| So you've read the book - Dan Brown's The Da Vinci | | | | mind the Tower of Babel.So if you're the sort of |
| Code. | | | | person who would like some quiet time to take it all in, |
| Or at least heard about it.Full of myths and | | | | and to stand before each feature described in the Da |
| goddesses, cyphers and secret symbols, gothic horror, | | | | Vinci Code and examine it in detail, then you might be |
| legend and fantasy masquerading as history, the Da | | | | disappointed by your visit.The seasoned traveller who |
| Vinci Code has sold in the millions.And Rosslyn Chapel | | | | has stood in the great medieval cathedrals of Europe |
| in Scotland is where the climatic scenes are played | | | | will probably be disappointed both in the scale of the |
| out.For most readers, Brown's description of Rosslyn | | | | interior, and the lack of beauty and ambience of |
| Chapel is as close as they will get to the Chapel, at | | | | Rosslyn Chapel.It is a strange building, but more odd |
| least until May 2006, when the film version of the Da | | | | than mysterious. |
| Vinci Code is released.Tom Hanks and the crew have | | | | More eccentric than spiritual or religious. |
| recently finished shooting at Rosslyn Chapel, so you | | | | More bizarre than awe-inspiring.I found it emotionally |
| can look forward to some great location shots.But | | | | cold and lacking in spiritual beauty.Does Rosslyn Chapel |
| what does a real visitor to Rosslyn Chapel feel?Is it as | | | | satisfy our longing for mystery, or intrigue, or evil-doing, |
| mysterious, overwhelming and significant as The Da | | | | or centuries-long conspiracy as in the Da Vinci Code?It |
| Vinci Code suggests?Last month I walked, in the | | | | all depends on what you take into it.You'll probably see |
| footsteps of Langdon and Sophie, through that small | | | | what you want to see.It provoked in me no emotional |
| wooden door with the simple oak sign, Roslin.The | | | | response, no sense of reverence or inspiration. But |
| Chapel does have a dramatic setting, somewhat | | | | then I regard the Da Vinci Code as sheer |
| ruined at present because the Chapel is covered with | | | | preposterous nonsense.Well crafted, but a plot |
| a huge metal canopy, to let it dry out.You have to | | | | basically lifted from other obscure and eccentric |
| remember that Rosslyn Chapel, built by Sir William St | | | | non-historical sources, riddled with errors and deliberate |
| Clair in 1446 as the choir to a planned huge Catholic | | | | misrepresentation, stitched together with a calculating |
| church (which was never completed), was stripped | | | | veneer of sophistication and romance.And ultimately |
| and totally neglected for over two hundred years | | | | the Da Vinci Code is deeply insulting and blasphemous |
| when Scotland embraced Protestantanism.So the | | | | to Christians everywhere and to the Catholic Church in |
| fabric of the building is undergoing a huge renovation | | | | particular.Is Rosslyn Chapel worth a visit?Well if you're |
| program to repair the damages caused by centuries | | | | in Scotland at any time, it's quite easy to find the |
| of neglect.Once inside, you're immediately struck by | | | | Chapel. It's only about an hour's trip from the center of |
| the scale of the Chapel - it's somewhat smaller than | | | | Edinburgh.But it does get very crowded, about 100,000 |
| your imagination has painted it.Ornate doesn't begin to | | | | visitors in 2005. And this number is certain to swell |
| describe the stonework and carvings, with every | | | | when the movie opens.I give the final words to |
| conceivable form of figure - devils, angels, crowns of | | | | someone who perhaps knows more about Rosslyn |
| thorns, stars, pyramids, roses, elephants, green men, | | | | Chapel than Dan Brown.Just recently Dr. Andrew |
| patriarchs ...If your tastes run to simple lines and | | | | Sinclair, a descendant of the St Clairs who founded |
| minimalism, then this could be your worst nightmare.Is | | | | Rosslyn Chapel, condemned the Da Vinci Code as |
| there a spiritual or religious experience?Depends on | | | | "preposterous, its message pernicious, its history a |
| your concept of religion, I suppose. | | | | bungle and a muddle".He added: "As far as I'm |
| But it didn't work for me.It reeks more of a temple to | | | | concerned its a load of rubbish. It's appalling. What it |
| Freemasonry than to Christianity.If it were not for the | | | | says about the grail and Rosslyn is absolute |
| mythology and legend surrounding it, you would regard | | | | invention".But I suspect that Tom Hanks and the Da |
| Rosslyn Chapel as rather a quaint and over-elaborate | | | | Vinci Code movie will convince millions of gullible |
| folly.But the visitor who arrives steeped in the folklore | | | | movie-goers to ignore the truth and to swallow the lies, |
| of the Holy Grail, and with a well-thumbed copy of the | | | | distortions, and fabrications of Brown's novel. |
| Da Vinci Code in hand, might well find what he or she | | | | After all, we do so love a good conspiracy theory!As |
| has been expecting to find.It is quite fun to watch all | | | | well as being a keen student of medieval history, |
| these multi-national visitors, many of them in their teens | | | | author |
| and twenties in their jeans and backpacks, excitedly | | | | Brendan Forde uses his 15 years in the IT industry to |
| pointing out the various well-known features amongst | | | | source and review information and software tools to |
| the pillars and carvings.Cameras flash all the time, and | | | | guarantee new levels of internet marketing success. |
| the cacophany of so many foreign tongues bring to | | | | |