There's no mystical rose line running through it, no Star of David carved into the floor or hidden vault where the fabled Holy Grail may rest. And the brutal veil of metal scaffolding shrouding the chapel doesn't help either.
Reality at Rosslyn Chapel is very different from the portrayal in Dan Brown's hit thriller, "The Da Vinci Code," but the novel has been a welcome boost for a church in desperate need of repair.
The book suggests the medieval stone building perched in a gentle fold of the Pentland hills outside Edinburgh could be the repository of the fabled Holy Grail - and with it the secret of whether Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene founded a dynasty.
Many visitors, although drawn by the novel, are skeptical of its theories.
"I loved the book, but at no time did I come here thinking I should look for the Holy Grail," said Margaret Silberman, a psychologist from Chicago, as she emerged into the chapel's blossom-splashed garden.
"It didn't disappoint me that it's not just as Brown described - it's fiction, after all."
Myra Pruitt from Atlanta also didn't support Brown's theories, "but even without that, this is a spiritual, fascinating place," she said.
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A European tour
Rosslyn hosted 117,000 visitors in 2005 - more than three times the number three years ago - and another 145,000 are expected this year, according to church director Stuart Beattie.
Hoping to swell those visitor numbers, VisitScotland, the official tourist agency, has invested $54,000 on a DVD, "The Rosslyn Enigma," which it is using to promote the destination in North America.
After the film's international release in May, "I guess more people will come but the rush is already with us," Beattie said.
Guides inform visitors that the chapel, which was built in the shape of a cross, was founded in 1446 by Sir William St. Clair, a Grand Master in the Knights Templar, an ancient order of benevolent knights.
The chapel is probably just the back end of what was conceived as a much grander building, but Rosslyn is famed for its profuse and exuberant - some would say over the top - decoration.
"The architecture within is exquisitely beautiful," Dorothy Wordsworth, the poet's sister, said after visiting in 1807, though she feared that "as nothing is done to keep it together, it must, in the end, fall."
Guides focus on the intricate stone carvings of angels and green men (a sign of rebirth) and the imposing "apprentice pillar" with its twisting wreaths of stone leaves, named for a young worker supposedly killed by a boss jealous of his skill.
With a bit of imagination, guides say, you can glimpse the ancient Jewish six-pointed star implicit in parts of the architecture that Brown posits as a sign of mystical goings-on.
But there is no Star of David on the floor, no rose line leading to the grail, and no vault that could be hiding the legendary relic, said Beattie.
"People come to Rosslyn with a great raft of different reasons and theories, all of which we enjoy although we don't necessarily agree with them," he said.
Director Ron Howard brought Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou here to film scenes from the book. The crew paid the chapel for four days of lost tourism revenue, a figure reported to be upwards of $36,000, though Beattie won't be specific. "We are making a net profit," is all he will confirm.
The chapel needs $23 million to correct damaging repairs inflicted in the 1950s; visitors are charged $12.50 to enter.
The influx has meant recruiting five extra staff - there are now 14 - and the new car park above the pretty sloping churchyard is taking a pounding from tour coaches.
There's very little that is specifically Christian in the gift shop, which offers Less Templeur chardonnay ("a dry white that comes from vineyards planted when the Knight Templar roamed the southern French countryside"), Masonic symbols, a Da Vinci board game and books about the Holy Grail theories, including Brown's.
Across the road from the chapel, an enterprising farmer markets "Da Vinci manure" at 90 cents a bag.
Brown's thriller claims that Jesus Christ fathered a child with Mary Magdalene and their descendants became the kings of France.
But it contends that the Roman Catholic church, keen to play down Mary's role, suppressed this truth.
The book follows fictional Harvard professor Robert Langdon (Hanks) and code expert Sophie Neveu (Tautou) as they investigate the murder of an elderly member of an ancient society that guards the secrets of the Holy Grail and the story of Jesus Christ.
If You Go:
ROSSLYN CHAPEL: Located in Roslin, Scotland, about 8 miles from Edinburgh; http://www.rosslynchapel.org.uk. Adults, $12.50; children free up to age 16. Open Monday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sundays, noon-4:45 p.m. (Closes at 5 p.m., Oct. 1-March 31.) The Web site recommends a number of nearby accommodations.
DA VINCI CODE TOURS:
- Free "Da Vinci Code" movie map with information on locations in London, Scotland and Paris, available from VisitBritain by calling (800) 462-2748.
- Guide books include "Fodor's Guide to The Da Vinci Code: On the Trail of the Best-Selling Novel" ($14.95), which lists a 12-day themed itinerary for France, Italy, England and Scotland.
- The http://www.BudgetTravelOnline.com Web site offers a printable do-it-yourself itinerary of "Da Vinci Code" sites in France, England and Scotland.
- A variety of guided and audio tours are available for major "Da Vinci Code" destinations, such as a "Step Inside the Da Vinci Code" tour of the Louvre in Paris that you can get for $13 from iTunes, from http://www.louvre.org or at the museum.