Payns, le berceau du Temple

Payns

Hugues, lord of Payns, held a modest fief on the Champagne Seine, a vassal of the count of Champagne Hugues de Troyes, whom he accompanied to the Holy Land around 1104 and then around 1114. It was he who, around 1119 or 1120, gathered at Jerusalem the first "poor knights of Christ" and who, ten years later, came back to Champagne to seek a rule: the council of Troyes was held three leagues from his house. He died master of the order, around 1136, most likely in the East. At Payns the order had its commandery, one of the first in the West, on lands given by the founder's family; the Hospitallers received it in 1312, the Revolution sold it, and nothing of it was left to be seen when the Hugues de Payns association, at the end of the 20th century, had its foundations uncovered and opened a small museum in the village. What one comes to see here is not a stone: it is the starting point, a village of the plain from which a knight of middling rank set out to invent, with eight companions, the first army of monks in Christendom.

Wikipédia — Hugues de Payns ↗

Getting there : By the D 619 from Troyes (towards Romilly), 15 minutes. The Hugues de Payns museum, run by the association of the same name, opens in season in the afternoons (enquire); the site of the commandery, at the place called le Temple, can be seen from the path — private land, occasional excavations.

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

Ambient sound