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Origin and history

The Commanderie des Bordes, located in Jussy-le-Chaudrier in the Cher, finds its origins in the 12th century under the order of the Temple. Mentioned for the first time in 1170, she was a member of the Templar Province of Auvergne-Limousin, as evidenced by an arbitral award of 1225 settling a dispute between the Templars and the Archdiocese of Bourges. In 1269, an exchange of debts between the monks of Fontmorigny and the Templars of Jussy was made by Amaury de La Roche, master of the province of France. This strategic site, close to Sancerre, illustrates the economic and religious establishment of order in the region.

Upon the dissolution of the Templars in 1312, the Commanderie passed to the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, becoming a major administrative center under the name of commanderie des Bordes in the 16th century. It then absorbs several nearby houses (Villeville, Précilly, Francheville, etc.), forming a powerful ensemble. The chapel, built between the late 13th and early 14th centuries, and the tower (late 15th–early 16th) reflect these architectural and functional transitions. The religious wars partially damaged the site, although restorations took place in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Today, this complex remains only the truncated chapel of its western spans, the tower of the archives (vestige of the home of the Commanders), and a Gothic gate adorned with an arch in a braid. The lower rooms accessible under the chapel, as well as the traces of the enclosure and dovecote (destroyed around 1900), recall its medieval organization. Private property, the chapel is not open to the public, preserving a heritage both templier and hospitable, marked by religious conflicts and seigneurial recompositions.

Historical sources, such as the memoirs of Emile de Toulgoët-Tréanna (1907) or the archives of the Order of Malta, underline his role in the Berry's network of commanding offices. Ranked a Historical Monument in 1995 for its remaining elements (chapel, tower, decorated door), the Commandery of the Bordes embodies the changes of military orders between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, in a territory marked by rivalries between ecclesiastical and secular powers.

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