Villa Bethania

The Villa Bethania was constructed in the French village of Rennes-le-Château between 1901 and 1905 as part of the former estate of the Abbé Bérenger Saunière, in the name of his maidservant Marie Dénarnaud.

The architect was Tiburce Caminade of Limoux, the Master builder Elie Bot from Luc-sur-Aude, and the contractor in charge of building the roof was Joseph Fabre of Dourgne.

[1] Surviving receipts and existing account books belonging to Saunière reveal that the construction of his estate that included the Villa Bethania and the Tour Magdala (and purchases of land) between 1898 and 1905 cost 26,417 Francs.

[7] In November 1911 Saunière began negotiating the sale through the Parisian Banque Petitjean during the final stages of his ecclesiastical trial that resulted in his suspension from the priesthood on 5 December 1911.

Following Saunière's death in 1917, Marie Dénarnaud received permission from the local commune to continue living in the Presbytery and she put the Villa Bethania up for sale again - for an exaggerated asking price of 200,000 Francs, as suggested by Abbé Eugène Grassaud on 10 May 1918 [8] - she found herself in trouble unable to pay the French property taxes, and was forced to borrow money from friends over a period of decades until Noël Corbu became its owner in 1946, and who settled all her personal financial debts.