Commanderie de Vaour

Vaour

In 1140, the knights of Penne gave a piece of land to one Pierre Humbert, the founding gesture of a commandery that would become one of the major establishments of the Order of the Temple in the Albigeois. Perched on its rocky spur, the house of Vaour had its hour of glory at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, when its commander, Bernard de la Roche, even held the office of acting Visitor of Provence – at the very moment when the King of France was preparing to bring down the entire Order. Of this past power, the site preserves a moving group of ruins: the remains of an octagonal tower, a keep that finally collapsed in 1910 after centuries of resistance, and a far luckier medieval barn, converted today into a performance hall where concerts and plays ring out in summer. To walk between the fallen stones of the keep and the lively stage of the barn is to feel that rare contrast between the tragic memory of the dissolved Order and the life that goes on, unperturbed, on the same foundations for nearly nine hundred years.

Getting there : Village of Vaour, about 20 km north-west of Cordes-sur-Ciel, in the Tarn.

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

Ambient sound