The Ruins of a Visigothic village?
Rows of Visigothic tombs at the Vicálvaro necropolis
[Credit: Álvaro Garcia/El Pais]
Have archaeologists found any vestiges of a necropolis (like the one pictured above) in the vicinity of Rennes le-Château? Many 'researchers' posit that the ancient Rhedae housed upwards of 30,000 inhabitants during the Visigothic dominated era of our times and so shouldnt we then see a cemetery like the one pictured in the above photo in or around Rennes le-Château because what the photo above shows is the cemetery of another 'lost Visigothic' city!
The city is currently lost simply because it has not been located yet but archaeologists know it was there because of the existence of this vast necropolis [which is actually in Vicálvaro, Spain]
So, if the ancient Rhedae was a vast 'lost Visigothic city' of 30,000 inhabitants where is its own vast necropolis? The 'real lost' city that should accompany the necropolis, archaeologists say was one;
".... that produced the 1,500 bodies found in the Visigothic necropolis of Vicálvaro..... " The remains are thought to date back to between the fifth and eighth centuries AD".
Think for a moment. When the archaeologist leading the hunt for this lost Visigothic city speaks - we could try and use our imagination and think he could be referring to the so-called lost city of Rhedae:
"....scholars search for the missing Visigothic city [of Vicálvaro], [but] its cemetery continues to deteriorate. On this three-hectare lot, most of the 824 graves are covered with brush and poppies. Just half-a-dozen of them, the ones furthest from the road, still preserve their Visigothic marks - smooth flat stones that delineate their perimeter. There are also a few bones, millstones and other types of stones piled up beside the graves. The burial site is located on a stretch of whitish limestone that gave rise to the former name of Vicálvaro, Vicus Albus (white village). Jorge Vega, the head of the team that found the necropolis, talks about the town that they are looking for. "It can't be very far, just one or two kilometers," he says. "We have already marked out an area, but we have to get to it. We'll get started soon".
The village was made up of houses with half-buried walls and a wooden roof. There might have been a church, but it would likely have been taken apart during the Arab invasions. "That's another interesting element that we want to find." Inside the sarcophagi, archeologists found burial items made up of earrings, rings and brooches, which were transferred to the Regional Archeological Museum in Alcalá de Henares.
The graves are organized by families, "forming little groups," explains Vega. The coffins were made of wood with bronze nails, and all graves were carved along an east-to-west line, to mark sunup and sundown." (my emphasis).
This fascinating Visigothic site is reported more fully HERE. We see that the archaeologist's are hopeful that when the city is finally found they should be able to locate it's little visigothic church or chapel. Imagine again that we are really talking about the lost Visigothic city of Rhedae. That we are looking for its little chapel - perhaps it will resemble other Visigothic chapels such as the one shown below at Lunas.
The city is currently lost simply because it has not been located yet but archaeologists know it was there because of the existence of this vast necropolis [which is actually in Vicálvaro, Spain]
So, if the ancient Rhedae was a vast 'lost Visigothic city' of 30,000 inhabitants where is its own vast necropolis? The 'real lost' city that should accompany the necropolis, archaeologists say was one;
".... that produced the 1,500 bodies found in the Visigothic necropolis of Vicálvaro..... " The remains are thought to date back to between the fifth and eighth centuries AD".
Think for a moment. When the archaeologist leading the hunt for this lost Visigothic city speaks - we could try and use our imagination and think he could be referring to the so-called lost city of Rhedae:
"....scholars search for the missing Visigothic city [of Vicálvaro], [but] its cemetery continues to deteriorate. On this three-hectare lot, most of the 824 graves are covered with brush and poppies. Just half-a-dozen of them, the ones furthest from the road, still preserve their Visigothic marks - smooth flat stones that delineate their perimeter. There are also a few bones, millstones and other types of stones piled up beside the graves. The burial site is located on a stretch of whitish limestone that gave rise to the former name of Vicálvaro, Vicus Albus (white village). Jorge Vega, the head of the team that found the necropolis, talks about the town that they are looking for. "It can't be very far, just one or two kilometers," he says. "We have already marked out an area, but we have to get to it. We'll get started soon".
The village was made up of houses with half-buried walls and a wooden roof. There might have been a church, but it would likely have been taken apart during the Arab invasions. "That's another interesting element that we want to find." Inside the sarcophagi, archeologists found burial items made up of earrings, rings and brooches, which were transferred to the Regional Archeological Museum in Alcalá de Henares.
The graves are organized by families, "forming little groups," explains Vega. The coffins were made of wood with bronze nails, and all graves were carved along an east-to-west line, to mark sunup and sundown." (my emphasis).
This fascinating Visigothic site is reported more fully HERE. We see that the archaeologist's are hopeful that when the city is finally found they should be able to locate it's little visigothic church or chapel. Imagine again that we are really talking about the lost Visigothic city of Rhedae. That we are looking for its little chapel - perhaps it will resemble other Visigothic chapels such as the one shown below at Lunas.
The visigothic chapel of St Georges, Lunas
But please, contain your excitement. Nothing like this sort of evidence has ever been found at Rennes le-Château. If only it had! So why do researchers continue to call Rennes le-Château a 'lost visigothic city'? On what evidence do they base it? It would seem it is based on not much evidence at all!
The real history....
Over on the distant banks of the Danube moves are afoot that will eventually lead the Visigoths into the region of the ancient Rennes-le-Château: in 376, under pressure from the Huns, the Visigoths ask the Romans if they can cross the mighty river: the Emperor Valens (328-378) grants some land to these imposing Nordic warriors trying to disarm them. Poor management of this delicate moment caused a revolt of the people that Valens had just welcomed: under the guidance of the Visigoth Fritigern - who joins with the Ostrogoths - an army of combined Visigoths and Ostrogoths face the imperial troops at the Battle of Adrianople (378), where Emperor Valens is killed and the Roman army swept away.
The Visigoths are then granted the land in return for the defense and control of the line of the Danube. Dissatisfied with this accommodation, the Visigoths enter Italy and - led by king Alaric (370-410) - lay siege to Rome and plunder the city on August 24 410. Alaric died in the same year and was succeeded Ataulf, and under the guidance of the new king, the Visigoths back the peninsula and come into Gaul.
In 436 they get control of Septimania. It is at this period that some scholars trace the hypothetical arrival in Narbonne of the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem which was stolen in 70AD by the legions of Titus, which consisted of, as well as many riches, the Menorah, the seven-branched candlestick sacred to the Jews and which was placed inside the temple dedicated to Jupiter in Rome. The fate of the treasure is still unknown. Some people assum that it was taken away by the troops of Alaric during the sack of Rome, but it is not the only possibility: it could have remained in Rome and then sent to Byzantium, or dispersed or melted down.
The period of domination in Visigothic Septimania is among the most controversial in the history of the Rennes-le-Château. There is a deep gap between the archaeological evidence and the vast literature on the subject. Christian Raynaud is categorical:
"It is unfortunately the case that there is a total absence of evidence of a Visigoth presence in Rennes-le-Château. 'Evidence' cited, such as the 'dalle des Chevaliers' and the pillar of the old altar can not be attributed to the Visigoths, but rather to the canons of Carolingian art. The remains of the walls that can still be seen around the land are from the Romanesque era (from the tenth to twelfth century). [...] In Rennes-le-Château some small necropolis [...] are aligned with the inhabited places, and this reveals a certain resistance of the people to Christianity. Nothing strange, indeed: the lands at the foot of the Pyrenees did not know the process of Christianization until the sixth century. The funeral decorations were poor and had no weapons, while the typical burial of barbarian warriors included weapons and jewelry. [...] To date, no fibula of Visigothic origin has ever been found on the territory of Rennes-le-Château. This gap is consistent with the total absence of place names in the area, whereas in other places the barbarians did name villages in the upper valley of the Aude. They focus rather on the ancient frontier between the territories Franks and Visigoths to the west of Carcassonne: Arzens, Pazens, Badens, Roullens, etc.. In contrast, 65% of the names of the villages in the upper valley of the Aude and up to Axat have an etymology of Celtic or Gallo-Roman origin, excluding any Visigoth settlement. Everything leads us to believe that the invading Visigoths had not found land available in the Corbières and the upper valley of the Aude. [...] What remains, then, of the Rennes-le-Château as 'Visigoth capital'? A legend" (1).
The only things that "may" belong to the time of the Visigoths are fragments of fortifications that surround the village. Raynaud cites for example, "the portion of a dry wall belonging to a circular tower" (2). This would allow the architectural element to date to the Middle Ages, and Raynaud's does not mean that we are dealing with a Visigoth fortification. As the only witness of a building of defense, it can be attributed to a period of instability - perhaps erected by local people to defend themselves from the arrival of the Visigoths or by the subsequent Saracen invasion of the eight century. What we can say with a good approximation is the fact that the ancient Roman oppidum was surrounded by walls to defend against any external threat.
The precise considerations of Christian Raynaud, arguably the most influential archaeologist who has taken an interest in Rennes-le-Château, are up against the other theories about the origins of Rennes-le-Château - the best-known version for the general public, due to the enormous influence that it had - is the text called "Rhedae" which was written by Louis Fédié (1815-1899). It was he, in fact, and it would seem much to to vigorously - who would fill the "empty" archaeological record of the Visigoth era. The quoted text was presented at the Congrès des Sociétés savantes in Paris in April 1877 and was included in a volume dedicated to the history of Razès, Le Comte de Razès et le diocèse of Alet (1).
Fédié promulgated the hypothesis that the ancient Rennes-le-Château became the capital of an area called Rhedesium. There is in fact a document that refers to a diocese of Septimania called Pagus Rhedensis (2), but there is no archaeological or documentary evidence required for identifying the ancient village with the capital Rhedae. The French author writes:
"[Guillaume] Besse, a historian [of the seventeenth century], is inclined to believe that, during the sixth century, the bishops of Carcassonne, driven from their home by the Arians, established their temporary residence in Rhedae. These elements attest, in the time before the seventh century, not only the existence but also the importance of the capital of Rhedesium. We still have to find out what its geographical location was and the era in which it was founded. No historian has provided information on the origin, importance and the historical role of the city of Rhedae. It's birth is so mysterious that it seems to have deterred chroniclers and archaeologists" (3).
The hypothesis of Guillaume Besse, however, had no basis: in the sixth century Carcassonne was still just a castrum and not yet hosted a bishopric. Nevertheless, several authors have speculated that it would have been the persecutions of the Visigoth king Leovigild between 582 and 586 against the bishops of Septimania that forced the bishop of Carcassonne to take refuge in Rhedae and make him raise an initial building of a religious nature. This made it possible to formulate an attractive hypothesis: a bishop in flight would, in fact, have brought with him the most precious relics of the diocese and - according to the rules of traditional votive - would then have put them in a safe in a crypt built just for this purpose, the "reliquiarie churches" being very common in Languedoc (4).
However, no historian has ever identified with certainty the hypothetical capital of Rhedesium, and Fédié is the first to propose a hypothesis, devoting his long study of the village which he believes can be identified with the capital in question: the 'ancient Rennes-le-Château.
Although archeology has never identified with certainty the capital of Rhedesium, most of the studies dedicated to Rennes-le-Château takes for granted the identification of the same with the village, due in large part to the influence of the text of Fédié, long considered the most authoritative in the field. The first to openly challenge the weakness of the conclusions of Fédié were Brigitte Lescure (5) in 1978 and Jean Fourie (6) in 1984 - but the first popular text to bring the doubts on the identification of Rhedae was only published only in 2002 (7) .
According to Fourie;
"We do not possess any element to determine what Rennes looked like at the time of the Visigoths. A simple oppidum, a military defense of the frontier, a village of wagons, the capital of a province, a bishop's seat ...[...] Without wishing to put an end to many hypotheses and the beautiful theories of one and the other, we are convinced that such a problem will never be fully resolved, unless we are faced with a hypothetical sensational archaeological find"( 8).
Bearing in mind the distinction between the hypothetical capital of Rhedesium (never identified with certainty) and the ancient village of Rennes-le-Château, it is interesting to investigate the scenario by Louis Fédié, because of the profound influence he will have on most of the authors of the twentieth century, and in doing so you have to keep in mind that the author does not always cite sources from which he drew his information, and even fewer of his ideas are based on precise reconstructions of archaeological findings.
He adheres to the hypothesis according to which the name "Rhedae" derives from the word for "chariot". Originally, the village would be a simple camp made up of travelling wagons:
"houses on wheels, arranged at regular distances, becoming fixed abodes at predetermined points, and forming an oppidum of wood, leather and canvas, surrounded by trenches. It is the city at its beginning, an immense hive to which every inhabitant has brought his worth. [...] The chariots of the Visigoths were pulled by buffalo. They had four-wheels and were built very low and could pass on any terrain. They were real houses on wheels, made of wood, leather and wicker. [...] In order to cross the rivers, as well as to go up or go with the flow, the Visigoths were using boats with a frame made of reeds or wicker covered with leather and that could be carried on shoulder" (9).
The route that the Visigoths would follow to settle in the area around the hill of Rennes-le-Château occupies the entire second paragraph of the text of Fédié, but unfortunately without any references to specific archaeological evidence. Instead there is a precise (and impressive) description which is in the third paragraph about the area where the Visigoths settled:
"We soon arrive on a large sandy plain, covered with ...trees and moors that, from the village of Bezu, spread over a huge area and ends to the west, after a journey of eight - ten kilometers, at the foot of the ridge on which stands the village of Rennes-le-Château. Here, the land narrows between two hills, one to the south completely bare, the other to the north where the village stands. This flat land is crossed by a stream that flows from east to west. This stream, fed from a source that flows intermittently, is almost dry during the summer but, in winter, sets in motion a mill. It is in this place which was built the camp Visigoth embryo of a powerful city" (10).
Although the author writes that "The evidence abounds in indicating exactly the place" (11) in which stood the citadel, these first mentions seem to refer to periods prior to the hypothetical Visigoth settlement:
"Two years ago, a resident of the village of Rennes-le-Château, during the excavation work for the construction of a wall, discovered a large slab of stone which, once raised, brought to light a host of human bones. It was a mass of fragments of skeletons surrounded on four sides by large stone slabs. The depth of this ossuary could not be verified, as we hastened to put in place the stone that covered the orifice [...]. The place where this happened [the discovery] is called, in the local dialect, The Capello, the chapel. So at that point there was a church and a place of burial, both dating back to ancient times" (12).
These exhibits, however, are proof of the settlement of the Visigoths, and these tombs with a similar structure:
"We note the recent discovery in a place called Roquefumade, in the vicinity of Rennes-le-Château, numerous tombs isolated or grouped together at the bottom of a valley and having all of the same shape as the buriasl discovered in a place called The Capello, that is composed of large slabs of rough stone juxtaposed, and where the walls and the lids form an imitation of Merovingian graves" (13).
Fédié explains that the erection of the Merovingian tombs in the north and centre of France dates back to a time that would correspond to the settlement of the Visigoths in Narbonne.
Unfortunately these graves have been lost, and the only notes on the necropolis in the area do not show all the features of Visigothic tombs. The most likely hypothesis is that, although on the whole Narbonne is occupied by the Visigoths, the upper valley of the Aude (including the former Rennes-le-Château) has maintained the established structures during the Gallo- Roman architecture without suffering undue influence by the new rulers. Fédié writes with clarity , about the role of the oppidum of Rennes-le-Château:
"In the first years of existence, it was certainly not very important because during the course of the fifth century the Visigoths, masters of Toulouse, which had become their capital, had extended their conquests to the Rhone and the Loire. What role therefore could an oppidum located in a region that has no enemies have? As a military garrison it was not of much use. As an urban agglomeration it was far from offering the convenience of Carcassonne and Narbonne, which were not far away. It was perhaps, at this early stage of existence, only the size of half a large settlement camp, half a city, protected by one of those primitive systems of defense made of earth ....." (4).
The main tensions for the whole area were, rather, internal - and due to religious issues. The area had begun the process of conversion to Christianity in the fourth century, and the land would be divided by the time into seven dioceses (Tolouse, Narbonne, Béziers, Agde, Nimes, Uzes and Lodève), administered by the ecclesiastical authorities ..... The Visigothic occupants were, however, Christians of the Arian confession: since Arianism was considered heretical by Catholics, this made relations difficult between the local Gallo-Roman population and the occupants.
While maintaining some Roman customs, including the Theodosian Code (438), supplemented by the Breviary Alariciano (506) which had been compiled under the supervision of Alaric II (486-507), the Visigoths were to rule a land of Catholic tradition. The tension will worsen between the late fifth and early sixth century, when the Catholic Franks, led by Clovis (466-511), will push south meeting the local populations, it is in this period that the old village Rennes-le-Château acquire greater strategic importance:
"Situated on a hill overlooking the right bank of the upper valley of the Aude and the Sals which represents the main street of the Corbières, this oppidum acquired, immediately, a great importance as guardian of these borders. The Visigoths then made it one of their most important military garrisons. In 563, following the political wars and religious strife caused by the heresy of Sabellians, king Hilpéric, after having divested two of his brothers, became master of a vast territory which had as its boundaries the course of the Aude from the Pyrenees up to Carcassonne, then the Montagne Noire and the Cévennes, and finally a line which, starting from the Cevennes, reached the Mediterranean at a point near Port d'Agde, which was under the control of the Visigoths. The province of Septimania found itself resized by the conquest of the Frankish king. It is therefore evident that, during the course of the sixth century, Septimania was bounded to the west by the river Atax and, as a result, the Visigothic leaders had to implement a system of defense on the right bank of the river. Rhedae thus became an important city. It was surrounded by ramparts and had two strongholds. It was one of the bastions of the province and became the centre of the region, the capital of a diocese that bore its name and was called Rhedesium "(15) ..
If it is likely that the strategic importance of the place is due to its geographical location, it is entirely a hypothetical reconstruction of the details offered by Fédié. Only some of the items quoted by him are reflected in the archaeological and documentary records. The presence of two distinct strongholds is confirmed by various historical sources (16): one was to the north and was protected by a fortress whose walls delimiting the entire inhabited village today, and the other was about five hundred meters south of the first, built on a spur of red marl still known today by the name of The Casteillas.
Although none of the remains of these two forts show typical features of Visigothic architecture - still Fédié offers a hypothetical reconstruction of the area - explicitly accepting that it is a reconstruction made "with the thought." [i.e. imagination?] Although not based on precise evidence, it is a description so interesting that it deserves a careful reading. It covers the entire paragraph V of the text "Rhedae";
"The city is spread over an area comparable to that of the city of Carcassonne within the city walls. It was also surrounded by a double wall. To the west of the village it ended in a precipice which made access impossible. The north side was connected by a steep slope to a fortress which occupied the area of the village, which was called Castrum de Rhedarium or Rhedae. The east side, the only accessible, faced a vast plain that stretched as far as the eye, of which the most form was still a wilderness covered with boxwood and moors. A second fortress, of which no trace remains, stood on the south side, at a distance of five hundred metres from the ramparts. This fortress was built on a spur of red marl that has a meaningful name. This spur that dominates the surrounding plain is called the Casteillas, a local dialect word meaning big castle. It was separated from the city by a deep cutting of the land that formed a large irregular moat, which could direct the waters of the stream that crosses the plain from east to west" (17).
Some of these descriptions can be verified on the ground, referring to remains of which still exist today, while others are more curious because they cite constructions of which all evidence has been lost to memory and to documentary material: this being the case of the two churches of the citadel, the first of which would have been devoted to the Blessed Virgin, the other to St. John the Baptist.
Only the first has been documented: a text in 1185 speaks of a "Beate Maria de territorium Reddis," an act of 1246 of "Blessed Maria de Reddas" in 1255 and one of "Sancta Maria de Reddis" (18), and it maybe one of these documents which Louis Fédié referred to (without naming them). Totally unknown, however, is the origin of the second church - that of St. John the Baptist - this did not survive in any document that talks about it, nor does the French author offer any useful bibliographic reference to verify its credibility: it is possible that it is a local tradition. This would seem confirmed by what Fédié wrote soon after, "a local legend has it that there were fourteen butcher benches at Rhedae" (19), the data - in fact coming from "a local legend" - would allow an approximate calculation of the civilian and military population stationed within the walls.The author cites another legend when he reports the existence of "a convent of monks [...] has a defense system [...] near the entrance of the city, on the east side" (20). The reference is explicitly a "legend", nothing having survived of this convent, and you have to interpret it - having a very clear structure of the citadel hypothesized by Fédié: at the top of the hill on which now stands Rennes-le-Château, in fact, coincides only with the stronghold in the north of the citadel, and this, in fact, in its entirety would be extended south to the rocky outcrop of the Casteillas.
When the author speaks of an "east side" it is difficult to pinpoint, because it is no longer bounded by wall nor necessarily localized on the top of the hill. The description of the stronghold in the north is the simplest, since the area is still inhabited today, the walls of which are still partially visible:
"The Castrum Rhedae, the stronghold located north of the city, occupied the whole plain on which is built the present village which also includes large green spaces which account for two thirds of the surface of the plateau. Neither the time nor the hand of men have changed the shape of this rock mass which, cut and molded in the form of a truncated cone, dominates the plain on all sides. The rocky base which supported the boundary walls have resisted the action of the centuries, and the regularity of its structure test work conducted by competent men who have come to the aid of nature in making these rocks the base of a double wall. The ramparts are gone, the ditches filled, but you can see intact this colossal frame of marl rock that draws the perfect oval of the fortifications. The stronghold had two entrances, one to the east facing the country, the other in the south who put her in direct contact with the city through a steep slope" (21).
Fédié is still forced to refer to the local tradition to rebuild the name of the neighbourhoods that would form the northern stronghold, according to the author the village was divided into three neighborhoods that still exist in the current village and carry the same names translated in the local dialect. The first was called Castrum Valens, on the east side, now called Castel de Balent. The second, located in the south, was called Castrum Salassum. Finally, the third designated by the name of Capella is called the Capello. The first quartre called Castrum Valens, drew its name from a fortified gate at the entrance of the fortress on the east side, ie on the side most exposed to enemy attacks, as it faced the plain. Visiting these places, it is easy to find traces of the fortress Castrum Valens"(22).
With regard to the second fortress that stood on the spur bearing the name of Casteillas, legend has not passed on anything. We only know that at the time of the destruction of Rhedae, the enemy took possession of Casteillas and, from this high point, directed its attacks on the city (25).
The real history....
Over on the distant banks of the Danube moves are afoot that will eventually lead the Visigoths into the region of the ancient Rennes-le-Château: in 376, under pressure from the Huns, the Visigoths ask the Romans if they can cross the mighty river: the Emperor Valens (328-378) grants some land to these imposing Nordic warriors trying to disarm them. Poor management of this delicate moment caused a revolt of the people that Valens had just welcomed: under the guidance of the Visigoth Fritigern - who joins with the Ostrogoths - an army of combined Visigoths and Ostrogoths face the imperial troops at the Battle of Adrianople (378), where Emperor Valens is killed and the Roman army swept away.
The Visigoths are then granted the land in return for the defense and control of the line of the Danube. Dissatisfied with this accommodation, the Visigoths enter Italy and - led by king Alaric (370-410) - lay siege to Rome and plunder the city on August 24 410. Alaric died in the same year and was succeeded Ataulf, and under the guidance of the new king, the Visigoths back the peninsula and come into Gaul.
In 436 they get control of Septimania. It is at this period that some scholars trace the hypothetical arrival in Narbonne of the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem which was stolen in 70AD by the legions of Titus, which consisted of, as well as many riches, the Menorah, the seven-branched candlestick sacred to the Jews and which was placed inside the temple dedicated to Jupiter in Rome. The fate of the treasure is still unknown. Some people assum that it was taken away by the troops of Alaric during the sack of Rome, but it is not the only possibility: it could have remained in Rome and then sent to Byzantium, or dispersed or melted down.
The period of domination in Visigothic Septimania is among the most controversial in the history of the Rennes-le-Château. There is a deep gap between the archaeological evidence and the vast literature on the subject. Christian Raynaud is categorical:
"It is unfortunately the case that there is a total absence of evidence of a Visigoth presence in Rennes-le-Château. 'Evidence' cited, such as the 'dalle des Chevaliers' and the pillar of the old altar can not be attributed to the Visigoths, but rather to the canons of Carolingian art. The remains of the walls that can still be seen around the land are from the Romanesque era (from the tenth to twelfth century). [...] In Rennes-le-Château some small necropolis [...] are aligned with the inhabited places, and this reveals a certain resistance of the people to Christianity. Nothing strange, indeed: the lands at the foot of the Pyrenees did not know the process of Christianization until the sixth century. The funeral decorations were poor and had no weapons, while the typical burial of barbarian warriors included weapons and jewelry. [...] To date, no fibula of Visigothic origin has ever been found on the territory of Rennes-le-Château. This gap is consistent with the total absence of place names in the area, whereas in other places the barbarians did name villages in the upper valley of the Aude. They focus rather on the ancient frontier between the territories Franks and Visigoths to the west of Carcassonne: Arzens, Pazens, Badens, Roullens, etc.. In contrast, 65% of the names of the villages in the upper valley of the Aude and up to Axat have an etymology of Celtic or Gallo-Roman origin, excluding any Visigoth settlement. Everything leads us to believe that the invading Visigoths had not found land available in the Corbières and the upper valley of the Aude. [...] What remains, then, of the Rennes-le-Château as 'Visigoth capital'? A legend" (1).
The only things that "may" belong to the time of the Visigoths are fragments of fortifications that surround the village. Raynaud cites for example, "the portion of a dry wall belonging to a circular tower" (2). This would allow the architectural element to date to the Middle Ages, and Raynaud's does not mean that we are dealing with a Visigoth fortification. As the only witness of a building of defense, it can be attributed to a period of instability - perhaps erected by local people to defend themselves from the arrival of the Visigoths or by the subsequent Saracen invasion of the eight century. What we can say with a good approximation is the fact that the ancient Roman oppidum was surrounded by walls to defend against any external threat.
The precise considerations of Christian Raynaud, arguably the most influential archaeologist who has taken an interest in Rennes-le-Château, are up against the other theories about the origins of Rennes-le-Château - the best-known version for the general public, due to the enormous influence that it had - is the text called "Rhedae" which was written by Louis Fédié (1815-1899). It was he, in fact, and it would seem much to to vigorously - who would fill the "empty" archaeological record of the Visigoth era. The quoted text was presented at the Congrès des Sociétés savantes in Paris in April 1877 and was included in a volume dedicated to the history of Razès, Le Comte de Razès et le diocèse of Alet (1).
Fédié promulgated the hypothesis that the ancient Rennes-le-Château became the capital of an area called Rhedesium. There is in fact a document that refers to a diocese of Septimania called Pagus Rhedensis (2), but there is no archaeological or documentary evidence required for identifying the ancient village with the capital Rhedae. The French author writes:
"[Guillaume] Besse, a historian [of the seventeenth century], is inclined to believe that, during the sixth century, the bishops of Carcassonne, driven from their home by the Arians, established their temporary residence in Rhedae. These elements attest, in the time before the seventh century, not only the existence but also the importance of the capital of Rhedesium. We still have to find out what its geographical location was and the era in which it was founded. No historian has provided information on the origin, importance and the historical role of the city of Rhedae. It's birth is so mysterious that it seems to have deterred chroniclers and archaeologists" (3).
The hypothesis of Guillaume Besse, however, had no basis: in the sixth century Carcassonne was still just a castrum and not yet hosted a bishopric. Nevertheless, several authors have speculated that it would have been the persecutions of the Visigoth king Leovigild between 582 and 586 against the bishops of Septimania that forced the bishop of Carcassonne to take refuge in Rhedae and make him raise an initial building of a religious nature. This made it possible to formulate an attractive hypothesis: a bishop in flight would, in fact, have brought with him the most precious relics of the diocese and - according to the rules of traditional votive - would then have put them in a safe in a crypt built just for this purpose, the "reliquiarie churches" being very common in Languedoc (4).
However, no historian has ever identified with certainty the hypothetical capital of Rhedesium, and Fédié is the first to propose a hypothesis, devoting his long study of the village which he believes can be identified with the capital in question: the 'ancient Rennes-le-Château.
Although archeology has never identified with certainty the capital of Rhedesium, most of the studies dedicated to Rennes-le-Château takes for granted the identification of the same with the village, due in large part to the influence of the text of Fédié, long considered the most authoritative in the field. The first to openly challenge the weakness of the conclusions of Fédié were Brigitte Lescure (5) in 1978 and Jean Fourie (6) in 1984 - but the first popular text to bring the doubts on the identification of Rhedae was only published only in 2002 (7) .
According to Fourie;
"We do not possess any element to determine what Rennes looked like at the time of the Visigoths. A simple oppidum, a military defense of the frontier, a village of wagons, the capital of a province, a bishop's seat ...[...] Without wishing to put an end to many hypotheses and the beautiful theories of one and the other, we are convinced that such a problem will never be fully resolved, unless we are faced with a hypothetical sensational archaeological find"( 8).
Bearing in mind the distinction between the hypothetical capital of Rhedesium (never identified with certainty) and the ancient village of Rennes-le-Château, it is interesting to investigate the scenario by Louis Fédié, because of the profound influence he will have on most of the authors of the twentieth century, and in doing so you have to keep in mind that the author does not always cite sources from which he drew his information, and even fewer of his ideas are based on precise reconstructions of archaeological findings.
He adheres to the hypothesis according to which the name "Rhedae" derives from the word for "chariot". Originally, the village would be a simple camp made up of travelling wagons:
"houses on wheels, arranged at regular distances, becoming fixed abodes at predetermined points, and forming an oppidum of wood, leather and canvas, surrounded by trenches. It is the city at its beginning, an immense hive to which every inhabitant has brought his worth. [...] The chariots of the Visigoths were pulled by buffalo. They had four-wheels and were built very low and could pass on any terrain. They were real houses on wheels, made of wood, leather and wicker. [...] In order to cross the rivers, as well as to go up or go with the flow, the Visigoths were using boats with a frame made of reeds or wicker covered with leather and that could be carried on shoulder" (9).
The route that the Visigoths would follow to settle in the area around the hill of Rennes-le-Château occupies the entire second paragraph of the text of Fédié, but unfortunately without any references to specific archaeological evidence. Instead there is a precise (and impressive) description which is in the third paragraph about the area where the Visigoths settled:
"We soon arrive on a large sandy plain, covered with ...trees and moors that, from the village of Bezu, spread over a huge area and ends to the west, after a journey of eight - ten kilometers, at the foot of the ridge on which stands the village of Rennes-le-Château. Here, the land narrows between two hills, one to the south completely bare, the other to the north where the village stands. This flat land is crossed by a stream that flows from east to west. This stream, fed from a source that flows intermittently, is almost dry during the summer but, in winter, sets in motion a mill. It is in this place which was built the camp Visigoth embryo of a powerful city" (10).
Although the author writes that "The evidence abounds in indicating exactly the place" (11) in which stood the citadel, these first mentions seem to refer to periods prior to the hypothetical Visigoth settlement:
"Two years ago, a resident of the village of Rennes-le-Château, during the excavation work for the construction of a wall, discovered a large slab of stone which, once raised, brought to light a host of human bones. It was a mass of fragments of skeletons surrounded on four sides by large stone slabs. The depth of this ossuary could not be verified, as we hastened to put in place the stone that covered the orifice [...]. The place where this happened [the discovery] is called, in the local dialect, The Capello, the chapel. So at that point there was a church and a place of burial, both dating back to ancient times" (12).
These exhibits, however, are proof of the settlement of the Visigoths, and these tombs with a similar structure:
"We note the recent discovery in a place called Roquefumade, in the vicinity of Rennes-le-Château, numerous tombs isolated or grouped together at the bottom of a valley and having all of the same shape as the buriasl discovered in a place called The Capello, that is composed of large slabs of rough stone juxtaposed, and where the walls and the lids form an imitation of Merovingian graves" (13).
Fédié explains that the erection of the Merovingian tombs in the north and centre of France dates back to a time that would correspond to the settlement of the Visigoths in Narbonne.
Unfortunately these graves have been lost, and the only notes on the necropolis in the area do not show all the features of Visigothic tombs. The most likely hypothesis is that, although on the whole Narbonne is occupied by the Visigoths, the upper valley of the Aude (including the former Rennes-le-Château) has maintained the established structures during the Gallo- Roman architecture without suffering undue influence by the new rulers. Fédié writes with clarity , about the role of the oppidum of Rennes-le-Château:
"In the first years of existence, it was certainly not very important because during the course of the fifth century the Visigoths, masters of Toulouse, which had become their capital, had extended their conquests to the Rhone and the Loire. What role therefore could an oppidum located in a region that has no enemies have? As a military garrison it was not of much use. As an urban agglomeration it was far from offering the convenience of Carcassonne and Narbonne, which were not far away. It was perhaps, at this early stage of existence, only the size of half a large settlement camp, half a city, protected by one of those primitive systems of defense made of earth ....." (4).
The main tensions for the whole area were, rather, internal - and due to religious issues. The area had begun the process of conversion to Christianity in the fourth century, and the land would be divided by the time into seven dioceses (Tolouse, Narbonne, Béziers, Agde, Nimes, Uzes and Lodève), administered by the ecclesiastical authorities ..... The Visigothic occupants were, however, Christians of the Arian confession: since Arianism was considered heretical by Catholics, this made relations difficult between the local Gallo-Roman population and the occupants.
While maintaining some Roman customs, including the Theodosian Code (438), supplemented by the Breviary Alariciano (506) which had been compiled under the supervision of Alaric II (486-507), the Visigoths were to rule a land of Catholic tradition. The tension will worsen between the late fifth and early sixth century, when the Catholic Franks, led by Clovis (466-511), will push south meeting the local populations, it is in this period that the old village Rennes-le-Château acquire greater strategic importance:
"Situated on a hill overlooking the right bank of the upper valley of the Aude and the Sals which represents the main street of the Corbières, this oppidum acquired, immediately, a great importance as guardian of these borders. The Visigoths then made it one of their most important military garrisons. In 563, following the political wars and religious strife caused by the heresy of Sabellians, king Hilpéric, after having divested two of his brothers, became master of a vast territory which had as its boundaries the course of the Aude from the Pyrenees up to Carcassonne, then the Montagne Noire and the Cévennes, and finally a line which, starting from the Cevennes, reached the Mediterranean at a point near Port d'Agde, which was under the control of the Visigoths. The province of Septimania found itself resized by the conquest of the Frankish king. It is therefore evident that, during the course of the sixth century, Septimania was bounded to the west by the river Atax and, as a result, the Visigothic leaders had to implement a system of defense on the right bank of the river. Rhedae thus became an important city. It was surrounded by ramparts and had two strongholds. It was one of the bastions of the province and became the centre of the region, the capital of a diocese that bore its name and was called Rhedesium "(15) ..
If it is likely that the strategic importance of the place is due to its geographical location, it is entirely a hypothetical reconstruction of the details offered by Fédié. Only some of the items quoted by him are reflected in the archaeological and documentary records. The presence of two distinct strongholds is confirmed by various historical sources (16): one was to the north and was protected by a fortress whose walls delimiting the entire inhabited village today, and the other was about five hundred meters south of the first, built on a spur of red marl still known today by the name of The Casteillas.
Although none of the remains of these two forts show typical features of Visigothic architecture - still Fédié offers a hypothetical reconstruction of the area - explicitly accepting that it is a reconstruction made "with the thought." [i.e. imagination?] Although not based on precise evidence, it is a description so interesting that it deserves a careful reading. It covers the entire paragraph V of the text "Rhedae";
"The city is spread over an area comparable to that of the city of Carcassonne within the city walls. It was also surrounded by a double wall. To the west of the village it ended in a precipice which made access impossible. The north side was connected by a steep slope to a fortress which occupied the area of the village, which was called Castrum de Rhedarium or Rhedae. The east side, the only accessible, faced a vast plain that stretched as far as the eye, of which the most form was still a wilderness covered with boxwood and moors. A second fortress, of which no trace remains, stood on the south side, at a distance of five hundred metres from the ramparts. This fortress was built on a spur of red marl that has a meaningful name. This spur that dominates the surrounding plain is called the Casteillas, a local dialect word meaning big castle. It was separated from the city by a deep cutting of the land that formed a large irregular moat, which could direct the waters of the stream that crosses the plain from east to west" (17).
Some of these descriptions can be verified on the ground, referring to remains of which still exist today, while others are more curious because they cite constructions of which all evidence has been lost to memory and to documentary material: this being the case of the two churches of the citadel, the first of which would have been devoted to the Blessed Virgin, the other to St. John the Baptist.
Only the first has been documented: a text in 1185 speaks of a "Beate Maria de territorium Reddis," an act of 1246 of "Blessed Maria de Reddas" in 1255 and one of "Sancta Maria de Reddis" (18), and it maybe one of these documents which Louis Fédié referred to (without naming them). Totally unknown, however, is the origin of the second church - that of St. John the Baptist - this did not survive in any document that talks about it, nor does the French author offer any useful bibliographic reference to verify its credibility: it is possible that it is a local tradition. This would seem confirmed by what Fédié wrote soon after, "a local legend has it that there were fourteen butcher benches at Rhedae" (19), the data - in fact coming from "a local legend" - would allow an approximate calculation of the civilian and military population stationed within the walls.The author cites another legend when he reports the existence of "a convent of monks [...] has a defense system [...] near the entrance of the city, on the east side" (20). The reference is explicitly a "legend", nothing having survived of this convent, and you have to interpret it - having a very clear structure of the citadel hypothesized by Fédié: at the top of the hill on which now stands Rennes-le-Château, in fact, coincides only with the stronghold in the north of the citadel, and this, in fact, in its entirety would be extended south to the rocky outcrop of the Casteillas.
When the author speaks of an "east side" it is difficult to pinpoint, because it is no longer bounded by wall nor necessarily localized on the top of the hill. The description of the stronghold in the north is the simplest, since the area is still inhabited today, the walls of which are still partially visible:
"The Castrum Rhedae, the stronghold located north of the city, occupied the whole plain on which is built the present village which also includes large green spaces which account for two thirds of the surface of the plateau. Neither the time nor the hand of men have changed the shape of this rock mass which, cut and molded in the form of a truncated cone, dominates the plain on all sides. The rocky base which supported the boundary walls have resisted the action of the centuries, and the regularity of its structure test work conducted by competent men who have come to the aid of nature in making these rocks the base of a double wall. The ramparts are gone, the ditches filled, but you can see intact this colossal frame of marl rock that draws the perfect oval of the fortifications. The stronghold had two entrances, one to the east facing the country, the other in the south who put her in direct contact with the city through a steep slope" (21).
Fédié is still forced to refer to the local tradition to rebuild the name of the neighbourhoods that would form the northern stronghold, according to the author the village was divided into three neighborhoods that still exist in the current village and carry the same names translated in the local dialect. The first was called Castrum Valens, on the east side, now called Castel de Balent. The second, located in the south, was called Castrum Salassum. Finally, the third designated by the name of Capella is called the Capello. The first quartre called Castrum Valens, drew its name from a fortified gate at the entrance of the fortress on the east side, ie on the side most exposed to enemy attacks, as it faced the plain. Visiting these places, it is easy to find traces of the fortress Castrum Valens"(22).
With regard to the second fortress that stood on the spur bearing the name of Casteillas, legend has not passed on anything. We only know that at the time of the destruction of Rhedae, the enemy took possession of Casteillas and, from this high point, directed its attacks on the city (25).
1.Jean Fourie, L'Histoire de Rennes-le-Château à antérieure 1789 , Esperaza: Editions Jean Bardou, 1984 pp.30-32
2.Jean Fourie, L'Histoire de Rennes-le-Château à antérieure 1789 , Esperaza: Editions Jean Bardou, 1984 p.32
1.Louis Fédié, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation by Roberto Gramolini Investigations in Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
2.Si is an act preserved in Cartulario Capcir quoted in Louis Fédié, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation by Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
The 3.Paragrafo in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
4.The 'hypothesis is formulated in Guillaume Besse, antiques et Histoire des Comtes de Carcassonne , Beziers: A. Estradier (Carcassonne), 1645 cit. Louis Buzairies in Alban,Notice historique sur les châteaux de l'arrondissement de Limoux , 1867 (now in the edition Nimes: C. Lacour Éditeur, 1999), p.5, and is criticized in Jean Fourie,L'Histoire de Rennes- le-Château à antérieure 1789 , Esperaza: Editions Jean Bardou, 1984 p.42. The hypothesis of the reliquary crypt is Paul Saussez, Au tombeau des seigneurs (on CD-ROM), ArkEos, 2004 slide 9.
5.Brigitte Lescure, Recherches archéologiques à Rennes-le-Château du VIII au XVI siècles, maitrise de Mémoire d'histoire de l'art, Université de Toulouse Le Mirail 1978
6.Jean Fourie, L'Histoire de Rennes-le-Château à antérieure 1789 , Esperaza: Editions Jean Bardou, 1984
7.Jean-Jacques Bedu, Rennes-le-Château, autopsies of a Myth , Portet-sur-Garonne: LOUBATIÈRES, 2002, pp.21-23
8.Jean Fourie, L'Histoire de Rennes-le-Château à antérieure 1789 , Esperaza: Editions Jean Bardou, 1984 pp.43-44
The 9.Paragrafo in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
10.Paragrafo III Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
11.Paragrafo III Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
12.Paragrafo IV in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
13.Paragrafo IV in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
14.Paragrafo IV in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
15.Paragrafo IV in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
16.Due documents specifically refer to a second fortification, they are two acts, one in 1067 and one in 1084, cited in Claude De Vic, Joseph Vaissète, Histoire Générale de Languedoc , (10 volumes) in 1715 (now in ' Lacour edition 2000), pp.544 and 589.
17.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
18.Archives Départementales de la Haute-Garonne cit. in Pierre Jarnac, Histoire du Trésor de Rennes-le-Château , Nice: Bélisane, 1985 note to p.60.
19.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
20.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
21.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
22.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
23.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
24.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
25.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
With grateful thanks to Mariano Tomatis Antoniono for permission to translate sections of his Rennes le Chateau guide. http://www.renneslechateau.it/index.php?sezione=guida&id=9 & http://www.renneslechateau.it/index.php?sezione=guida&id=10
2.Jean Fourie, L'Histoire de Rennes-le-Château à antérieure 1789 , Esperaza: Editions Jean Bardou, 1984 p.32
1.Louis Fédié, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation by Roberto Gramolini Investigations in Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
2.Si is an act preserved in Cartulario Capcir quoted in Louis Fédié, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation by Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
The 3.Paragrafo in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
4.The 'hypothesis is formulated in Guillaume Besse, antiques et Histoire des Comtes de Carcassonne , Beziers: A. Estradier (Carcassonne), 1645 cit. Louis Buzairies in Alban,Notice historique sur les châteaux de l'arrondissement de Limoux , 1867 (now in the edition Nimes: C. Lacour Éditeur, 1999), p.5, and is criticized in Jean Fourie,L'Histoire de Rennes- le-Château à antérieure 1789 , Esperaza: Editions Jean Bardou, 1984 p.42. The hypothesis of the reliquary crypt is Paul Saussez, Au tombeau des seigneurs (on CD-ROM), ArkEos, 2004 slide 9.
5.Brigitte Lescure, Recherches archéologiques à Rennes-le-Château du VIII au XVI siècles, maitrise de Mémoire d'histoire de l'art, Université de Toulouse Le Mirail 1978
6.Jean Fourie, L'Histoire de Rennes-le-Château à antérieure 1789 , Esperaza: Editions Jean Bardou, 1984
7.Jean-Jacques Bedu, Rennes-le-Château, autopsies of a Myth , Portet-sur-Garonne: LOUBATIÈRES, 2002, pp.21-23
8.Jean Fourie, L'Histoire de Rennes-le-Château à antérieure 1789 , Esperaza: Editions Jean Bardou, 1984 pp.43-44
The 9.Paragrafo in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
10.Paragrafo III Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
11.Paragrafo III Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
12.Paragrafo IV in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
13.Paragrafo IV in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
14.Paragrafo IV in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
15.Paragrafo IV in Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
16.Due documents specifically refer to a second fortification, they are two acts, one in 1067 and one in 1084, cited in Claude De Vic, Joseph Vaissète, Histoire Générale de Languedoc , (10 volumes) in 1715 (now in ' Lacour edition 2000), pp.544 and 589.
17.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
18.Archives Départementales de la Haute-Garonne cit. in Pierre Jarnac, Histoire du Trésor de Rennes-le-Château , Nice: Bélisane, 1985 note to p.60.
19.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
20.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
21.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
22.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
23.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
24.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
25.Paragrafo V Fédié Louis, Le Comte de Razès the diocèse et d'Alet , 1880 (reproduced in the first chapter Fédié Louis, Rhedae: la Cité des Chariots , Rennes-le-Château: Terre de Rhedae, 1994 hours in the Italian translation Roberto Gramolini in Investigation of Rennes-le-Château 13 (2007), pp.631-647)
With grateful thanks to Mariano Tomatis Antoniono for permission to translate sections of his Rennes le Chateau guide. http://www.renneslechateau.it/index.php?sezione=guida&id=9 & http://www.renneslechateau.it/index.php?sezione=guida&id=10
