Temple Church London and The Da Vinci Code
Monday, February 18th, 2008 Exterior of Temple Church, London |
(c) Copyright 2006-2008 Mathew Lodge / www.lodgephoto.com
Temple Church is a remarkable building because it has survived intact in pretty much its original form in the centre of a major city for 800 years, and because it has been the scene of key events in British history. Its role in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and subsequent surge of popularity is merely the most recent chapter in a long and distinguished history.
Temple Church has survived the crushing of the Knights Templar by the Pope in 1307, the disbanding of the Knights Hospitallier (its subsequent owners) by Henry VIII during the reformation of 1540, the Great Fire Of London in 1666, unwarranted “restoration” by the architect Wren in the aftermath of the fire, Victorian remodeling in 1841, and a 1941 incendiary bomb attack during World War II. It is one of the oldest buildings in London (only Westminster Abbey and the White Tower at the Tower Of London are older), and is the only remaining example of Romanesque architecture left in the city.
The building’s architecture is the most striking feature when you first approach the church, which is found by navigating a series of narrow alleyways between Fleet Street and the Embankment alongside the river Thames. Suddenly, you find yourself in an open square right next to a round crenulated building of honey-colored sandstone, attached to a larger rectangular structure.
The round section of Temple Church was built first and is based on the church on the temple mount in Jerusalem. In keeping with the The Da Vinci Code’s plotline, Dan Brown attaches some significance to the fact that the design doesn’t follow the typical cross-shaped plan of nearly every Christian church, implying that it was a deliberately pagan design. This ignores the fact that the design is a copy of a Roman building in Jerusalem, later converted to the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre in what was (at that time) the Christian Holy Land, and the site where the Templar order was founded. Temple Church in London was consecrated in 1185 by none less than the Patriarch of Jerusalem and in the presence of King Henry II.
