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Origin and history

The Trebaix Tower of Villesèque is a former Templar Commandory founded at the end of the 13th century, before moving to the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem in 1313 after the dissolution of the Order of the Temple. Located in the diocese of Cahors (present Lot department, Occitanie region), it is part of a network of religious houses linked to the order, including the sites of Monjous, Carnac and La Capelle-Livron. Its architecture, combining a rectangular tower and a vaulted dogives chapel on the ground floor, reflects a dual vocation: defensive and spiritual. The vault key adorned with a Templar Cross and a representation of Saint John the Baptist highlights its complex religious heritage, shared between the two military orders.

The history of Trebaix is inseparable from the conflicts and strategies of the Templars in Quercy. From the second half of the 12th century, Brother Gausbert Vezia founded the domus of Monjous, before tensions with the bishop of Cahors and local lords (such as Raimond V of Toulouse or Richard Coeur de Lion) forced the community to move to Carnac. It was only at the end of the 13th century that Trebaix became a permanent establishment, under the direction of Athon de Salvagnac, simultaneous commander of Carnac and Trebaix in 1290. The tower, built around 1280–1300, incorporates defensive elements (archeries, latrines) and a seigneurial house that is now extinct, attesting to a castral organization typical of southern commanderies.

After the arrest of the Templars in 1307, Trebaix passed to the Hospitallers, who partially transformed it in the 14th century (addition of cross windows, redevelopment of floors). During the Hundred Years' War, the command office, strategically located near Cahors, was strengthened to resist English incursions (1356–1359). An inventory of 1332 confirms its attachment to the command office of La Capelle-Livron, while an act of 1473 reveals its post-war demographic decline, requiring restocking by emhyteotic leases. In the 17th century, a visit from the Order of Malta described a square set with ditch, including the tower and agricultural buildings, now disappeared.

The tower, classified as Historic Monument in 2004, is the last vestige of this commandory. Its broken arch portal (11th century), carved arch keys (templar cross and Saint John the Baptist), and defensive piercings illustrate the architectural and political transitions between Templars and Hospitallers. The excavations and archives underline its role as a seigneurial and religious centre, with a jurisdiction extending over the parish of Villesèque. The disappearance of the house corps in the 19th century and the sale of goods as national property during the Revolution erased part of its history, but the tower remains a rare testimony of the southern commanderies of the late Middle Ages.

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