article first appeared in www.thelounge.com.au

The phenomenal success of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code has spawned a whole industry around the subject. The release of the recent film has taken the book’s controversial message to an even wider audience and, despite critics having panned the film, box office takings remains buoyant.

Brown fictionalised the idea that many heretical historians and researchers have put about; that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and they had children, making the Holy Grail not a cup but a womb - a vessel for the holy blood.

While the Church may be spitting nails over it, the public’s imagination has been captured by what is essentially a great yarn, filled with murder, conspiracy and code-breaking. The more unkind commentators have said that Dan Brown should really be sued for crimes against literature rather than against the Church but, for all its lowbrow clichés, the book is a page-turner.

Anyone who regularly walks past Westminster Cathedral in London will note that visitor numbers do seem to be up. However, film-goers won’t really be walking through the same archways as Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou as Westminster did not give permission for filming there. Instead the film was shot in Lincoln Cathedral 135 miles away to the North. Props and scenery were used to mimic Westminster cathedral.

Director Ron Howard must have taken a shine to Lincoln as a number of other famous locations in the book were filmed there. Given the fact that the Pope is hardly likely to have endorsed filming at his summer residence, the exterior shots of Castel Gandolfo were actually of Belvoir castle. This artistic license has made Lincoln the destination of choice for fans of the Da Vinci Code.

With London getting the lion’s share of tourist interest generated by the book and film, does Lincoln stand up to the expectations of the international traveler? If you want to truly trace the footsteps of the Da Vinci cast and crew, book yourself into the White Hart hotel in Lincoln, where all the stars stayed while filming in the county.

With views over the cathedral and more than its fair share of ghost stories, the hotel is a comfortable base from which to explore. Some of the corridors might put you in mind of The Shining instead of Da Vinci though so the faint of heart might have to ensure they stay in a twin or double room.

The White Hart is right in the centre of Lincoln town, a quaint and clean place that seems stuck in a Medieval past. There are cobbled roads and pretty little lace shops and even the post office looks as if the postmaster would be shocked if you mentioned airmail to him. Left out from the White Hart and the Lincoln Cathedral is in front of you. It is a beautiful and imposing building with enough of its own history to compete with the code-breaking joys of Westminster. The majority of the building dates from the 13th century although the Cathedral itself is much older.

The Cathedral’s library holds one of the four extant copies of the Magna Carta, the closest thing England has to a constitution. The Cathedral itself allows the imagination to run wild with tales of imps, bishops and kings. The Cathedral also offers ‘Fact & Fiction’ tours in order to counter some of the criticism they received for agreeing to allow the filming. It may not be as exciting as the story line in the Da Vinci Code but it is a good way to get an insight into the Church’s position on the claims the book is based on.