Quezi

Rosslyn green man - medieval church carving (Photo by TF Duesing - CC-BY)

Rosslyn Chapel already had 30,000 visitors a year before Dan Brown used it in his mystical adventure novel the Da Vinci Code in 2003. Numbers rose, and then escalated massively after the 2006 movie version showed Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou searching for secrets there.

The church near Edinburgh, Scotland was overflowing with tourists in 2006 and 2007. For a while there were six times the number of visitors of pre-Da Vinci Code years.

Journalists wrote about the phenomenon from every possible point of view. Fame was a “curse” turning the ancient rural church into a “Disneyland”, or it was a blessed sign of “prayers answered”  – meaning prayers for money to restore the extraordinary medieval building, famous for its intricate and intriguing carving.

Without conservation work the church would crumble away, but there are good reasons not to let this happen. Rosslyn Chapel is exceptional as pure architecture, even if you have no interest in the more unusual stories attached to it. Some visitors have read about possible links to the Knights Templar and/or Freemasons, the 100 “pagan” green men carvings, or the 15th century stone “maize” that could suggest sea-faring Scots arrived in America before Columbus. But even without these mysteries, Rosslyn holds its own compared with other European churches of that age, and in Scotland it’s unusual for a church from that period to have survived at all.

Tickets and souvenirs sold to visitors inspired by the novel and the film have helped fund-raising efforts by the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, who are responsible for the church’s architectural heritage. Restoration is the priority, but the Trust also plan more parking space, a new cafe, shop, toilets, and other visitor facilities for the small site overlooking the wooded valley of Roslin Glen.

Of course this all means a change of atmosphere. Just a few years ago there were roughly 100 visitors on an average day – apart from the congregation who worship there. It remains to be seen what numbers will be like as book- and movie-driven tourism declines, but the Trust say they are aiming for a “sustainable” 80,000 people a year.

We probably shouldn’t thank, or blame, Dan Brown for the expansion and developments needed to manage the historic site. A couple of months before the Da Vinci Code was first published, a brand development company was contracted to look at “enhancing visitor experience … and opportunities for e-commerce, retail and catering”. A business-like approach to funding expensive maintenance seemed inevitable.

Even if your heart sinks a little at the idea of branding, commerce, and tourism jargon about making the church an “essential destination”, a bit of worldly wisdom is surely the only way to keep Rosslyn Chapel standing for future generations.

Quotes and info from the Scotsman newspaper.