Templar Architecture:
Practicality and Praise
Article © Alan Butler
Within a very short period of the formation of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, a new style of church architecture began to spread across Western Europe. The first examples of this are to be seen in France, where great Cathedrals such as that of Chartres sing loud the praise of what became known, much later as 'Gothic'. Whether or not the Knights Templar had any direct part in the creation of this revolution in religious building has always been something of a bone of contention, though it is clear that the fledgling organisation had learned very early in its history, the value of good, sound architectural practice.
It would be rather strange in an organisation specifically dedicated to holding territory against prolonged attack, such as in the Holy Land, should fail to address the requirements of castle building. There was no mystery about this art during the Middle Ages. The Templars did have a distinct advantage however. Being an international organization, it was able to draw on the building practices of the many different nation states that supplied its personnel. The Templars were able to use the very best techniques previously employed by English, French, German and Italian castle builders, supplemented by what they very quickly learned from both adversaries and friends in the Levant. Thus, they created massive structures, able to withstand heavy bombardment. It must be remembered however that these massive castles were nothing out of the ordinary for the period and, in terms of innovation, may prove to be less impressive than some of the finer and smaller buildings attributed to the Templar Order.
In addition, the Templars were very familiar with the massive citadels of Southern France and the ruins of those created in the Jordan Valley a millennium or more before their own era. This ability of the Templars, to look and learn, is often understated in the work or writers who seek to explain the extraordinary feats of the Knights Templar in other ways.
It is in the realms of domestic and Church architecture that the work of the Templar craftsmen can be seen at its best. The Templars built comparatively few castles, compared to the 9,000 or more Commanderies throughout Europe. Some of these were little more than substantial farms, where necessity and practicality dictated both the buildings themselves and the styles adopted. For example, being in the main farmers, the Templars learned quickly how to build massive barns, a few examples of which still survive. Timber framed, and incredibly beautiful, these buildings were first and foremost 'functional', a word that epitomises Templar endeavours at every level.
Although, as I have already suggested, the Templars have been linked with the origins of the Gothic style of architecture, they rarely if ever employed the same techniques themselves to any great extent. Gothic cathedrals are composed of 'ogives' the distinctive pointed, rounded arch that became popular again in Victorian times. In Gothic architecture, these are piled in arcades, one on top of another. The ogive is immensely strong, facilitating thinner walls than in earlier churches, thus allowing for larger windows. Stresses were passed outside of the building to the famous 'flying buttresses', that are a distinctive part of Cathedral design across Europe from the 12th century on. Both St Bernard of Clairvaux, as a leading light of the Cistercian Order, and the Templars have been linked with the rise of Gothic architecture, though there is no definitive proof of this.
The Templars themselves came to prefer circular, or octagonal churches, though this was far from being the case originally. Permission for the Templars to build their own churches was granted as early as 1139. The first examples are usually rectangular and definitely do not conform to the Gothic. On the contrary, these early Templar ecclesiastical buildings are 'vaulted', rather than arched. They were extremely strong (perhaps a response to architects familiar with fortified buildings) and usually had semicircular apses (maybe a response to Middle Eastern architecture of the same period.) Like their brothers, the Cistercians, the Templars sought functionality, rather than beauty. The general techniques involved in theses first structures show strong connections with none Templar architecture of the same period and particularly with Norman architecture within France and, especially, parts of Britain.
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