Rosslyn Chapel and the Apprentice Pillar Curse

Rosslyn Chapel, Midlothian, Scotland

The Apprentice Pillar at Rosslyn Chapel is the most ornate stone column in Scotland. Its carver was murdered by his jealous master — whose carved face still grimaces down from the corner above it, forever looking at what he destroyed.

Rosslyn Chapel — properly the Collegiate Church of St Matthew — was built between 1446 and 1484 by William Sinclair, First Earl of Orkney. It is covered in carvings of extraordinary density and variety, including pre-Columbian American plants, Green Men, angels, and Masonic symbols, and has attracted centuries of speculation about hidden meaning and secret knowledge. The Apprentice Pillar is the chapel's most discussed single feature: a column of extraordinary intricacy, wound with four spiral bands of foliage rising from a base of eight dragons. It is the finest piece of stone carving in medieval Scotland by common assessment. The legend attached to it is as follows: the master mason responsible for the chapel received a commission for the column but needed to travel to Rome to see a similar piece in person before he could begin. During his absence, his apprentice had a dream in which the design for the column was revealed to him. He carved it without his master's supervision. When the master returned and saw the pillar, he was overcome with jealousy. He struck the apprentice across the head with his mallet, killing him. The carved faces on the north wall of the chapel are said to record this: the grieving mother, the master, and the apprentice — whose stone face has a scar above the left temple. The faces are real. The scar is real. Whether the legend is history or is how history was remembered is, as always, another question.