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Origin and history

The command office of Puy Fort Eguille, located 7 km southeast of Nerac in the Lot-et-Garonne, was initially a templar establishment dependent on the command office of Argentens. Founded in the 12th and 13th centuries, it became a possession of the Hospitallers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem after 1315. The site consisted of a church of Saint John the Baptist (XII century), a house (XIII century) and communes organized in U, of which only the dovecote remains today.

Between the 12th and 13th centuries, local lords (Arnaud Sanz, Folquet du Puy, Armand d'Arricalau) gave up their rights to Puy-Fort-Eguille at the command office of Argentens. In 1260 the Chevaliers Bertrand and Folquet de Savignac strengthened these rights by a donation to Commander Bernard Guilhem d'Aspet. However, the Templar court was challenged by Mathe d'Albret, guardian of the heirs of Amanieu VI d'Albret, resulting in a paring agreement in 1283 sharing rights between the Albret and the command office.

In the 16th century, Puy-Fort-Eguille was sold and then bought by the Hospitallers, before being damaged during the Wars of Religion. In ruins in 1650, the site was partially restored in the seventeenth century. Together, listed as a historical monument in 2006, is evidence of the successive presence of the Templars, Hospitallers and Knights of Malta in the Neracese.

Persistent conflicts with the Albret, such as the occupation by the Senechal of Agenas in 1327, illustrate local feudal tensions. Despite these rivalries, the commandary retained its religious and economic role until its decline in modern times, marked by Protestant destruction and alienation of ecclesiastical property under Henry II.

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