The Rosslyn Chapel

By Lorraine Stanley

The Rosslyn Chapel has been a wonderment to many people who have ever encountered the building or even read about.  Its architecture is considered to be the finest in Scotland, even the world, due to its layout.  This chapel is said to have connections with the Knights Templar, Freemasonary, and the Holy Grail.  It has been under much speculation on whether the current layout of the chapel was planned due to the original blueprints have never been found or recorded.  The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1srt Earl of Caithness of the Scoto-Norman Sinclair family.  The construction began in 1446 and was to be cruciform in shape, but it was never completed.  The decorative carving was executed over a 40-year period.  This chapel stands on fourteen pillars which form twelve pointed arches on three sides of the nave. 

The three most famous pillars are the Master Pillar, the Journeyman Pillar and the Apprentice Pillar.  The Apprentice Pillar, gets its name from a legend dating from the 18th century involving the master mason in charge of the stonework in the chapel and his young apprentice. According to the legend, the master mason did not believe that the apprentice could perform the complicated task of carving the column without seeing the original which formed the inspiration for the design.  So when the master mason left to go see the original, the apprentice took it upon himself to finish the pillar.  When the master mason came back, he killed the apprentice in rage.

The architecture both inside and out is a hodgepodge of German, Rome, French, and Norse, just to name a few.  This truly makes it a unique and eclectic building.