Rennes-le-Château

Tour Magdala

Coat of arms

Rennes-le-Château

Location within Occitanie region

Rennes-le-Château

Coordinates: 42°55′41″N 2°15′48″E / 42.9281°N 02.2633°ECoordinates: 42°55′41″N 2°15′48″E / 42.9281°N 02.2633°E

Country

Couiza

Government

• Mayor (2008–2020)

Alexandre Painco

Area¹

14.68 km² (5.67 sq mi)

Population (2008)²

• Density

6.2/km² (16/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

INSEE/Postal code

11309 / 11190

Elevation

272–568 m (892–1,864 ft)
(avg. 435 m or 1,427 ft)

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

²Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Rennes-le-Château (Occitan: Rènnas del Castèl) is a small commune approximately 5 km (3 miles) south of Couiza, in the Aude department in Languedoc in southern France.

This small French hilltop village is known internationally, and receives tens of thousands of visitors per year, because of various conspiracy theories, about an alleged buried treasure discovered by its 19th-century priest Bérenger Saunière, the precise nature of which is disputed by those who believe in its existence.

Mountains frame both ends of the region—the Cevennes to the northeast and the Pyrenees to the south. The area is known for beautiful scenery, with jagged ridges, deep river canyons and rocky limestone plateaus, with large caves underneath.

Rennes-le-Château was the site of a prehistoric encampment, and later a Roman colony, or at least Roman villa or temple, such as is confirmed to have been built at Fa, 5 km (3.1 mi) west of Couiza, part of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis, the wealthiest part of Roman Gaul.

Rennes-le-Château was part of Septimania in the 6th and 7th centuries. It has been claimed that it was once an important Visigothic town with some 30,000 people living in the city in around 500-600 AD. However, British archaeologist of some repute, Bill Putnam (died in 2008) and British physicist John Edwin Wood argue that while there may have been a Visigothic town on the site of the present village, "but with a population closer to 300 than 30,000".

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Wikipedia