da vinci claude

Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin, Scotland.
{You may have heard of it from a little phenomenon called

The Da Vinci Code.}

I know real art historians renounce it and mock Dan Brown endlessly.
But I can't help it, I love me a good conspiracy theory.
{And the fact that it upset the religious zealots so much.}

And I can now say I've completed the Da Vinci Code location tour:
The Louvre, Saint-Sulpice in Paris, Westminster Abbey,
Temple Church of London, and Rosslyn Chapel.

This is a postcard of the exterior, currently covered in scaffolding.


Case in point.


The chapel was founded mid-15th century.


By William Sinclair, whose family still own the chapel.


Where the old chapel meets Victorian addition.


It is known for its intricate and detailed sandstone carvings.


And for its connections with the Templar Knights {dubious}.


And the Freemasons {more credible}.


Bottom line: it's a cool place with a lot of unsolved
mysteries, and a miraculous survival of the brutality
of the Scottish Reformation.

And it is intriguing that the current Sinclair earl
refuses to let historians go into the chapel vaults.
{Probably because there's nothing there.}


Dude is making a boatload of money off the place.
And won't let you take pictures inside, so you have to buy postcards,
which I have dutifully scanned.


There are interesting carvings throughout.

My favorites were plant carvings that some scholars have interpreted as maize/corn, which would have been unknown in Europe when the chapel was built. So the chapel interpretation maintains that one of the early Sinclairs traveled to America before Christopher Columbus did. It's a stretch, but you can't help but get caught up in the conspiracy theories at Rosslyn.

This is the famous "Apprentice Pillar," which takes its name from a legend that the chapel's master mason completed one pillar for the building, then went to Europe to study architecture before completing its counterpart. While he was gone, his apprentice had a vision and carved the second column himself. When the jealous master returned, he hit the apprentice over the head with his mallet, killing him. He was then sentenced to the death penalty, and his face carved at the back of the chapel, overlooking the Apprentice Pillar for eternity. So dramatic.

The ceiling, featuring stars and flowers.

Finally, around the chapel are a series of over 200
cubes carved with an unidentified pattern, said to
be some sort of code. The conspiracies never end.


Back outside; the Old Rosslyn Inn, circa 1660.


And a quick stroll into Roslin Glen.


Pass a hidden graveyard.


There is a gate, it can be guarded.


'Twas there that we parted.


In yon shady glen.


To old Roslin Castle, a ruin.


But the broken heart, it kens nae second spring again.


Tho' the waeful may cease frae their greetin'.
xx