A tiny chapel in the centre of Stirling’s old town has been revealed as a replica of Solomon’s Temple — the great church of the Old Testament, built on a hill in Jerusalem.

In a remarkable work of scholarship, two architectural historians from Edinburgh have discovered striking resemblances between images of the ancient biblical structure and the Stirling chapel.

In their article for the journal Architectural History, Ian Campbell and Aonghus Mackechnie argue that the plan and dimensions of the plain stone Chapel Royal match descriptions in the Old Testament.

The researchers have also unearthed literary references from the 1590s linking the Jacobean chapel with the ancient church, and discovered a Roman coin bearing an image of the temple — the Biblical doorway bears an uncanny resemblance to the porch of the Chapel Royal.

“You wouldn’t be making the comparison if there wasn’t something in the ether already,” said Professor Campbell, Professor of Architectural History and Theory at Edinburgh College of Art. “There is absolutely enough evidence to back up this claim.”

The Chapel Royal was built in 1594 by James VI of Scotland for the baptism of his son, Prince Henry. It soon fell into disuse and over the following centuries its interior was ripped out and its origins forgotten, until evidence recently emerged that its architect, William Schaw, sought inspiration from his Bible.

• Full story at The Times.

• Filed under Church Buildings, History, Scottish Christian News Monitor, Tayside, Fife + Central.