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Origin and history

The Sainte-Catherine de Montbellet Commanderie, located in the hamlet of Mercey in Montbellet (Saône-et-Loire), is an architectural ensemble created by an ancient Templar Commanderie. Founded at the end of the 13th century, it consists of a 15th-century house body (remodeled in the 19th century) and a single nave chapel, dogive vaulted and decorated with unfinished murals depicting the twelve apostles and four saints. These frescoes, inspired by the masterpiece Villard de Honnecourt, were allegedly interrupted by the dissolution of the Order of the Temple by Philip IV the Bel in 1307.

After the Templars were condemned in 1313, the command was transferred to the Hospitallers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, who kept it until the Revolution. The site, including chapel, house, barns and stables, was sold as a national property in 1796 and converted into a farm. In the 19th century, a floor divided the chapel, and an agricultural building was added to it. The property, always private (Le Grand de Mercey family), is not visited.

The chapel has been listed as a historical monument since 2002 for its exceptional murals, while the house and the right-of-way floor are listed. The archives used to mention foundation titles and documents relating to the chapel, now missing. The exterior foothills and the rectangular plan of the chapel, as well as its northeast orientation, make it a rare example of preserved Templar architecture.

The paintings, though fragmentary, offer a unique testimony of 13th century artistic techniques, with figures in real size and painted trilobed arches. Their unfinished condition and visible construction lines raise questions about the circumstances of their abandonment, probably related to the repression against the Templars. The commissary, an economic and judicial centre, perceived cens and seigneurial rights in a vast territory.

Today, the site remains a major testimony of the Templar presence in Burgundy, despite its current agricultural vocation. The successive protections (1928 for the chapel, cancelled and renewed in 2001-2002) underline its heritage importance. Historical research, such as that of Gabriel Jeanton (1916) or Marc Thibout (1950), has helped document his history and architectural peculiarities.

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