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Original headline: New crop of Grail hunters blaze trail to Scotland, thanks to 'Da Vinci Code'
ROSLIN, SCOTLAND -- People who work at Rosslyn Chapel have heard it all: How the Ark of the Covenant is concealed in a pillar; how the mummified head of John the Baptist is buried in the floor; how invisible energy lines link the chapel to the site of England's biggest outdoor rock festival.
"I recently had a half-hour conversation with a man from the States who said he had spent some years studying how a particular carving in the chapel aligns with certain planets," said Stuart Beattie, project director for the Rosslyn Chapel Trust. "He was very focused on the theory, though I suspect that he is the only one."
Built in 1446, its walls and ceiling covered with hundreds of exquisite stone carvings, and rich with Christian, pagan and Masonic images, Rosslyn Chapel has always drawn legions of visitors eager to share their creative interpretations of its meanings. But this summer there is a new breed of pilgrim: readers of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," many of them apparently inspired by the book's notion that the chapel hides a secret sign that can direct one to the Holy Grail.
These tourists have helped boost visitor numbers to the Episcopal chapel, in the rolling hills six miles from Edinburgh, by 56 percent in the past month, compared with the same period last year. About 37,000 people came in 2003, and the 6,000 more so far this year appear to rest almost entirely on "The Da Vinci Code," which has remained on bestseller lists for more than a year.
For reasons unknown to the people at Rosslyn -- the chapel and the town use historically variant spellings -- many of the new tourists seem not only inclined to take "The Da Vinci Code" literally, but to have read it without proper attention to detail. It does not place the Grail in the chapel, but in another secret location that the hero visits
"They come looking for the Holy Grail," said Simon Beattie, who was selling candy bars, Rosslyn Chapel plum jam and books about the Knights Templar alongside copies of "The Da Vinci Code" in the chapel gift shop the other day. "Obviously, it's not here."
Hannah Storie, a co-worker, said she was frequently asked about the alleged Star of David sign in the chapel floor, which Brown describes as being a crucial clue to the Grail's whereabouts. Perhaps, persistent visitors insist, it is concealed under a carpet.
Nope, Simon Beattie said. It is not under the floor, and not by the door. "We tell them that the book is a work of fiction, meaning that it isn't true," he said.
Visiting the chapel the other day, Anthony Lewis, a 35-year-old engineer from Bristol, England, certainly hoped it was true. What, he wasn't sure. But something.
"I think there's a code in there," said Lewis, who said he believes that the Holy Grail explains the mysteries of death and is broken into small pieces that are scattered in hot spots around the world. "Something is probably hidden in there somewhere, and whoever cracks the code will find it."
New York Times via Minneapolis Star Tribune / MN | Sarah Lyall - July 19.04
Material reproduced here is for educational and research purposes only.
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