Coulommiers Templar Commandery

The oldest text relating to the Commanderie des Templiers de Coulommiers dates from 1173 and mentions a Romanesque chapel installed on Mont Billard, in the upper town. It is no surprise that we understand that the Templars, these soldier monks whose order of the Temple was founded in 1128 to ensure the protection of pilgrims in the Holy Land, built their chapel first. Then the various buildings necessary for the daily life of the Templars and their agricultural activities are organized around a closed and rectangular courtyard: the Commanderie de Coulommiers is a farm, imposing and rich, also serving as a transit point for pilgrims and training place for monk soldiers.

Let's go around this courtyard to discover the 800 years of life of the Commandery.

The Chapel, with a simple rectangular plan, has a beautiful Gothic vault and several mono and polychrome frescoes. The four corner consoles are decorated with faces; the six side consoles offer floral decorations of which traces of color remain.

The Chapter Room, adjoining the chapel, has a Roman arch vault, partly restored; the span on the side of the chapel is original.

This southern side of the site is extended by our current reception hall and the Petit Logis (whose restoration program provides for its transformation into the association's office) but above all presents a fine example of a loft, with 393 nest boxes! Built in the 16th century, it is the work of the Hospitallers, occupying the premises a few years after the Templars' arrest in 1307 - they will also modify the Logis du Commandeur -.

This house has a beautiful facade of white ash and bricks as well as a staircase tower, octagonal at its base, becoming square at the top. The house is currently closed to visitors: major restoration work is to be envisaged to restore the luster to its rooms with timber and brick half-timbered partitions.

The North building houses the former Commandery stables. Restored in the 1980s, it now houses the leisure center of the town of Coulommiers.

The barn closes the courtyard of the Commanderie on its entire west side: 33 meters long, it encloses a superb example of a 16th century framework.

The two remaining buildings (south side, in the continuity of the Petit Logis) are called small and large cart: formerly used for the storage of agricultural tools, they are used today for educational activities of the association: common room, kitchens and workshops stone cutting.

The medieval-inspired garden, created in the 1990s, offers a visit path inspired by the Roman of the rose and medieval monastic gardens. Flowers, vegetables, medicinal plants and ancient fruit trees come together around a collection of more than 250 plant species in order to better understand the daily life of the Middle Ages: plants to eat or to care for, artisanal plants or flowers to bouquet are there to delight your senses.