The Da Vinci Code: Paris to Rosslyn

A murder scene at the Louvre: curator Jacques Saunière is found dead, his body posed like Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Police captain Bezu Fache summons Robert Langdon, an American symbologist in Paris for a lecture, to examine the body — but Langdon escapes with police cryptologist Sophie Neveu, and the two begin a quest for the legendary Holy Grail. Around them, the museum holds the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory, entered since 1993 through the space under the Louvre Pyramid — and Langdon will conclude the Grail lies hidden below the Pyramide Inversée.

Visitor guidance: Huge and busy; book a timed ticket in advance.

Silas follows Saunière's direction to this church and finds a marker inscribed "Job 38:11" — "Here you shall come, and no farther..." Enraged, he kills the nun in residence. The real Saint-Sulpice is the city's second largest church, home to the elaborate 18th-century Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice. The church refused to let the crew film inside, so the scene was recreated virtually; the real gnomon is still there to see.

Visitor guidance: An active parish church; visit outside service times.

A clue hidden in the cryptex box brings Langdon and Sophie to the Temple Church — where they find nothing. The real church is worth the visit on its own terms: built by the Knights Templar for their English headquarters in the Temple precinct and consecrated on 10 February 1185, it is famous as a round church in the Templar manner, with 13th- and 14th-century stone effigies.

Visitor guidance: A working church; check opening times before visiting.

The trio goes to Westminster Abbey, to the tomb of Isaac Newton — and the cryptex gives up its code: APPLE, after the apocryphal story of the apple that led Newton to discover his law of universal gravitation. The real abbey has hosted the coronations of 40 English and British monarchs since 1066, and its screen holds the monument to the scientist Isaac Newton. The production was refused the abbey itself and shot these scenes at Lincoln and Winchester cathedrals instead.

Visitor guidance: A ticketed abbey; allow plenty of time for the visit.

The cryptex clue — the Grail hidden 'neath the rose — leads Langdon and Sophie to Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. Inside, they find a secret room where Magdalene's tomb has been removed, and Langdon realizes Sophie herself is the last descendant of Christ. The real chapel was founded by William Sinclair with a ground-breaking ceremony in 1456, and it played this Grail role in Dan Brown's 2003 novel and the 2006 film.

Visitor guidance: Still a working chapel; check visiting hours before going.