During the last General Assembly of the Terre de Rhedae Association, chairman Antoine Captier presented an unknown photograph of 4, perhaps 5 key players in the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château. The photo was taken between 1895 and 1897 and was found in the archives of the Saunière family who handed it to Antoine.

On the photo, 5 priests are positioned around a book on a table, possibly the Holy Bible. From left to right you can see Bérenger Saunière, Maurice Malot (the cousin of Antoine Gélis), Bérenger’s younger brother Alfred Saunière, an unknown priest and at the very right Antoine Gélis, who would be murdered not too long after this scene was recorded. There’s a distinct possibility that the unknown priest is in fact Henri Boudet, but since no confirmed photos of him exist it is impossible to check at this stage. It is not certain where the photo was taken or what the ocassion was. However, since the men clearly posed for the ocassion, all looking in different directions, there was probably a good cause for taking it.

Many thanks to Jean-Pierre Garcia for sharing this and to Terre de Rhedae, with whose kind permission this photo is published.

It’s great to see these men together after all this time. Hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Take care | Corjan de Raaf

,©2007-2009 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved

In 1972, British script writer Henry Lincoln introduced the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château to the English speaking world through his documentary The Lost Treasure of Jerusalem. It immediately created a storm of publicity and eventually led to the production of a 2nd documentary The Priest the Painter and the Devil in 1974 and the Shadow of the Templars in 1979. This last documentary was already co-researched by Michael Baigent which later led to Henry, Michael and the late Richard Leigh writing the international bestseller Holy Blood Holy Grail.

The script and presentation of Shadow of the Templars, were done by Henry Lincoln. It was produced by Roy Davies for the BBC Chronicle series. You can watch the parts by clicking on them.

Hidden in the French Larzac region, close to Millau, lies the fortified village of St Jean d’Alcas. Unlike many of the other fortified towns in the Larzac region it was never a Templar or Hospitalier site. The village belonged to the Cistercian Abbey of Nonenque.

The relevance to the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château is that the village church houses a set of Stations of the Cross that are as good as identical to the ones Saunière had installed in his church by Giscard of Toulouse. This isrelevant since it means that the Stations of the Cross of Rennes-le-Château where not made to Saunière’s detailed specifications but chosen from a catalogue. Any hidden clues to any treasure could therefore only be in the decoration by the painter.

The St-Jean d’Alcas set appears to have been slightly modified to fit the wooden frame, where the Rennes-le-Château ones are fixed in plaster.

The set and the similarities with the Rennes-le-Château stations were discovered in January 2007 by French researcher André Goudonnet who reported it on the forum of Rennes-le-Château-Archive.com.

[View with PicLens]

,©2007-2009 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved, photos of St-Jean d’Alcas copyright by Xplorer

Montazels is a small village overlooking Espéraza, facing Rennes-le-Château. Saunière’s father Joseph Saunière was Mayor of the village and Manager of the Household of the Marquis de Cazemajou, who inhabited a village Château some one hundred meters from his house.

The Saunières, who where a quite well-to-do family, inhabited a sizable town house in the village square. Bérenger was born there as well as his 2 brothers and 3 sisters. It is told by the elders of the village that on the balcony of this house, Saunière’s brother Alfred showed up naked in a drunken frenzy some nights before his death to urinate on the villagers that had gathered in the square below, attracted by his screaming.

In the small local cemetery on a hill just outside the village, there used to be the Saunière family tomb. Unfortunately it was removed when the cemetery was rearranged a couple of decades ago. Saunière’s sister Mathilde, who was buried with her husband Oscar Pagés in a family tomb of their own. I have been told that Alfred, who had brought much shame to the family, was buried in an unmarked grave in a field near the village.

It’s not hard to see where Saunière got the idea for the little tower (échauguette) on the corner of the Tour Magdala. He must have played around and perhaps even inside the Château de Cazemajou many times as it was so close to his home and his father worked there. Although in ruins now, the façade of the building still dominates the face of the village. From the Tour Magdala you have a perfect view on this Château with its small tower and vice-versa.

[View with PicLens]

,©2007-2008 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved

François-Marius Granet (1777-1849)

This French painter was well-known for his works in which he played with light in a magnificent way. Everything in his works is sacrificed to the tone. During his life he worked various periods in Rome and Paris.

In 1819, Granet was decorated by the French King Louis-Philippe as a Knight in the Order of Saint Michel. At the same time he was nominated conservator of the Versailles art collection.

Granet developed a deep interest into the history of Knight’s Templar. He painted a number of scenes about the great moments in the history of the order. In 1834 he painted what is thought to be one of his principal works: The Death of Poussin.

[View with PicLens]