Imperishable mystery surround the fabled history of Rennes le Château till contemporary times, though the village came to chronicles more than 100 years ago for the first time, through the Abbay Saunière and immortalised recently in Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code”.
What keeps alive such a vivid interest in a minuscule, almost isolated mountain village located in Southern France?
For its 80 units population, Rennes le Château has sparked a disproportionate amount of international interest, largely rooted in the discoveries by Berenger Saunière, the 19th century priest who undertook significant renovations, allegedly meant to transmit the knowledge of a secret through a combination of riddles.
During the course of these renovations, Berenger Saunière, a priest with such a modest background, and apparently no private wealth, is alleged to have made some monumental discoveries, which not only paid for the church’s renovations, but also led this little-known village to become of international interest.
According to the story, during the building work, Saunière allegedly discovered historical parchments that divulged such an important secret to justify the Roman Catholic Church to finance the restoration works he was carrying out on the church.
Afterall, it seems somewhat unusual that a parish priest of little personal means, and supported by a standard priest’s stipend, would have had access to the amount spent on the restoration. In today’s money, Saunière shelled out more than four-and-a-half million euros restoring the church and the adjoining Tour de Magdala (Magdelene’s Tower).
Mary Magdelene plays an important role in Rennes le Château’s mind-boggling history. That this modest church in the rural heart of Southern France should merit such an extensive restoration is very much down to its connections with St Mary herself.
Whilst little evidence is available to study today, it is thought that following the crucifixion of Jesus, Mary Magdelene left to reach the South of France, and as such a bloodline tracing its way back to Jesus Christ is thought to have proliferated in the region of Rennes-le-Château – Mary’s adopted home.
Pierre Plantard and the Priory of Sion
In 1956 Pierre Plantard, a graphic designer with a deep interest in esotericism presented documentation about a genealogy allegedly belonging to the merovingian descendance that were indicated as the descendants of Jesus Christ. At the same time, those documents were testifying a misterious and powerful organization, called the Priory of Sion, was believed to guard and transmit the secret about the mythical descendance.
Despite the whole theory was considered a myth if not a modern invention, it inspired a massive literary vein, consisting in essays and novels, from the Gerard De Sede’s popular esoteric works like “Les Templiers Sont Parmi Nous” to the Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh’s best seller “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail”. Wrote with the collaboration of Pierre Plantard himself, the book sold million of copies and inspired many heated debates around the world.
Since those days many was the essays and general works published about Rennes le Château and now we knew that a new significant essay was wrote in Italy about that subject, by an italian researcher, that published a very sophisticated and precious work in two volumes, titled “Arca di Sioи”.
Arca di Sioи presented at a cultural center in Trieste
Arca di Sioи is the name of Francesca Valentina Salcioli’s work on the mystery of Rennes le Château. The author introduces the legendary Merovingian dynasty and the discovery of the secrets of the occitan village. A rich photographic documentation bears witness to the places described in the book, for a real literary journey in the territories of the Quest for the Grail.
An exciting analysis of works by great artists and authors, from the Renaissance to contemporary art and literature, maps the traces of the Great Templar Secret, knowledge of which has flowed underground over the centuries, like a red snake.
“Monumental, pioneering and nothing short of accurate” said the historian and writer Ivan Buttignon, author of the rewriting of Arca di Sioи.
Francesca Valentina Salcioli has dedicated twenty years of studies to the events of Rennes-le-Château and to deciphering the Serpent Rouge, making several trips to Languedoc and Paris, in search of the traces of the Great Heresy, finding the entrance to the Templar Labyrinth of Redhae .
The author has a degree in Performing Arts and in Theory and Practice of Artistic Therapeutics at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, with three specialization masters. You have received various artistic awards and published two books. You teach Art Therapy at the Academy of Fine Arts in Udine.
With the accuracy of an essay and the twists and turns of a novel, Arca di Sioи presents extraordinary new hypotheses and answers to the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château, through the deciphering of the Serpent Rouge, an enigmatic esoteric manuscript, never fully decoded until today .
The book demonstrates how the two famous parchments of Abbot Saunière and the Sot Pécheur cryptogram present an unprecedented and deeper level of decipherment, compared to those hitherto known: a real map, which leads to burning revelations about the circulating heresy in the south of France. Arca di Sioи accompanies the true search for the Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, on the trail of Magdalene, at the gates of the lost Merovingian necropolis, up to the entrance to the Templar Labyrinth of the Pyrenees.
The essay concludes with an interview with Marco Rigamonti, current Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.
It was on January 17, 2023, that the first official presentation of the book took place at the New Age Center in Trieste, below there is a Video of the conference in italian language.
Further information on the calendar of upcoming events and presentations is available on the official website of the essay arcadision.it
Francesca Valentina Salcioli
Graduated in Performing Arts and in Theory and Practice of Artistic Therapeutics at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, with three specialization masters, she has received various artistic awards and has published two books. She currently teaches Art Therapy at the Academy of Fine Arts in Udine.
Francesca Valentina Salcioli bibliography
Sogni lucidi e sciamanesimo. Un viaggio all’interno delle immagini interiori, ponti del mondo onirico e della relazione umana – Ed. Cerchio della Luna
Corso di Art Counseling – di Francesca Valentina Salcioli
Naturamente – di Francesca Valentina Salcioli
Arca di Sioи – di Francesca Valentina Salcioli – Ed. Cerchio della Luna