Hauts LieuxChapels, sanctuaries & legends

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Templar siteVienne

Commanderie d'Auzon

Châtellerault

Dimensions
Romanesque chapel presented as the largest known Templar chapel in Poitou (~30 m long): three Romanesque bays (12th c.) extended by a Gothic bay (13th c.).
Period
Founded in the mid-12th century; heraldic wall paintings dated 1226–1250. Suppression of the order 1307–1313, passed to the Hospitallers.
What stands there
chapel listed as a monument historique (paintings listed 1913, building listed 1938); 17th-century dovecote nearby

Founded in the mid-12th century at the confluence of the Vienne and the Auzon, this Poitevin commandery houses what specialists present as the largest Templar chapel built in Poitou. Its chief interest lies in its 13th-century heraldic wall paintings, preserved in situ — a rarity for a Templar building. Guillaume de Sonnac, who was rector here around 1223, later became Master of the Order of the Temple and was killed in action at the battle of Mansurah in 1250, during the Seventh Crusade. Listed as a monument historique as early as 1913 for its paintings and then restored between 1966 and 1977, the chapel remains private property today.

Commanderie d'Auzon — Wikipédia ↗

Further reading

Getting there : private property; current visiting arrangements not confirmed with certainty

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

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Commanderie d'Auzon
JF Lavrard · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

This place in the great stories

In the same department

All places — Vienne (14).