by Agnes Naswa

Created on: December 16, 2009

The Marvel’s of the Legacy of the Knights Templar Architecture

The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of King Solomon better known as the Knights Templar are described by the online version of the Catholic Encyclopeadia as the very first of the military orders upon which all the others are modeled. It further stresses that the order was formed in1118 AD by the Knight Hugues de Payen as its leader with eight others. They were granted permission by the then Patriarch of Jerusalem Baldwin II to operate as the protectors of the Holy Sepulcher, they took a perpetual vow to that effect to protect the Christian Kingdom.

This fighting force did live up to the name The Poor Knights of the Temple at least for the first nine years of their existence. But after this the epithet poor could no longer be used to accurately describe them because this monastic military order sworn to penury amassed wealth, great wealth at that. They were the most fearsome of all the crusading armies and were often at the forefront of attacking and repulsing the marauding Muslims. They thus had the opportunity of fighting of  traversing the globe over as far east as the borders of China and Russia, north to the Scandinavian countries and south to Oman to fight heretics and wage war in the name of the Christ on heathens, pagans and other non-Christians

They thus morphed into what historians now describe as the first ever truly multinational organization. Men from its ranks, from the Royal born Knights to the sergeants to the Abbots and farmers were drawn from all the Nations of western Christendom including but not limited to France, Spain, Italy, Prussia, and England. To add to this mix of men from a diverse mix of cultures and backgrounds they had the good fortune of traversing practically all the corners of the known world in their time. Therefore the experience they garnered in building and architecture blended all this diverse elements to come up with structures that marvel us even today.

The building code that the Knights Templars adopted essentially reflected the best practices from all the cultures and peoples their encountered in their warrior pursuits.

As is to be expected these men were essentially defenders of the pilgrim route for the mostly Latin Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy City Jerusalem, so it follows that the structures they built were fortress like, formidable castles that could withstand any amount of bombardment that the enemy could throw

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>