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Origin and history

The Saulce Chapel, dedicated to Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Saulce, is one of the few remains of a large Templar Commandery founded in the 12th century between the villages of Island and Tharoiseau (Yonne). This estate covered 200 hectares, combining agricultural, wine-growing and forestry activities, with about 50 permanent monks and up to 150 conversers (laity workers). The current chapel, with a rectangular plan (24 m x 8.50 m) and 17 m high under vault, would have replaced an older building around 1209. Its sober architecture, typical of the Templars, includes a three-span nave illuminated by trilobed snout windows, double arches, and a portal adorned with a sculpted tympanum representing a Child Virgin between two bearded donors, perhaps templars.

Following the disgrace of the Templars at the beginning of the 14th century, the Commanderie passed to the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, based in Pontaubert. The chapel, burned in 1569 during the Wars of Religion, was rebuilt by the Hospitallers. After the Revolution, the estate was sold as a national property and transformed into a stable, then a model farm in the 19th century. Classified as a historic monument in 1960, it is now a renovated private residence with reversible interior design to preserve its heritage. Nearby, the Sainte-Anne spring and the remains of a dry pond (powered by a 200 m dam) recall its pastoral and agricultural role.

The chapel is distinguished by discrete defensive elements, such as a corner tower with murderers concealing a staircase towards the frame, and crows suggesting the existence of an old porch. Its damaged eardrum and its statue of Notre-Dame-du-Saulce (now Pontaubert) testify to its religious importance. Located near the road of Compostela from Avallon to Vézelay, the commandory also played a role in protecting pilgrims, before declining after the transfer to the Hospitallers. The current occupants restored the building to its integrity, as evidenced by a television show on M6.

The site retains traces of its agricultural past, such as the reservoir pavement, a 5 m high dam that fed a pond for cattle and cavalry. This set, though partially extinct, offers an overview of the Burgundy orders of the Middle Ages, often confused with other homonymous sites (such as the Saulce-d-Escolives near Auxerre). The chapel, although not regularly open to the public, remains a remarkable example of the Templar architecture adapted to local needs, between spirituality, defense and land exploitation.

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