Templar Commandery of Joucas

Located at the top of the hilltop village of Joucas, between Gordes, Murs and Roussillon, a former Templar Commandery. Private heritage, it was once the center of a Templar activity, with several farms to manage in the Luberon valley.

 

The Hospitaliers of St John of Jerusalem settled their commandery on a piece of rock overlooking the valley during the twelfth century. They will install a fort around which groups of farmers will come and settle.

It is through proper taxation that the whole community will gradually develop, especially with the arrival of Vaudois. Unfortunately, during the wars of religion, these Vaudois will massacre the Templars and then use the stronghold from which they will leave in 1591, after heavily vandalizing it, leaving only very few traces of that era.

This is the Order of Malta, owner of the Commandery since 1564, which reinvested and restored it.

The Commandery of Joucas is part of the Grand Priory of Saint Gilles of which it is one of the weakest commanderies. Most of its resources is located in Joucas and its direct surroundings. There are of course the castle and its gardens, buildings for agricultural purposes, an area of ​​arable land and a large green oak forests. In addition, the Commander receives some censives and lods, a tasque right and tithes to the 18th sheaf, but much less than elsewhere at the end... and while most Commanderies go to knights admitted within the Order, with proof of coming from a respectable number of generations (usually 4 from the paternal side and 4 from the maternal side), Joucas accepts a conventional religious man from the upper middle class.

Tensions built up between the commandery and the occupants of the land. The pastor of Joucas, Veran Julien, created problems with the population, but the bishop of Apt defended Julien. From 1784, he is confronted repeatedly with the commander who refused to be dictated by a single priest and remained intransigent. At the French Revolution, the fortress is again besieged and vandalized, let alone partially destroyed.

 

Its facades and roofs have earned it an entry in the historical heritage by order of the 5th of August 1976.

If the bulk of his former defensive structure (fortified) is no longer standing, it is still possible to observe the vestiges of former defensive elements, or of the chapel which was mainly used by the occupants of the stronghold in the eighteenth century as it become too small. Many stone arches are visible inside the chapel.

 

This property has been renovated by the same family of industrialists and artists for nearly 50 years until it was sold in 2006 to an English business man by Jean-Christophe Rosier on behalf of ROSIER real estate in Gordes.