Pierre Plantard began promoting a revised version of the Priory of Sion during the 1990s, claiming there was an entrance to a former Celtic sanctuary called the TEMPLE ROND (“Round Temple”) by the ‘Roco Negro’ that was located beneath the Château de Blanchefort – dubbed the ‘Roc Noir’ or ‘Rocher Noir’ (Plantard had purchased parcels of land around Blanchefort during the mid-1960s that included ‘Roco Negro’) [1] [2]

Is there any historical or archaeological evidence to substantiate this claim – or is it yet another Pierre Plantard fantasy?

Here is a TEMPLE ROND Timeline

The original source of Plantard’s TEMPLE ROND can be found within the material of his group the Alpha Galates of the 1940s

-Vaincre, Number 5, 21 January 1943, page 3 – the article entitled “L’Orient et L’Occident IV”, falsely attributed to Le Comte Moncharville (Maurice Lecomte-Moncharville, 1864-1943). This article was reprinted as “Agartha: La Science Secrète des Sages” by Pierre de France, in Initiation, Magie, Science, Number 1, pages 28-33, and still falsely attributed to Lecomte-Moncharville (1946).

“It was through the Sanctuary of the Dragon that the first knights passed to meet with the subterranean dwellers, who led them to the heart of the Breton crypts 379 metres down, in the City of the Alpha, where the Temple of Aga was located.” The article continued by referring to the existence of a Table Rond within the Hall of The King.

-Vaincre, Nr 3, September 1989
- Article by Norberto, “Le Symbolisme de l’Echiquer”, pages 17-19

On page 19 of Norberto’s article, the Tarot Cards are used in conjunction with the Knight's Tour in the decryption technique to the Large Parchment as part of the initiation process into the imaginary Priory of Sion – and clearly the concept of the TEMPLE ROND was Plantard’s invention of the 1990s that marked the completion of the initiation into the Priory of Sion (Plantard had previously mentioned similar things in relation to the chessboard, the Knight's Tour and the Temple). [3]

- Page 19: “In the ORDER OF SION there are three stages through which one has to pass (namely the Blue Lodges, the Chapters and the Commanderies) before one reaches the Arch of the 13 Rose+Croix, i.e. THE ROUND TABLE. To reach the Round Table one must make the 64th transition, that which defies space and time. Only then does one become the MADMAN or the FOOL or the BISHOP, whose cap is the MITRE. There are only two ways of making this transition from 64 to 1: either via the square of 14 (Temperance) or via the square of 15 (the Devil) as found in the 22 trumps of the TAROT OF MARSEILLES (Marceille). The Round Table is located at Le Roc Nègre near Rennes-les-Bains in the Aude. "This was constructed from 1780 to 1782 by Brother DUBOSC at 28 metres below-ground" in the old mines and underground passages. A superb square-mosaic paving covers the centre of the floor. According to some documents, all that Brother DUBOSC did was to hollow out a chimney to reconnect with the Round Table as the usual entrance had ceased to exist by 1780 (and, indeed, had not existed for more than a century before that date).”

July 2002 – Pierre Jarnac edits Bulletin Pégase No 1, Hors Série “Le Dossier Dubosc”
- A collection of historical documents and transcripts relating to the activities of Jean Louis Dubosc in the area of Rennes-les-Bains between 1782-1789, including references to Dubosc at Rennes-les-Bains in “Essai sur le Département de l’Aude” by Claude-Ignace Barante (1802)
-No references to TABLE ROND

Stéphanie Buttegeg. Les Mines Légendaires Antiques de Rennes-les-Bains (A la Recherche du Secret Perdu, Légendes d’Oc, avril 2013), concluded the source for the TEMPLE ROND at Blanchefort were the 1989 articles in Vaincre

CONCLUSION

The TEMPLE ROND of the Alpha Galates of the 1940s was transposed over the Priory of Sion of the late 1980s and 1990s. There never was a TEMPLE ROND in the vicinity of Rocco Negro at Rennes-les-Bains.

Footnotes

[1] Jean-Luc Chaumeil, The Priory of Sion: Shedding Light on The Treasure and Legacy of Rennes-le-Château and The Priory of Sion, page 91 (Avalonia, 2010)

[2] “Annexe 1: Le Dossier Immobilier de Pierre Plantard à Rennes-les-Bains”, Actes du Colloque d'Etudes et de Recherches sur Rennes-le-Chateau 2012, pp.79-101 (Le Serpent Rouge Volume 31, Les Editions de l'Oeil du Sphinx, 2013)

[3] Jean-Luc Chaumeil, The Priory of Sion: Shedding Light on The Treasure and Legacy of Rennes-le-Château and The Priory of Sion, pages 220-221 (Avalonia, 2010)