The organisers have asked me to bring you up to date on the progress of the dossier relating to the request for an archaeological dig, the drafting of which was officially entrusted to me by the Village Council of Rennes-le-Château on 26 August 2011.

We were scheduled to have a talk during the Colloquium by the well-known Aude archaeologist Marie-Elise Gardel, whose assistance I was counting on, but she has had to cry off at the last minute. She has however assured the organisers that she will be available on a future occasion.

I have therefore myself come to the microphone to recap the major stages in this project.

It was necessary above all to secure the cooperation of an archaeologist, who is obviously the key person in any dig. The dossier has to be signed by the archaeologist before submission to the DRAC, and it is under the archaeologist's responsibility that the dig takes place.

It was quite some time ago when I identified Marie-Elise Gardel as the ideal person to lead a dig as soon as the opportunity for one should present itself.

With a doctorate in History and Archaeology, a Professor at the University of Perpignan, a specialist in the Middle Ages, a lecturer and author of numerous books and articles, the holder of several honorary distinctions for her work, especially for the digs at the Roman camp of Cabaret, Marie-Elise Gardel is undoubtedly the most distinguished archaeologist for this kind of work both in the department of the Aude and throughout the region of Languedoc-Roussillon.

During our first meeting at the Amicale Laïque de Carcassonne (ALC) on 8 December 2011, I had to deal with the various apprehensions that the rather nefarious reputation of Rennes-le-Château have inspired for far too long in the minds of every serious scientific researcher.

To overcome these apprehensions, we decided that three crucial elements has to be addressed:

first the desire of the Village Council to submit a dossier in its own name requesting an archaeological dig.

then the collation of the previous researches, including the Master's dissertation in the History of Art by Brigitte Lescure in 1978, the ground-penetrating radar study carried out in 2001 and 2002 by the Eisenman team, which was completed by the intepretation by the firm of G-TEC carried out at my request in 2005, as well as the investigation by the Heygate team in 2008.

finally, the strictly historical arguments which I worked out with Madame Giraud’s help on the basis of research which I have undertaken since 1997 and which I made known to the general public in the form of lectures, a CD-ROM and two pamphlets between 2002 and 2011. [1]

At the end of the meeting Madame Gardel expressed her keen enthusiasm and confirmed that she was willing to collaborate on the project, all the more so as her organisation ALC, which is officially approved for the undertaking of archaeological digs, had been instructed to draw up a heritage inventory for some 25 communes which form the Communauté de Communes de Couiza, and that the best strategy would be to use this inventory as a launchpad to get the DRAC interested in the plans to dig at the Church of Ste Marie Madeleine.

This inventory is in the course of compilation and should be completed during the first quarter of 2013.

Emboldened by Madame Gardel's support I then organised a meeting between the main protagonists, namely Messieurs Loppe, Treton and Modat, and the Mayor Alexandre Painco. This meeting was held at the Mairie in Rennes-le-Château on 22 March 2012.

A very detailed presentation by Monsieur Loppe made clear just how complex the administrative procedures were which would have to be overcome even before the DRAC agreed to accept the dossier requesting an archaeological dig.

Unless the arguments put forward are exceptionally persuasive it seems that very few of the dossiers submitted to the DRAC under the title of programmées, which is the category that our dossier would fall into, stand any chance of coming to anything. On the other hand the DRAC is obliged to accept all those dossiers which fall under the heading of preventive archaeology (préventives), in other words digs that aim to preserve parts of the archaeological heritage which might be adversely affected by public works or by private development.

The question was then asked whether Rennes-le-Château envisaged any works in or around the church which might justify the submission of a ‘preventive’ dossier.

Monsieur Painco replied that several works had already been undertaken without the DRAC showing any interest in them, and added – with irony – that the underground (metro) line which was intended to connect Rennes-le-Château and Couiza and which would have passed underneath the church had been postponed.

Another line of attack was envisaged: underfloor heating in the church.

Since my firm has an expert in such matters working for us I suggested drawing up a preliminary plan and a budgetary estimate. These were submitted to the Mairie on 7 May 2012.

To cut a long story short, the administrative constraints are such that to have any chance of conducting a dig at the church we would first have to install underfloor heating...

Up to now I always thought that Belgium were the world champions in surrealism, but that of course would be to forget that the Belgians had a master: the French!

It therefore only remains to wait until the start of 2012 for the heritage inventory to be completed which will enable all the protagonists to get around the table, namely the DRAC, the STAP (Service Territorial de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine, formerly the ABF), the CRMH (Conservateur Régional des Monuments Historiques), the archaeologists, the Mayor and myself.

This next meeting will not only be a first for the scientific community but a decisive step towards fulfilment of the project.


Paul SAUSSEZ
Architect
Member of the SESA.


[1] 'Au tombeau des seigneurs' and 'Petite Chronologie Raisonnée de l'Histoire de Rennes-le-Château en Languedoc' (available from the bookshop Atelier Empreinte).