Johann Salvator von Österreich-Toskana (1852-????)

Archduke from the House of Habsburg. In 1889 he distanced himself from the Habsburg dynasty and took the name of Johann Orth, after his Gmundener castle. After he had laid down his titles, he bought a freight ship and left for South America in March 1890, where he was reported missing around Cape Horn in July. He was pronounced dead a couple of years later.

A travelling French noblemen, the Count of Liniers, claimed to have met with Orth in Patagonia. On his journeys, he had met a man in his fifties who called himself Fred Otten. Liniers soon learned that he was in fact dealing with Johann Salvator. The two men became good friends. Johann died in the winter of 1910.

Just before he left for South America, Johann Salvator visited Saunière between November 1889 and February 1890. According to Pierre Jarnac in his book Histoire du Trésor de Rennes-le-Château, his visit was recorded by the French police in Couiza, neighboring village to Rennes-le-Château. Author and Historian Jean Markale adds to that a copy was sent to the French Secret Service, the ‘ Deuxième Bureau’. They had been informed of the priest’s strange visitor by Doctor Espézel of Espéraza. When asked for the motives of his presence, Johann told the surprised policemen that he got lost on his way from Italy to Spain and ended up in Couiza where he descended the hill to Rennes-le-Château where he had the good fortune to meet Bérenger Saunière. He travelled incognito, calling himself ‘Monsieur Guillaume’. He stated he was on the lookout for a place of refuge for himself and his followers since the Habsburg dynasty had no future and he had been advised to relocate outside the Austro-Hungarian empire. Johann Salvator was the cousin of the Count of Chambord, whose widow features prominently in the mystery of Rennes-le-Château: the Comtesse the Chambord. The Comtesse donated the first 3.000 francs to Saunière to start the renovation works on his church. It’s a documented fact both Johann and Saunière had an account at the Bank Veuve Auriol et Fils in Perpignan. According to Gérard de Sède they even had consecutive account numbers, indicating they had opened the accounts together at the same time.

In an official statement, the diocese of Carcassonne claimed Johann Salvator and Saunière had the intention to build a rest home for elderly priests, indirectly suggesting Johann was financing the initiative. Indeed, Saunière started building the Villa Bethania in the years after he met Johann Orth claiming that very intention.

In 1975 a third prominent member of the Habsburg family showed his interest in Rennes-le-Château when Archduke Rudolphe of Habsburg visited the village and questioned some of the better informed locals about details that showed he was very well informed about the mystery. He then went to Carcassonne where he interviewed the Vicar General Monsieur Boyer and Abbé Mazières about the mystery and the visit of his ancestor.

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Abbé Jean Bigou (1702-1776)

Curé of Rennes-le-Château from 1736 to 1774. He was succeeded by his nephew Antoine Bigou. We know him from the parish registers that mention his name at the deaths of Joseph d’Hautpoul de Rennes and François d’Hautpoul de Blanchefort (+1753), Seigneur de Rennes.

Jean Bigou’s relation with François d’Hautpoul went a lot further than just being a priest. He accompanied d’Hautpoul on various trips and helped him when he had to speak justice, sometimes functioning as an attorney and administrator.

Ernest Cros (1857-1945)

Railway engineer and amateur-archeologist who showed an interest in the antiquities of the Aude from 1880 onwards. He was a friend of Saunière and visited him on several ocassions. In 1924, Cros finally settled in Ginoles, close to Rennes-le-Château. His wife owned the Ginole baths. In 1928 he is said to have found what is now known as the Coumesourde-stone about which he reported in his work “Researches of M. chief engineer Ernest Cros, undertaken in the High Valley of the Aude, particularly during the years 1920-43″ There survives only a typewritten version that is supposed to have been copied from Cros’ original notes. Nobody ever appears to have seen the original. In good Rennes-le-Château fashion, the many papers that Cros assembled on his work were lost in a burglary in 1960.

In her book City of Secrets, Patrice Chaplin claims Cros and Saunière were involved in moving a 16-year old girl from Quillan to the Catalan city of Gerona around 1880. who became known as ‘the Frenchwoman’.

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Some of Cros’ research

Docteur Paul Courrent (1861-1952)

Courrent was Saunière’s doctor and a good friend in his later years until the Abbé’s death in 1917. Besides being a doctor, a winemaker and particularly wealthy, he was a fanatical archeologist, heraldist and historian. A prominent member of the ‘Société des Etudes Scientifiques’, he published works on a multitude of subjects ranging from the Lords of Durban (Perillos) to prehistoric surgery.

French researcher Roger-René Dagobert (who was related to the famous French General Dagobert) claimed that Saunière trusted the parchments he found to Dr. Courrent. If the parchments really existed, this is quite plausible, since Courrent and the Abbé were close friends and they spent a lot of time together in Saunière’s last days.

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Emile-Henri Hoffet (1873-1946)

Renowned Occultist and Paleographist (someone who studies ancient manuscripts). Supposedly Hoffet was the expert that decoded the parchments Saunière brought to Paris and left there. According to Gérard de Sède, Hoffet was staying at St. Sulpice with his uncle Abbé Bieil (who was the director in 1892), when Saunière arrived with his legend in a suitcase. In actual fact, Hoffet was only a 20 year old novice at the time and (according to René Descadeillas of the Carcassonne library) living in Holland at the moment sûprème. Member of the Oblati Mariae Immaculatae, he was nominated priest in Liège (Belgium) in 1898 and only moved to Paris in 1914 where he lived in the rue Blache and died at the age of 73 in 1946.

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