Today, the Villa Bethania is tucked away between trees and bushes. When it was completed in 1905, it must have been quite a different sight. Rennes-le-Château at the the time was a village with some 200 inhabitants that lived in simple country houses around a not very well maintained Château. Saunière’s neo-gothic villa must have stood out even more that it does today. The construction started in 1901 and was called the Villa Bethania, after the village in the Holy Land where Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead. Contrary to what everybody in the village expected, the Abbé never moved into the villa. He lived and slept in the old Presbytery for the rest of his life as did Marie Dénarnaud his housekeeper who was 16 years younger than he was.
Villa Bethania was used for receiving guests. It is part of the enigma of Saunière that he appears to 
have entertained an endless row of people in his Villa. The bills he paid for the shipments of liquor and delicacies from as far away as Jamaica have been preserved so we know the Abbé was an excellent host with a matching cook: Marie Dénarnaud. Among the guests, villagers claim, were high-society figures like Emma Calvé, the beautiful French opera diva. It is said Calvé and Saunière had an affair of sorts. It is a fact that villagers of Rennes-le-Château have testified hearing a strong and melodic opera voice singing during some of his lavish parties. Also on the guest list appears to have been one of the Habsburgs, which according to some, is endorsed by the fact that Saunière exchanged letters with the Banque Fritz Dörge in Budapest. Remember that the first big gift he received was from the Comtesse de Chambord
who was a Habsburg: 3.000 Francs in 1886, after he had been suspended for preaching against the republic. De Chambord was the widow of Henry V, the last Bourbon who’s stubbornness lost him the French throne (he refused to accept the tricolor as a symbol of France) so it is not hard to imagine why she supported Saunière. It was the last big gift Saunière received that we can trace since Marie Dénarnaud faithfully burned all of the Abbé’s bank statements just before and after he died. From leftover correspondence, published by Claire Corbu and Antoine Captier, it is known that Abbé Saunière had contact with no less than 7 different banks being the Banque Salvaire in Limoux, the Banque Coll, the Banque Alex Martin et Cie in Paris, the Société Générale in Carcasonne, the Banque D. Richou Vve et Fils in Angers, the Banque Russe du Commerce et de l’Industrie in Paris and the already mentioned Banque Fritz Dörge in Budapest.
The Villa Bethania also might, tell us, something about Saunière’s beliefs. Over the front door he had two stained glass windows installed depicting two firy hearts. The two symbols refer directly to the first of the three most important apparitions of the Virgin Mary in France in the 19th century. It happened on 18th July 1830 in the Rue du Bac in Paris. Mary appeared to Catherine Labouré, an illiterate farmer’s daughter that had joined the Filles de la Charité de St. Vincent de Paul as a novice in March of that same year. Mary predicted that the French throne would be overthrown, which promptly happened 10 days later in the Three-Day revolt. Charles X had to make way for the constitutional monarchy led by his cousin Louis-Philippe and so ended the reign of the House of Bourbon. On 27th 
November, Mary appeared to Catherine for the second time. She was surrounded by 12 stars and carried a gold ball. At her feet was a green snake and half a white ball. The Virgin showed Catherine a symbol of an M blow a cross over two firy hearts, one pierced by a sword, the other with thorns. Mary predicted medals would be made of this symbol that would protect the bearer. Production of the medals started in 1832 and by 1876 it is estimated that a billion copies had been issued. The fact that Saunière put the symbols on display over the main entrance of his guest house is probably significant. This and the fact that he traveled to Lourdes shortly before his death might indicate that he was less of a heretic than is sometimes assumed and that he felt strongly about Mary. At the time of the apparitions in Lourdes, Bérenger was 6 years old. At that age, in the catholic environment of the time, it must have made quite an impression on him. Or did it…? Several researchers, like M.P. Caroll and Ludo Noens have suggested that the messages of Mary were a little too politically charged and convenient for certain esoteric and masonic groups. They suggest perhaps faith was helped a little here. What is the significance of the link with St. Vincent de Paul, founder of the Lazarists that had a head-quarter in Notre Dame de Marceille? Do these hearts link the mystery back to the Bourbons?
That Saunière never really moved into the Villa is hard to believe. It becomes however more plausible when you know that Marie Dénarnaud too refused to stay in the house after the Abbé’s death. In fact she even refused to sleep there after she had finally sold off the premises to the Corbu family or in the 7 years after that when she still lived with them. Only when she had had a stroke and lost all sight, she let herself be carried into the villa by the Corbu’s. Saunière died in a simple bedroom in the Presbytery in the room now in which is the museum gift shop, Marie Dénarnaud died in the Villa Bethania. Noel Corbu did some serious digging on the estate, as did his successor Henry Buthion and will probably the people after him and after those. When he failed to find anything more than two unidentifiable skeletons he transferred the Villa Bethania into the Hotel-Restaurant la Tour and in 1956 published the first version of Saunière’s enigmatic story in a series of interviews in the ‘Depeche du Midi’, the regional newspaper. The Hotel-Restaurant was a success and what happened to the story is history.
