This French village attracts thousands of curious people every year. It must be said that its mysterious history fascinates and that we could find a real treasure there…
It is one of the most mysterious places in France. In this village with around 90 inhabitants (according to 2021 data), esoteric enthusiasts will certainly find what they are looking for! Some even say that a treasure has been hidden there for centuries.
But where does the legend around an alleged treasure come from? In the 19th century, Abbot Bérenger Saunière suddenly became rich in the village without anyone understanding how. It was then that rumors about a treasure, which he would have got his hands on within the Sainte-Marie-Madeleine church, began to spread.
From then on, theories of all kinds emerged: what if the priest had found the treasure of the Templars, got his hands on documents potentially compromising the Church or even discovered secrets about Jesus Christ? Today, many visitors go to the famous village church, which had also been renovated by Abbot Bérenger Saunière, to try to solve its mysteries and unearth the famous treasure!
For example, on the pediment of the building, a statue of Mary Magdalene grips a cross in a strange way, which could indicate a direction. As soon as you enter the religious building, you are faced with a disturbing statue of a devil carrying a holy water font. Over the years, many visitors, intrigued by this representation, have defaced the statue, hoping to find the treasure there, to the point that the decapitated head had to be reconstructed.
Additionally, the Stations of the Cross have some intriguing elements, such as rigged dice or possible allusions to Freemasonry. Some have even deduced from one of the sculptures that the body of Jesus Christ could be nearby. But where is this mysterious village located? This is Rennes-le-Château, in Aude, in Occitanie. The place also inspired the famous author Dan Brown for his thriller The Da Vinci Code, since he took up several elements of the legend of this village in his book.
Even today, the legend of the treasure of Rennes-le-Château continues to intrigue and many tourists go there to carry out excavations, although illegal, around the church, and thus hope to find the Grail. .
