TemplarsNow: November 2025

The murals of Montsaunès do not tell sweeping crusade epics but transform the chapel through painted ashlar, rectangular panels filled with geometric patterns (checkerboards/damier, lozenges), rosettes and cosmological motifs (stars, sun-wheels), and consecration crosses. This ornamental program, typical of mid-12th to 13th-century Templar sites, sacralises the space rather than narrates events.

Comparing Montsaunès with other Templar chapels reveals the diversity of Templar visual culture and invites a broader reflection on how the order shaped sacred space across medieval Europe.

Templar Key Information

The Rule of St Benedict c. 500 CE, starting point for the rule of the Cistercian Order, which was the monastic mother of the Order of the Knights Templar

Charta Caritatis c. 1119 CE, rule of the Cistercian Order, originally written by Stephan Harding, 3rd abbot of the first Cistercian Abbey at Citeaux, France. The Charter in other languages is to be found here

Primitive Rule of the Knights Templar c. 1129 CE, by Bernard de Clairvaux, abbot of the Cistercian Clairvaux Abbey, France, presented by him at the Council of Troyes, and accepted there after which the Order was officially endorsed by the Church.

In Praise of the New Knighthood c. 1136 CE, by Bernard de Clairvaux, in support of the juvenile Order of the Knights Templar. The complete text of this work (all 13 chapters in French) can be found here

Rule of the Order of St John (Hospitallers) by blessed Raymond de Puy (1120-1160)

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Sacred Space in Pattern and Paint: Templar Art at Montsaunès and elsewhere

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