Almost five years after the release of Dan Brown’s mega-seller The Da Vinci Code, Rosslyn Chapel continues to cash in on its newfound fame from being a pivotal plot-point in the novel:
Rosslyn Chapel has chalked up a £1.35m surplus due to the stream of visitors who came to see the building in the wake of the Da Vinci Code film. The 15th-century Scottish church, which featured in the controversial hit movie, saw the number of visitors climb from just 30,000 a year in 2000 to 120,000 in 2005/06 and 176,000 in 2006/07.
The cash is being ploughed into speeding up a planned £12.75m renovation of the building and a revamped visitor centre. But the managers of the attraction, entrance to which costs £7 for adults and £5 for children, believe that Da Vinci Code fever has peaked and that annual visitor numbers are due to fall by about 20,000 a year.
You’d have to think that there are a few groups around Washington, D.C. currently rubbing their hands together in anticipation…