Maison des Templiers

Provins, in Seine-et-Marne, was one of the most important towns of the Counts of Champagne, and the Knights Templar had a presence here during the period when the town's great fairs made it a centre of European trade. The Templars were a military and religious order founded in Jerusalem around 1119 to protect pilgrims, and one of their early supporters was Hugues, Count of Champagne, who joined the order in 1125. The order grew rich through gifts of land and through banking, since its network of houses allowed merchants and pilgrims to deposit money in one place and withdraw it in another. In a trading town like Provins, where merchants from Italy, Flanders and Germany came for the fairs in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a Templar house was well placed to hold money and goods safely.

The Maison des Templiers is presented to visitors as a medieval house connected with this history, and it forms one of the stops of the visit to the medieval town. Little is documented about the interior of this particular house, so it is best to treat it as part of a wider walk through the old quarters rather than a major monument in its own right, and to ask at the tourist office what is open and what the current displays are. Medieval houses in Provins typically have thick stone walls, steep roofs, small windows and cellars, and the town is known for its network of underground vaulted rooms, which were used for storage, trade and perhaps hiding places. They are among the features that make Provins special.

The context makes the visit worthwhile. The medieval town is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and the upper town on the hill has a number of fine monuments within a few minutes' walk. The Tour César, the great twelfth-century keep, dominates the skyline, and the walls and ramparts enclose the old quarter. The collegiate church of Saint-Quiriace, with its dome, stands close by, and the Saint-Corneille crypt is another site. The Underground Galleries are open for guided visits that give a sense of the hidden world beneath the streets. In summer the Provins Medieval Festival fills the town with costumed performers, with falconry displays, jousting and a medieval market, and the town's shows of birds of prey and knights are popular with families.

The site is open in the main season, usually from late March to early November, with daytime hours that vary by day, and the tourist office sells tickets that combine several of the monuments. Provins is about an hour from Paris by train, which makes it a popular day trip. The town is also known for its roses, and a traditional rose jam and rose sweets are sold in the shops.

The visit suits history lovers, families and anyone who enjoys a well-kept medieval town.