NO Connection Between Templars and Rosslyn Chapel

Rosslyn Chapel (actually, a full-size church building), also known as the Collegiate Chapel of Saint Matthew, is a 15th-century chapel (now Episcopal) located in the village of Roslin in Midlothian, Scotland.

The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness in 1456 (150 years after the demise of Templars which should have ended all stories of Templar connection right then and there). After the Scottish Reformation in 1560, it was largely abandoned but, following a visit by Queen Victoria, it was rededicated in 1862. It is still privately owned.

The interior contains some strange carvings which many historians have sought to interpret for a long time. They were unsuccessful, so it is not surprising that since the late 1980s, the chapel has been the subject of speculative theories that claim its connection with the Knights Templar, Freemasonry and even the Holy Grail. No historical evidence to support these speculations surfaced so far.

The key source of these legends is the long-sealed crypt which is suspected of being a front to an extensive subterranean vault containing the Holy Grail, the treasure of the Templars… or the original crown jewels of Scotland. There is no evidence that supports any of these claims.

One of the claims that became the basis for Rosslyn-Templar connection, was the assertion that layout of Rosslyn Chapel allegedly echoes that of Solomon’s Temple (First Temple).

However, if you superimpose the floor plans of Rosslyn Chapel and either Solomon’s Temple or Herod’s Temple, you will actually find that they are not even remotely similar.

In reality, the Rosslyn Chapel was a scaled-down imitation of Glasgow Cathedral (consecrated in 1197). If you superimpose the floor plans of Rosslyn Chapel and the East Quire of Glasgow Cathedral you will find a startling match: the four walls of both buildings fit precisely. Similarities do not end there – both have the same number of windows and the same number of pillars in the same configuration.

In short, the alleged between Rosslyn Chapel and the Templars is purely fictional: it was invented by Dan Brown in his mega-bestseller The Da Vinci Code (2003) and further popularized in its 2006 film adaptation.

The book and the movie generated enormous public interest in this alleged connection – so dozens of books (all de-facto fiction) were written to cater to the global demand for more information.