The chapel and its mysteries

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The Rosslyn Chapel, originally named the Collegiate Chapel of St. Matthew, is a 15th century church in the village of Roslin, seven miles from Edinburgh in Scotland.

Dedicated to St. Matthew, the chapel is famous both for its decorative art and its unexplained associations with the Knights Templar, the Holy Grail and the Freemasons.
The chapel was founded by Sir William Sinclair of the St. Clair family, of Scottish nobility from Orkney descended from Norman knights and, according to legend, linked to the Knights Templar.
Alternative histories invol-ving the Rosslyn Chapel and the Sinclairs have been published arguing links with the Knights Templar and the supposed descendants of Jesus Christ.
The foundation stone of the Rosslyn Chapel was laid on St. Matthew’s Day, September 21, 1446. The Rosslyn Chapel functions as a place of worship for the Scottish Episcopal Church. The chapel is actually the choir of what was intended to be a much larger cross-shaped church. The Rosslyn Chapel’s mysteries played a significant role in Dan Brown’s 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. Since then, the number of visitors to the chapel has risen by 56 per cent and the chapel is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in Scotland. Part of the filming of the Da Vinci Code movie based on the book took place here in August 2005.