Modern Templar murals at Slijpe, Belgium

Slijpe is a village in the Belgian province of West Flanders and part of the municipality of Middelkerke. It has an interesting Templar link, both historically and recent.

Slijpe was first mentioned in writing in 1027, as Slipia (sludge). In 1137, Willem viscount of Saint-Omers donated land to the Templars in Slijpe and Leffinge. In 1141 Count Diederik of Alsace supplemented this with the right to new land to be reclaimed. The Commandery of Knights Templar was established at the Groot Tempelhof. This Templar history was recently made visible by a mural.

The Slijpe town council wanted to put the Templar history in the spotlights and has had beautiful murals painted in the Saint Nicolas church. This was part of 2012 celebration of the end of a decade of restoration works on the church. The monumental murals were added by the graphic artist Arno Brys from Bruges. They depict, among other things, Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller. 

Apart from the church there are several other buildings that refer to the presence of the Knights Templar. In the future, the town council foresees more references to the Templars, with, for example, a café, De Tempelier, in the old town hall and a cycle route.

The following pictures were made in Slijpe by Robby Wuytack and kindly put at the disposal of TN. Many more pictures, this time by Igor Murawski, can be found here.

Based on information from Wikipedia and this site, which latter site is also the source of the top illustration. Bottom pictures were made in Slijpe by Robby Wuytack (personal communication).

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1 comment:

Veritas said...

The code of the Templars was inspirational Thank you for posting a resurgence of the Knights.