On Swiss territory the Templars appear in the documentary record only sporadically. Modern Swiss historiography records two principal Templar houses in the territory of today’s Confederation, both in Western (French-speaking) Switserland: a commandery at La Chaux (Cossonay, Vaud), attested by 1223, and a house in Geneva (Rive), attested in the later thirteenth century. These main houses had other dependent houses (the "discrepancies"), especially in Cologny, Bénex (Prangins) and Entremont (Yvonand).
In an undated document from the second half of the 13th century, the houses of the Temple in the Genevois and the Pays de Vaud were subject to the same superior, Pierre de Villars. In 1277, the Geneva establishments, and probably those in La Chaux, were placed under the authority of Etienne de Montferrand, preceptor of the houses of the Temple in Dole and the Genevois. All of these houses were in principle included in the bailiwick (or preceptory) of Burgundy (now France). Neither its geographical jurisdiction nor its status within the territorial hierarchy of the Order is clearly established, whether it was a province in its own right or a subdivision of France.
La Chaux
La Chaux at Cossonay provides the clearest case-study. Donations by the lords of Cossonay before 1223 created a modest commandery that administered scattered hospices and agricultural holdings. Archaeological and archival evidence collected by cantonal historians shows the commandery’s economic role (hospitality for pilgrims, management of dependent farms and incomes) and its vulnerability: in 1277 parts of its patrimony were being sold to the Franciscan order the to settle debts, reflecting the uneven profitability of some Alpine holdings. After the suppression of the Temple, these assets passed to the Hospitallers (Order of Saint John) in the early fourteenth century, a common pattern across Western Europe. Nowadays the building houses the "gîte de passage" (B&B) La Commanderie, "welcoming pilgrims and knights", as it did in the 13th and 14th century.
Geneva
Geneva’s documented Templar presence is fragmentary but meaningful for urban studies of military orders. The Order of the Temple in the diocese of Geneva is first mentioned in a document from 1196. The Temple House in the city of Geneva is first mentioned on 6 June 1277, under the name ‘domus Templi Gebennensis’. The location of this establishment is known from two other documents dated 8 March 1305 and 1 August 1306. This allows us to locate the Templars' establishment in the extension of the town and the Rue de Rive towards the east, below the Crêts de St-Laurent. This part of the town belonged to the parish of La Madeleine and was known in the Middle Ages as the faubourg du Temple. This settlement most likely comprised a hospice, a chapel and a cemetery, as well as the numerous properties belonging to the Templar fiefdom along one of the main access routes to the city of Geneva from the east. This site was in keeping with the vocation of the Templar houses in the West: to provide a place of welcome for pilgrims and travellers. Late medieval charters mention houses in the Rive quarter and transactions that link Templar holdings to other local religious institutions. Scholarship on commanderies in urban space highlights how houses like Geneva’s served as administrative hubs, legal actors and landlords, important for understanding how international religious-military orders embedded themselves into municipal economies and networks.
The small number of foundations explains why Swiss Templar history is more about local landholding and transfer than about large fortresses or military action. One might wonder about this relatively late and sparse Templar presence in French-speaking Switzerland, especially since the Order is known to have settled primarily along the major transalpine routes, particularly in Franche-Comté and Piedmont. It is likely that the development of the Temple in French-speaking Switzerland was hampered by other hospital networks with a strong regional base that were already firmly established in the 12th century, including the particularly dense network established by the provostship of Grand-St-Bernard.
The dramatic end of the Templars in the early fourteenth century, arrests in France (1307), papal suppression (1312) and the transference of many properties to the Hospitallers, determined the fate of Swiss Templar houses as well. Swiss possessions were generally absorbed into the Hospitallers’ structures or secularised by local powers. This process is well attested in the archival traces of transfers and in later local administrative records. Modern syntheses of the order’s rise and fall provide the broader institutional context necessary to interpret these Swiss episodes.
Finally, the limited footprint of the Templars in Switzerland has encouraged folklore and speculative narratives. But careful historians separate documentary fact from later myth-making: the surviving evidence supports a picture of about one century of modest landholding, economic roles in hospitality and rent collection, and eventual absorption into other institutions after suppression. Not of a secretive Templar state in the Alps.
This blog is original work by TemplarsNow. Sources (all consulted October 2025) and further reading: Andenmatten, B. (2012), Templiers, Dictionnaire Historique de la Suisse DHS; Andematten, B. (2006) Introduction Les Templiers, in: Die Johanniter, die Templer, der Deutsche Orden, die Lazariter und Lazariterinnen, die Pauliner und die Serviten in der Schweiz, Helvetica Sacra Abt IV, Band 7, Erster Teil, p 531-536, Schwabe Verlag Basel, helvetiasacra.ch; Piguet, M. (2006) Genève, in: Die Johanniter, die Templer, der Deutsche Orden, die Lazariter und Lazariterinnen, die Pauliner und die Serviten in der Schweiz, Helvetica Sacra Abt IV, Band 7, Erster Teil, p 537-545, Schwabe Verlag, helvetiasacra.ch (edited quotes),; Santschi, C. (2006) La Chaux, Helvetica Sacra Abt IV, Band 7, Erster Teil, p 546-550, Schwabe Verlag Basel, helvetiasacra.ch; Menzendorff, M. (2018), Die Kreuzritter-Kommenden der Schweiz; Martin, A.M. 2014, La Chaux Cossonay la chapelle, source notrehistoire.ch. The illustration shows the Tour des Asinari du fauburg du Temple at Geneva. from VII Faubourgh du Temple, in: author unknown (1919), Les Faubourgs de Genève au XVme siècle, Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Genève, Serie in-4, tome cinquième, source, Fair Use intended.
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