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Origin and history

The Templar chapel of Comps-sur-Artuby is an emblematic medieval vestige of the village, located in the Var department, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. This monument, which has been classified since 1891, is associated with the order of the Templars, who established a command office there before its transfer to the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem after 1312. The chapel, integrated into a wider religious group, bears witness to the influence of military orders in the region.

In the 12th century, the Templars of the house of Ruou (now Villecroze) owned a command office in Comps-sur-Artuby, which later became a capital for the Hospitallers. The latter, after redeeming the seigneurial shares of the family of Pontevès in 1381, became the only lords of the village in the sixteenth century. The chapel, with its Romanesque architecture, reflects this transition between the two orders and their role in the local organization.

The village of Comps-sur-Artuby, once fortified and destroyed during the wars of succession of Provence (1382-1387), was rebuilt in an amphitheatre around its rock. The Hospitallers left several religious buildings, including the chapel Saint-Jean and the chapel Saint-Didier, both inscribed in 1926. These monuments, as well as the 12th century Saint Andrew's church, illustrate the spiritual and architectural heritage of military orders in this strategic area of the Provençal Alps.

The region, marked by a turbulent history, was also occupied during the Austrian Succession War in 1746 by an Austro-Sard army, before being taken over by the Franco-Spanish troops. The chapel of the Templars, with its panorama of the gorges of Artuby and Verdon, remains a symbol of this medieval and military past, today protected and valued as a historical heritage.

Two great teachers of the Hospitallers, Arnaud de Comps (1162-1163) and Bertrand de Comps (1236-1258), came from the village, strengthening the link between this territory and the order of Saint John of Jerusalem. Their heritage, combined with the initial Templar presence, makes this chapel a place full of history, at the crossroads of trade routes and medieval conflicts in Provence.

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