The Last of the Templars: The Prison of Domme, France

🌟In this episode, we explore the legends of the Knights Templar in the citadel of Domme, in Dordogne, southwestern France.

Before their disappearance, the Templar Knights who were arrested, tortured and imprisoned here left inscriptions on the walls of their cells. These still exist today and can be visited year-round.

There is allegedly a code-system used by the Knights Templar, although these details are unknown. Few historical sources exist to study them.

🏆OTHER PLAYLISTS ON THIS CHANNEL:

📚Historical references
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cl%C3%A9ment_V
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinon_Parchment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_de_Molay
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/france/domme/attractions/prison-des-templiers/a/poi-sig/1494601/1298152
https://www.perigordnoir-valleedordogne.com/en/patrimoine-culturel/les-mysterieux-graffiti/
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domme
https://www.travelfranceonline.com/sergeac-knights-templar-commanderie/
https://www.lascaux-dordogne.com/en/partager/notre-histoire/lhistoire-medievale-en-vallee-vezere/templiers-et-hospitaliers-en-vallee-de-la-vezere/
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/france/domme/attractions/prison-des-templiers/a/poi-sig/1494601/1298152
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g580128-d8373260-Reviews-Les_Mysterieux_Graffiti-Domme_Dordogne_Nouvelle_Aquitaine.html#/media/8373260/?albumid=-160&type=ALL_INCLUDING_RESTRICTED&category=-160

Domme | Things to See and Do in Domme

📷Photo credits

Les mystérieux graffiti

https://www.templiers.net/accusateurs/index.php?page=arrestation-des-templiers
By Jean-Pierre Dalbéra – La salle ovale du site Richelieu (Bibliothèque nationale de France), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=123662376
By Hagai Agmon-Snir حچاي اچمون-سنير חגי אגמון-שניר – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=142934129

🎻Music credits
Julien Léonard, Association Dom Rémi Carré
https://www.domremicarre.org/
Geoffroy Dudouit, Codex Calixtinus
Breton by Pufino
Source: https://freetouse.com/music
Royalty Free Background Music

Chapters
00:00 – 01:14 Introduction
01:14 – 02:17 The Dordogne River
02:17 – 05:47 Philip IV
05:47 – 09:20 The Domme Prison
09:20 – 10:50 The Templar Curse
10:50 – 12:00 Conclusion

This video is for educational and informational purposes. All rights reserved.
Content published with the consent of those filmed, under public domain, fair use and creative commons 3.0 licenses. © GACS 2025

#history #knightstemplar #france

Today, today it’s the same, those with a little culture learn to be tolerant. It’s those that lack culture who are intolerant. Dordogne, southwestern France. It was here that some the last of the Knights Templar met their fate. In the citadel of Domme, imprisoned in the towers along the city ramparts, la Porte des Tours, their apparent inscriptions and graffiti still linger on the walls. A treasure map engraved in the stones of time, or simply a tourist trap in a picturesque village? Today we’ll explore the traces of the Templars in this part of France, and try to learn more about why this was such an important location when they met their demise. For today’s trivia question, what was the name of the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar? And if you know that answer, in what year did he die? Listen attentively throughout the episode, and you’ll likely find the answers. If not, you will ultimately be blessed with this knowledge at the conclusion. You wouldn’t know it today, walking through the pleasant streets and taking in the enjoyable summer atmosphere, but Domme has seen its share of suffering, pain and injustice. A lot of that is due to its geography: perched high on a rocky outcropping with a spectacular view of the Dordogne river, it’s obvious why this would have been a strategic site throughout the ages. The river itself, which gives its name to the department of Dordogne, stretches for 300 miles from east to west, crossing six departments and numerous large towns before it empties into the Gironde estuary near Bordeaux. Curiously, the Dordogne is one of the few rivers in the world to exhibit the phenomenon of a “tidal bore” meaning the incoming tide will push waves inland, temporarily reversing the flow of the river. The Seine, which flows through Paris, also exhibits this phenomenon. Due to its east-west orientation, for transportation and navigation, it became a point of interest for Philip IV known as Philip the Fair or Philippe le Bel in French, king of France from 1285 to 1314. Now this is where the story starts to get interesting. Philip IV had money problems, and lots of them. And the Templars were reputed for being the first banking corporation in Europe. Certainly for many of the Knights Templar some of what happened during the reign of this tyrannical French king could have been anticipated decades prior to their imprisonment. To those paying attention, the repressive lashing out of a bankrupt monarchy was predictable. Philip IV had already shown his hand several times before he destroyed the Templars. Many of the knights may have fled, escaped or hidden away treasure, sparking legends that have persisted to this day. Beginning with the Lombard merchants in Italy, the French King had begun accumulating large debts very early on in his reign. When he could no longer pay them, he arranged for the arrest and seizure of the merchants’ assets, reclaiming a significant percentage in duties to the French crown. But Northern Italy was far away from Aquitaine. Philip the Fair, who was a total catastrophe of a king. Now we make gold coins with milled or reeded edges, you know? At the time gold coins were stamped and had to be weighed with scales. What we call “sound money” and they had scales at fairs to weigh them. Since each region had its own currency they were all weighed. Philip the Fair then started counterfeiting coins. Quite a guy. When he decided to attack the Templars he had already borrowed a lot of money from them. Since he couldn’t pay it back, he found a way to defame them. His money problems persisted, and in 1294 France and England went to war. Known as the Gascon war, it lasted until 1303. A harbinger of the 100 years war that would soon follow, it was fought primarily in the tough terrain of Aquitaine. Around the same time, the Royal Treasury of the French capital city was transferred from the Paris Temple to the Louvre. A symbolic move that would not have been lost on the Sacred Order. With the end of the Crusades and mounting unpaid debts from the French crown, the Order of the Knights Templar must surely have begun asking questions, and wondering about their future, by the end of the 13th century. Back in Dordogne, Philip IV had already established a stronghold in Domme in 1281. Interestingly, the bastide settlement had also gained the priviledge of minting its own currency. As the deficits of the monarchy progressed during the 1290s, the French king turned to debasement of coinage as an answer to the problem. It’s a cycle that has repeated itself throughout history, and is something we still deal with today: the burden of debt and devaluation of currency created inflation, and those to whom the King was indebted saw themselves losing purchasing power. If they ever were paid back, the money wouldn’t be worth what it used to be. Using less gold and silver in order to produce larger quantities of coins with more impure alloys pushed people to haul their silver abroad, instead of spending it in France. It was a clear example of Gresham’s law. If you have a gold coin and a copper coin which are both worth $1 you will spend the copper and keep the gold. By the early 1300s, the situation was becoming critical. Silver coinage was fleeing France, crossing the borders and the English channel. Royal decrees banned exports, imposed new taxes and tariffs, and sparked social unrest. Money was becoming scarce. While many more intriguing details and events laid the groundwork for the ultimate solution, our interest today finds itself inside the prison walls of Domme. With the nearby Templar harbor in La Rochelle, and the numerous Commanderies and trading posts that lined the routes in all directions across southwestern France, the Templar Order was well-established in the region. The King of France then became the instigator for the fall of the Templar Order. Heavily indebted to them, unable to pay off his obligations and with few solutions, he ordered them all arrested on Friday the 13th of October, 1307. A keen strategist who had spent decades building up his administrations, courts and lawyers, Philip IV found the Achille’s heel and used it tactically to take down the Templar order. Up until 1307, the Templars had been protected by the church, immune from common law and interference by the Royal courts. The legal details and protections given to the Templar Order will be the subject of another episode. While legend has it that some fled and others went into hiding many of those that were captured in and around Aquitaine were allegedly brought to the prison cells in Domme, at La Porte des Tours. Their long days and months in captivity would have been grueling and unjustified. Torture was common in order to extract confessions. Many had already been executed. Historians have spent countless hours throughout the centuries trying to decipher the truth in the depositions from the Templars’ arrest, still available in the French National Archives. According to some sources, they left their inscriptions on the walls of the Domme prison, using codes that were left to be deciphered over the centuries. They used a code system involving series of geometric figures: the octagon represented the Grail, the triangle surmounted by a cross represented Golgatha, the square represented the Temple, and the circle represented the imprisonment. Jacques de Molay became an emblematic example of the persecution suffered after 1307. The last of the Templar Grand Masters, he was held after the Friday the 13th round-up until 1314. Records and documents from this period are rare and difficult to interpret. Initially imprisoned in Chinon, located much further to the north along the Loire river he ultimately was burned at the stake in Paris. The struggle for power between the French King, the Catholic church and the Order of the Knights Templar must have become a complex and a fierce battle. Secret Vatican documents were uncovered in 2001, showing that Pope Clement V had absolved the Templars from wrongdoing in 1308. But this document was kept hidden away for nearly 700 years, and never had an impact on the outcome of the Philip the Fair’s inquisition. Known as the Chinon Parchment, it is proof that there was acknowledgement by the church of the spurious nature given to many of the charges against the Templars. The story became even more complex, when, in 1309, Pope Clement V moved the Vatican to Avignon, in the south of France, starting the period known as the Avignon Papacy. This would last until 1377. This triangular power struggle in the early 14th-century would forever leave its mark on Western Europe. Mysteries and legends would arise after the Templars disappearance. And not without cause. Both King Philip the Fair and Pope Clement V died the same year as Jacques de Molay in quick succession. Executed on March 18, 1314 Jacques de Molay went to his death calmly, pronouncing a curse on those who had unjustly persecuted him. Just a month later, the Pope died at the age of 50 near Avignon. In October, it would be King Philip the Fair who would meet his fate in the town of Fontainebleau at the age of 46. Just over twenty years later in 1337 France and England would go to war, one which would last over a century. Just over thirty years later in 1346 the Black Death would sweep across Europe, drastically reducing the population by up to 50 percent, and killing as many as one of two people. The disappearance of the Knights Templar preceded a series of hardships on the European continent that wouldn’t be rivaled until the 20th century. It can never be fully known if the Templars held powers beyond the legacies that they left, carved into the stone, buried in the ground or hidden away in secret archives. But in retracing their steps, in observing their marks left in places such as Domme, we can get a sense for the unusual, perhaps even the surreal, place they held in history. Today, Domme is a bustling tourist stop during the summer season. Markets, artisans and craftsmen fill the streets and storefronts. Its economy is vibrant for a town of less than 1 000 inhabitants. Next to the Porte des Tours and the Templar graffiti, a fantastic pizzeria pays homage to the legend. Definitely worth a visit as the menu is fantastic. Make reservations or arrive early for seating during the busy season. The answer to today’s trivia question, if you paid close attention during this episode, is The 23rd and final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, he was executed 1314. There is a lot more to explore and learn about the Sacred Order. In future episodes, we’ll visit a privately-owned and restored Templar Commandery, delve into the details of King Philip the Fair’s persecution and explore the complex legal legacy that the Knights Templar has left all these centuries later. If you learned something new in the episode, make sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE! Your continued support makes more content like this possible. Check the links and sources in the description for more information. Until the next episode, thanks for watching. Merci et au revoir!