Atlit Castle - spiritual refuge for the Knights Templar

After the fall of Jerusalem in 1187, the coastal towns of the Kingdom of Jerusalem grew in importance. This shift affected not only urban centers but also fortified sites. One such stronghold was the castle at ʿAtlit, also known as the Castle of the Pilgrim (Castrum Peregrinorum, or in French, Château Pèlerin). The site lay close to the earliest guard tower manned by the Templars at the beginning of their activity during the reign of King Baldwin I (1100–1118), located at the narrow Destroit pass (Khirbat Dustray). By the thirteenth century, however, ʿAtlit had acquired a particular spiritual significance for the Order, one that ultimately surpassed the primarily military role of the early thirteenth-century fortress. What, then, made ʿAtlit distinctive? 

The obscure early years of the Knights Templar

"The first ten years of the Temple were difficult. According to a later chronicler (they were ignored by contemporary chroniclers in Palestine), the original Templars were so poor that they had to rely on local charity for food, clothing, and supplies. They had no specific uniform. Everything from their clothes to their quarters on the Temple Mount consisted of dilapidated handme-downs. 

Location of the first Templar fortress revealed

In the Middle Ages the important coastal road from Acre and Haifa to Jerusalem ran through a narrow, probably man made passage in the sandstone ridge that runs parallel to the coast line directly to the east of Atlit peninsula. In primary sources this passage is called amongst others Petra Incisa ("carved rock") or Districtum/Destrictum, Destroit or Détroit ("strait") . The setting made the site an ideal location for robbers to ambush pilgrims and other travelers. As even King Baldwin I of Jerusalem discovered in 1103, when he was wounded by robbers in the area. What is the history of this remarkable place and what have the Templars to do with it?

An earlier founding date of the Templar Order reconstructed

In his book Hugues de Payns en Orient (2019), François Gilet investigates many primary and other sources, after which he reaches a detailed renewed reconstruction of the founding years of the Knights Templar. Confronting all of the chronicles allows him to develop a synthesis of the beginnings of the Temple Order and to move the genesis of their predecessors, today called "proto-Templars", to the year 1115.

The early years of the Order of the Temple - a timeline

The first history of the Templar brotherhood is known as the time that occurs between the Synod of Nablus (1120) until the Council of Troyes (1129), where the Order is definitely created. But what about before? What may have occured during the years 1104 through 1120? A timeline.