Commanderie de Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon

Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon

On the Causse du Larzac, Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon was the seat of all the Templar holdings in the region: from here the Order administered La Couvertoirade and the plateau's other commanderies. It all began in 1151, when the abbot of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert ceded the church to the Templars; in 1159, Raymond Berengar, King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, gave the brothers the whole village and a large part of the Larzac, allowing them to rebuild the church and raise a genuine stronghold. When Philip the Fair had the Templars arrested in 1307, the knights of the region were imprisoned at Najac castle; in 1312 the Templar Larzac passed to the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem, who built the powerful ramparts still visible today in the 15th century and turned the site into a true fortified village. In 1641, the commander Jean de Bernuy Villeneuve broke a new entrance through the church's eastern apse to open it directly onto the square, reversing its original orientation. Now a listed historic monument, the commandery can be visited as a living village, where a watchtower, chapter rooms and an inner courtyard survive as eight-hundred-year-old witnesses to the Templar and then Hospitaller presence on the Larzac.

Getting there : Place de l'Église, 12230 Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon, about 20 km southeast of Millau, on the Causse du Larzac

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound