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Origin and history

The Commandery of Libdeau, founded in the 12th century in Toulois, is one of the first six Templar houses in Lorraine, installed between the second and third crusade. Its origin probably dates back to the second third of the 12th century, under the impulse of Henri de Lorraine, bishop of Toul from 1128 to 1165. An undated charter confirms the donation of a wood near Libdeau by this bishop, attesting the early presence of the Templars on the site. The name Libdeau comes from the contraction of the Latin words liberum (free) and donum (gift), evoking an offering.

The commanding officer passed to the Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem in 1312, after the removal of the order of the Temple. In 1320-1330 Bishop Amédée of Geneva offered 50 days of land to the Hospitallers to strengthen their possessions. The archives reveal 13 acts of donation (1214-1272) describing a prosperous agricultural estate, including woods, fields, a mill and a barn. The chapel, the heart of the site, preserves 12th-century dogive vaults and a Romanesque portal dismantled in 1963 for the Lorrain Museum of Nancy.

After the Revolution, the command office was sold as a national property in 1794. The chapel, classified in 1995, is the only intact Templar vestige in Lorraine, despite the degradations related to its post-revolutionary abandonment. Since 2011, an association has been working on its restoration. The adjacent farm, rebuilt in the 17th century after a fire during the Thirty Years War, belonged to the Chouxcouillon family as early as the 16th century, as evidenced by a tombstone of 1588 evoking an epidemic of plague.

Libdeau's possessions covered about 30 communes in Toulois, with mainly cereal activity. The chapel, rectangular (18.30 m x 8.60 m), features a straight bedside pierced by a Gothic window and oric-ribed vaults. Its 12th century tympanum, representing a Child's Virgin and two angels, recalls the cathedral of Chartres. Wall paintings, partially preserved in the choir, and consecration crosses attest to its rich original decor.

The command of Libdeau illustrates the economic and religious role of military orders in medieval Lorraine. Its history reflects the transitions between Templars and Hospitallers, as well as revolutionary upheavals. Today, the chapel and the farm, although transformed into a farm, offer a rare testimony of Templar architecture in the region, supplemented by departmental archives preserving medieval deeds and gifts.

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