Rennes-le-Château

Bérenger Saunière became curé of Rennes-le-Château in 1885. After undertaking restoration of the village church in 1891, he began spending money far in excess of any plausible income — constructing a tower, a neo-Gothic villa, and elaborate gardens — until his death in 1917. He never explained the source of his wealth. The Church investigated him for trafficking in masses (selling more services than he could perform) and convicted him, but the full extent of his income was never established.

The mystery spawned a literature: Gérard de Sède's L'Or de Rennes (1967) proposed Visigothic treasure; the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982) proposed that Saunière had discovered evidence of a royal bloodline of Christ. The Priory of Sion — a key element of the later conspiracy — was shown in the 1990s to have been fabricated by hoaxers in the 1950s. None of this has diminished the village's draw: it receives over 100,000 visitors a year.