to the Sinclairs.[59] In fact, two Sinclairs—Henry and William—testified against Templars during their 1309 trials in Scotland, undermining claims of familial refuge or inheritance.[60] The chapel itself, founded in 1446 by William Sinclair (c. 1410–1484), postdates the Templar order's dissolution by over 130 years, rendering direct architectural or dedicatory links implausible absent primary evidence, which archaeological assessments of the site have not uncovered.[61] Its carvings, while intricate and eclectic—featuring Christian motifs, Green Men, and geometric patterns—lack distinctive Templar iconography such as the red cross pattee, with symbols instead reflecting broader late medieval Gothic conventions prevalent in Scotland.[54] Freemasonic interest in Rosslyn emerged in the 18th century, when a later William St Clair (d. 1778), hereditary patron of Scottish masonry, was installed as the first Grand Master Mason of Scotland in 1736, prompting adoption of the chapel as a symbolic site due to its stonework evoking craft legends.[62] This honorary role, rooted in family tradition rather than operative origins, has been interpreted by some Masonic historians as linking Rosslyn to Templar precedents via speculative continuity, though it constitutes retrospective symbolism without evidential basis for medieval Templar involvement.[63] Primary Masonic records emphasize the chapel's role in preserving "the Mason Word" among operatives during its construction, not Templar secrets.[64]Pseudohistorical Claims and Evidence Assessment
Pseudohistorical assertions surrounding Rosslyn Chapel include claims that it served as a repository for the Holy Grail, Ark of the Covenant, or Templar treasures hidden in subterranean vaults, as well as evidence of pre-Columbian transatlantic voyages via carvings of maize and aloe vera, and foreshadowing of modern science through motifs resembling the DNA double helix or even speculative "stargates." These narratives, advanced by authors like Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas in books such as The Hiram Key (1996), posit esoteric knowledge preserved by Sinclair family ties to the Knights Templar, but they rely on interpretive speculation rather than verifiable records or physical traces. Evaluation against 15th-century charters, architectural dating, and forensic analyses of carvings reveals no supporting evidence, with claims projecting anachronistic concepts onto Gothic ornamentation lacking precursors in medieval causal chains. Documentary evidence establishes the chapel's construction from 1446 to circa 1486 under William Sinclair, as a collegiate church for St. Matthew, with no references to Templar relics or Grail custody in Sinclair family papers or papal bulls; Templar-Sinclair links appear only in 19th-century Masonic writings, postdating the order's 1312 dissolution by two centuries and unsupported by Scottish royal or ecclesiastical archives. Ground-penetrating radar surveys in the 1950s and 2000s, alongside limited probe excavations, detected possible crypts but uncovered no artifacts, treasures, or anomalous structures, consistent with the absence of such mentions in contemporary accounts; sealed vaults remain intact due to preservation risks, yet prolonged exploration without yields undermines treasure-hoard hypotheses. Historian Ashley Cowie's 2016 archival review of fire-rescued Rosslyn manuscripts similarly yielded no Grail corroboration, attributing legends to modern fabrications. Carvings interpreted as maize—such as the "Indian corn" motif—have been subjected to microscopic and comparative botanical analysis, identifying them as stylized depictions of familiar European plants like triticum (wheat) stalks or oak leaves, with irregular kernels and husks deviating from accurate Zea mays morphology unknown in Europe before Columbus's 1492 voyages; similar scrutiny of "aloe" shows derivations from local succulents, not New World exotica. The so-called DNA helix on central pillars consists of entwined vine tendrils or serpentine figures, a recurrent Gothic flourish symbolizing growth or temptation since the 12th century, predating Watson and Crick's 1953 model by nearly 500 years and devoid of biochemical context or precursors in medieval herbals or alchemy. Stargate theories, invoking portal-like geometries, fare worse, as they impose 20th-century science fiction onto apotropaic symbols without archaeological or textual basis, ignoring the chapel's documented role as a feudal piety project rather than encoded futurism.[65][66][27]Cultural Impact and Modern Role
Influence in Literature and Media
Myths associating Rosslyn Chapel with esoteric secrets predated modern fiction, originating in 19th-century Masonic and antiquarian writings that speculated on its carvings as symbolic of Templar or Rosicrucian knowledge. For instance, writer W. F. C. Wigston in the late 1800s described the chapel as a "Masonic Temple" and potential cradle of Scottish Freemasonry, seeding interpretations of its stonework as encoded rituals rather than decorative Gothic elements commissioned by the Sinclair family in the 15th century.[67] Earlier, Sir Walter Scott's 1805 poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel evoked supernatural lore around the site, portraying flames encircling it during mythical events, which romanticized its aura without historical basis.[2] These narratives prioritized speculative symbolism over verifiable patronage records, laying groundwork for later distortions. Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code prominently featured Rosslyn Chapel as a fictional repository for Knights Templar treasures and clues to a supposed Jesus bloodline, depicting its vaults as hiding the Holy Grail and Mary Magdalene's remains—claims devoid of archaeological or documentary evidence. This portrayal triggered a causal surge in public fascination, with annual visitor numbers rising from 38,141 prior to publication to 79,916 immediately after, reflecting how thriller fiction eclipsed the chapel's documented role as an incomplete collegiate church founded in 1446.[42] The 2006 film adaptation, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, filmed interior scenes on location, further amplifying these unsubstantiated elements through visual spectacle, pushing attendance to a peak of over 176,000 that year as audiences sought tangible links to the plot's intrigue over the structure's empirical 15th-century provenance.[42][68] A 2024 Rosslyn Chapel Trust survey of 1,000 visitors revealed that 49% cited the book or film as their primary influence, underscoring the enduring distortion where fictional Templar connections overshadow factual assessments of the chapel's carvings as eclectic medieval motifs rather than ciphered secrets.[42] Media emphasis on such pseudohistorical hooks has perpetuated a cycle of myth-making, drawing seekers motivated by narrative allure while marginalizing evidence-based interpretations from architectural history, though the chapel's trust has leveraged this visibility for conservation without validating the tales.[69] This influence highlights how popular literature and cinema can reshape site perception, prioritizing causal chains of entertainment-driven curiosity over rigorous historical scrutiny.Tourism and Economic Effects
Following the 2006 release of the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, in which Rosslyn Chapel features prominently, annual visitor numbers surged from approximately 38,000 to a peak exceeding 175,000. [70] [71] In 2017, the chapel recorded a high of 181,700 paying visitors, while 2023 saw 142,211 visitors as numbers recovered post-pandemic. [72] [42] Surveys of visitors from March 2023 to March 2024 indicate sustained interest, with 72% having read the novel or seen the film, supporting stable attendance levels into 2024 and bookings extending into subsequent years. [73] [74] As a charitable trust, Rosslyn Chapel relies entirely on admission fees, donations, and shop sales for conservation and maintenance, with no regular public funding. [75] [76] Elevated visitor revenue post-2006 enabled the completion of a 16-year restoration project, including roofing and structural repairs totaling £9.3 million, funded through trust resources bolstered by tourism income. [39] This self-funding model has supported ongoing preservation efforts, such as weathering protection for carvings, while contributing to the local economy in the village of Roslin through increased patronage of nearby businesses and initiatives like the 2025 Grail Trails project to distribute tourism benefits. [77] High footfall poses risks of accelerated wear to the chapel's intricate stone carvings from physical contact and humidity, prompting management strategies including timed entry tickets to limit concurrent visitors and guided paths to minimize direct access. [78] Critics, including historian Louise Yeoman, have argued that emphasizing Da Vinci Code-related narratives for tourism promotes pseudohistorical claims, potentially commercializing the site at the expense of its historical and spiritual integrity as a 15th-century collegiate chapel. [79] Despite such concerns, the trust maintains that visitor-funded conservation outweighs drawbacks, with controlled access preserving the structure for future generations. [80]