Chapel of the Templars

Enter the garden of Laon’s archaeological museum on your right and come discover the mysterious Chapel of the Templars. The Knights Templar… their name alone is full of mystery. Our minds drift off to hidden treasures; the Freemasons; Crusades and heresy trials. But who exactly were they? Well, they were a 12th-century military religious order, founded to protect the safety of pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. As Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Seljuk Turks, they forbade Christians to enter. The Pope was not pleased at all, and launched an unprecedented offensive: the First Crusade. The Romanesque chapel, built around 1140, was originally a funeral chapel. In 2015, a number of graves were found all around it, thus confirming this. But it didn’t stop at that, as it also served a completely different purpose. At the time, Laon was on a famous pilgrimage route from London to Rome. Initially a religious route, it was to become a major commercial artery. Indeed, it linked northern and southern Europe, via the famous Champagne Fairs, the greatest commercial crossroads of the time. Merchants travelling this route had deep pockets, and the roads weren’t exactly safe. Even today, we’d advise against traveling with too much cash on you, but in the 12th century, it was suicidal! Merchants would thus leave their money with the Templars, in exchange for a small percentage of their earnings, and collect their money further down the road, from other Templars closer to their destination. That’s right, they’d invented bank security! Take a good look at this one – it’s one of the few chapels from that era that is still standing today! It was listed as a historical monument in 1846.