Arville Commandery: Following the Knights Templar in the Heart of the Perche

In the heart of the Perche region of Loir-et-Cher, the Arville Commandery is one of the most remarkable surviving testimonies to the Order of the Temple in France. Occupied first by the Templars and then by the Hospitallers, the site has witnessed almost nine centuries of history before preservation work began in the 1980s.

What truly remains of the Templar period at Arville? Who were the brothers who lived in this house of the Temple? And what can its archives and restored buildings tell us today?

To explore these questions, we spoke directly with the team at the Arville Commandery. Their answers take us beyond the general history of the monument and offer a closer understanding of this Templar establishment.

Arville, a house of the Order of the Temple in the Perche

After the First Crusade and the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, the Order of the Temple developed as a religious and military order. Officially recognised at the Council of Troyes in 1129, it established a wide network of properties in Western Europe to manage land and resources that supported the Order’s activities.

For the wider context, see our article on the origins, history and downfall of the Knights Templar.

The Templar presence at Arville is securely attested in 1169. A charter from the 1130s already mentions someone named Guillermus de Aridavilla, but this reference does not prove that the Order of the Temple had an establishment here at that time.

This caution matters: so many stories and legends have grown up around the Templars that documented evidence must be distinguished from later interpretations.

A “commandery” that was originally a house of the Temple

The word commandery is commonly used for Arville today. However, it does not precisely reflect the terminology used during the Templar period.

The Commandery team explained that the term appears relatively late in the written record. Documents concerning Arville notably use the Latin word domus, meaning “house”. The term praeceptoria also appears in medieval sources to designate commanderies.

A document dated 1239 offers a particularly revealing example. It refers to the “master of the house of the fighting men of the Temple at Arville” — Magistro Domus milite Templi de Aridavilla — whom the Bishop of Chartres required to pay the Abbey of Saint-Avit an annual rent of half a muid of wheat.

In the 14th century, the Hospitallers incorporated the house at Arville into the Commandery of the Pays Chartrain. This organisation was restructured in the 16th century and became known as the “Commandery of Sours and Arville”, a name used until the French Revolution.

Calling the site the “Arville Commandery” today is perfectly understandable, but for the Templar era, house of the Temple at Arville is closer to the language of the sources. The term “house” was not unique to Arville: the Order of the Temple regularly used it for its establishments.

An agricultural estate serving the Order

A Western Templar house was not simply a place where knights lived while awaiting departure for the Holy Land. Such establishments were also substantial economic units.

At Arville, the surrounding forests supported livestock farming. Sources mention herds of cattle and pigs, which could benefit from the woodland resources of the Perche.

The land, livestock and other activities on the estate generated income essential to the wider running of the Order.

This perspective moves us beyond the image of an armed knight: behind him stood an entire organisation of religious brothers, serving brothers, administrators, craftspeople and workers responsible for the estates’ daily operations.

Who were the Templars living at Arville?

One of the most striking findings in the archives is that some of the men who lived at Arville can be identified by both name and role.

A document from 1209 identifies seven brothers present in the house at Arville.

They include Hugues Maître, described as Magister and responsible for leading the house, as well as Brother Guillaume, the chaplain, and the clerk Thibault Barbet.

The records also name serving brothers Hubert, Guillaume and Richard, along with another Hubert who worked as a miller.

This list shows that a house of the Order was not made up solely of knights. Its religious, administrative and economic functions all had to be maintained.

You can learn more about this organisation in our article on the Templar Rule and the brothers’ daily lives.

Guillaume de Plexeyo, a serving brother admitted at Arville in 1289

Other records bring us even closer to the individuals who actually lived on the site.

Interrogations conducted after the arrest of the Templars provide information on a serving brother named Guillaume de Plexeyo.

He is said to have taken his vows on entering the Order at Arville in 1289, at approximately 29 years of age.

At the ceremony he was received by Guillaume Gaudin, a former knight who had become master of the Templar bailiwick of Chartres.

His brother Étienne de Plexeyo, also a serving brother at Arville, was present, along with Robert Grunchet and Étienne Besci, two other serving brothers-at-arms.

These accounts give the history of the place a more human dimension. Arville is no longer simply a group of buildings: its walls can be associated with the names and occupations of men who genuinely belonged to the Order of the Temple.

What really survives from the Templars at Arville?

The architectural complex visible today is not an untouched picture of the 13th century. The Templars, the Hospitallers and successive owners all altered its buildings.

According to the Arville team’s current understanding, the base of the entrance gateway, the porch and the church can be attributed to work undertaken by the Templars of Arville.

These structures notably use grison, a local stone characteristic of the site.

Notre-Dame Church

The church is one of the elements most directly associated with the Templar period.

The Commandery team reports that it does not appear to have undergone any major architectural remodelling. However, the building itself must be distinguished from later additions.

The oak-panelled vault over the nave, for example, has been dated to the 16th century by the French heritage inventory.

Even when a building dates to the time of the Temple, some of its visible features may therefore belong to much later periods.

The porch and the gateway

The porch is now one of Arville’s most recognisable features.

The base of the gateway, consisting of the original porch, was built entirely of local grison stone during the Templar period. When the Hospitallers constructed the gateway, they retained that stone porch and topped it with a brick pavilion that raised the structure. They also built the two towers flanking the entrance.

Another architectural detail is worth noting: the porch’s archivolt mouldings are echoed at the church doorway. The porch also shares the orientation of the church, whose choir faces east in accordance with liturgical tradition. These features help distinguish Templar work from later Hospitaller alterations.

Buildings extensively altered after the Templars

Greater caution is needed with the other buildings.

Much of the complex seen today was constructed or remodelled in the 16th and 17th centuries, while some buildings are even more recent.

The lack of systematic archaeological excavations and the limited number of surviving archives can make precise dating of the foundations difficult.

Later structures may also have been built on older, possibly Templar foundations, although this cannot presently be established with certainty.

An old manor house beneath the present-day ticket office

The building now housing the ticket office and offices is a particularly telling example of these successive periods.

The present building was erected between 1814 and 1827, but it covers part of a former manor house that stood beside the church.

The main section of this house lay parallel to the nave. Its earliest known written references date from the 16th century, but its exact origins remain uncertain.

In the cellar, openings resembling arrow slits were discovered. One is still visible today when entering the site.

Recent restoration reveals new remains

Preservation work begun in the 1980s has done more than protect Arville. Recent restorations have also provided new evidence about its past.

The work undertaken on the building currently used as the ticket office is a good example.

Previously, it was thought that only the cellar level of the old manor house had survived.

Recent work showed that the north and south walls of the present building also retain significant remnants of the older house.

These features predate the building’s conversion into a country residence in the early 19th century.

Our understanding of Arville’s architecture therefore continues to evolve as its buildings are investigated and restored.

After the Templars: the Hospitaller period

Arville’s story did not end with the dissolution of the Order of the Temple.

After King Philip IV ordered the Templars’ arrest in 1307, the Order was dissolved in 1312. These events also shaped the fate of its last grand master, Jacques de Molay.

Much of the Templars’ property subsequently passed to the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly called the Hospitallers.

Arville remained under Hospitaller administration until the French Revolution.

To explore the connections and differences between these orders, see our article on the Maltese cross, its origins and its links with the Templars.

It was during this period that the name “Commandery of Sours and Arville” appears in the documents. This Hospitaller organisation is thought to have comprised at least thirteen establishments.

Many of the architectural alterations visible today belong precisely to this post-Templar period.

From the Revolution to the preservation of the Commandery

Religious properties were confiscated during the French Revolution.

Arville was sold as national property in 1793 and gradually divided among several private owners. The buildings were occupied and altered, particularly by farming families.

A major turning point came in the early 1980s.

When the old barn was put up for sale in 1982, a preservation effort began. The various plots were gradually reunited so that the site could be restored and its heritage brought together again.

A first museum dedicated to the Templars and the Crusades finally opened in 1999.

2026: a new museum offering a fresh perspective on the Templars

In 2026, Arville entered a new chapter with the opening of a completely renewed museum devoted to the history of the Order of the Temple.

The new exhibition occupies approximately 650 m² across eight themed rooms. It covers the Order’s origins, its establishment in Western Europe, the Crusades, its activities in the East and the events leading to the Templars’ arrest in 1307.

But the redevelopment goes beyond new displays.

The Arville team explained that the historical content was updated to reflect advances in research over the last two decades.

The texts were written by three team members, all graduates in history, and reviewed and supervised by historians from the Templars Heritage Route European Federation, of which the Arville Commandery is a member.

The aim is to present the history of the Temple and the Crusades more precisely while distinguishing historical realities from later constructions.

Medieval objects now on display

Visitors to the new museum can also see a range of historical objects from the Miquel collection, acquired in 2022 by the association managing the site.

The collection includes coins, weapons, devotional objects and souvenirs associated with pilgrimages.

Templar and Hospitaller seals

The exhibition contains several casts of Templar and Hospitaller seals, whose originals are now held in the French National Archives.

These seals authenticated documents and are also valuable sources for studying the symbols and identities of the military religious orders.

The famous seal depicting two riders on one horse remains one of the Temple’s best-known emblems. We examine its history in our article on the Templar seal and its meaning.

Reliquary ampoules from the 12th and 13th centuries

Several small lead reliquary ampoules dating from the 12th and 13th centuries are also on display.

Such objects could be brought into contact with a relic or a place considered sacred before being kept as items of private devotion.

A 13th-century sword

The exhibits also include a 13th-century sword measuring 84 centimetres.

Together, these objects make tangible a history often approached only through texts, battles and famous individuals.

From the Templars to popular culture

The new exhibition does not end in 1312.

One room is devoted to the legacy of the Templars in the collective imagination.

Cinema, literature, video games and popular culture have profoundly reshaped the Order’s image over the centuries.

This approach helps explain both the lasting fascination with the Templars and the ways in which some modern representations have moved away from historical reality.

Were the Templars the “armed wing” of the papacy?

One misconception the Arville team seeks to qualify is the idea that the Order of the Temple served as the “armed wing of the papacy” throughout Europe’s kingdoms.

The Templars did enjoy a special relationship with the papacy and significant privileges. But this does not mean that they formed a papal army intended to intervene on behalf of the pope in every European kingdom.

The history of the Temple must be understood within the religious, political, economic and military structures of the 12th and 13th centuries.

This is one of the new Arville museum’s main goals: return to the sources and distinguish what is actually known about the Order from the stories added over subsequent centuries.

The medieval garden: another way to explore everyday life

Arville’s heritage extends beyond its buildings and museum.

A garden inspired by the Middle Ages is organised into four plots devoted to medicinal, vegetable, practical-use and field plants.

Its design symbolically evokes cloister gardens and the four rivers of the biblical Paradise. A botanical trail features a variety of fruit trees suited to the Perche landscape.

The same historical caution applies here as to the buildings: the present garden is a modern evocation, not a perfectly preserved Templar garden from the 12th century.

It does, however, feature plants cultivated in the Middle Ages. At that time, gardens varied according to their location — monastery, castle or private home — and their purpose, whether growing food, providing pleasure or supporting healthcare. Such spaces also changed over the centuries.

Visiting the Arville Commandery today

Beyond its historical interest, the Arville Commandery is now a place devoted to sharing knowledge of the Templars and the military religious orders.

Located in Couëtron-au-Perche, Loir-et-Cher, the site brings together centuries of history: older buildings, the church, the porch, restored spaces, the medieval-inspired garden and the museum of the Order of the Temple.

A visit becomes more meaningful when we know the people who actually lived at Arville. Medieval documents now allow us to associate names and roles with these walls: a house master, chaplain, clerks, serving brothers and workers responsible for the estate’s day-to-day operation.

Throughout the year, the Commandery also offers tours, activities and cultural events. As hours, prices and access arrangements may change, prepare your visit on the official Arville Commandery website.

Arville: understanding the Templars beyond the legends

This is ultimately where the Arville Commandery’s greatest historical value lies.

Visitors discover not only the history of the Crusades or the dramatic fall of the Order, but also the daily functioning of a Templar house: a community of religious officials, serving brothers, clerks and administrators living on an agricultural estate.

The archives even bring some of them out of anonymity: Hugues Maître, Brother Guillaume the chaplain, Thibault Barbet, Guillaume de Plexeyo and Étienne de Plexeyo all lived in this setting centuries ago. The sources also mention Denis le Neveu, the last chaplain brother of the house at Arville, arrested in 1307.

The buildings tell a more complex story than that of a “Templar commandery” preserved unchanged. Some structures date to the Temple period, while others were substantially altered by the Hospitallers and later owners.

With its renewed museum in 2026 and the discoveries made during recent restoration, Arville helps place the Templars in their true historical context and explains why their story continues to fascinate more than seven centuries after the Order’s disappearance.

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Article based on historical resources and images supplied by the Arville Commandery, information from its official website and responses provided by its team to our questions in September 2026.