A Templar location at Beuningen, the Netherlands

Mansion De Oude Tempel (The Old Temple) or Olden Tempel is a national monument in Beuningen in the Dutch province of Gelderland. The house was built in 1839 as a country house by the Van het Lindenhoud family on the site of what is said to have been a former castle. Older predecessors are known. Is there proof of a former Templar presence, as suggested by the toponym?

On the site where the Oude Tempel now stands, there used to be a moated nobleman's house in Dutch Baroque style. This older house with a considerable amount of land is mentioned in 1537 under the name Den Olden Tempel (The Old Temple). In the early 18th century, the house was located on a rectangular enclosure with a drawbridge. In 1794 the house burned down. In 1839 the house was rebuilt in a simplified form by the then owner Nicolaas Heinrich van het Lindenhoud (1797-1881). In the garden behind the house Van het Lindenhoud built a mausoleum in neo-Gothic style where family members were buried. After 1970, a new residential area was built around the farm and the area was built up. The mausoleum was separated from the garden of the house. It now stands in a small park surrounded by a pond. The house is currently in use as a private residence.

As to older buildings on the site, the nephew of Nicolaas Heinrich van het Lindenhoud, Johannes van het Lindenhout (1836-1918), once wrote:

"In the middle, on the same place, where the old Knights Templar probably had their residences in the 13th century , my uncle has built a house. The owner of this farm for a long time, he has had excavations done in various places and found wide walls and stones, from which it appears that an important castle or monastery stood here in earlier times. In our opinion we have a monastery of the Templars here, who according to “Nijhoff's Herinnerwaardigheden van Gelderland,” owned monasteries in the vicinity of Nijmegen."

“De Oude Tempel” is also mentioned in various other publications. The same is the case for another nearby smaller farm, called De Kleine Tempel (The Small Temple). However, an official written source from which this presence of the Order of the Temple can certainly be inferred is as yet missing, as is sound proof.

At the same time a medieval Templar presence is probable. The toponyms are common indicators. The Olden Tempel and the Kleine Tempel are located on the “Tempelse Straat” (Tempelstreet). This street runs from the Koningstraat in the direction of the Waal. The Koningstraat is a very old road, which runs from Nijmegen into Maas-en-Waal, originally to Tiel. For centuries it was the only “main road” in Maas-en-Waal. In principle it goes back to the southern Roman road from Nijmegen to Leiden. This is indicated on the Peutinger map. 

So a Templar origin is most probable but not yet proven.

Find all the proven, probable and possible Templar sites defined bij Dr Brus on this map.

This blog quotes, with permission and some adaptations, much of the entry on Beuningen on the valuable website on the Templars in the Netherlands by Dr Brus. Additional information was derived from wikipedia and sources already linked in the text. The top illustration shows the mansion in 1967, Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. The bottom illustration shows Beuningen: “The Old Temple” drawn in 1732 by C. Pronk . (National Institute for Art History, The Hague.) from the Brus website, consulted 15-2-2025.

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