Templars

Routes and places linked to the Templar Order. The Order of the Knights Templar or Templar Order was a Christian crusader order that waged a Holy War in the Holy Land at the time of the Crusades as a small part of the Crusader armies. They were structured as a monastic order on the model of the Cistercians and active both monastic and militarily. The order arose from a brotherhood of mainly French crusaders, of which at least Hugo van Payns and the Flemish nobleman Godfried van Sint-Omaars belonged. The Templars eventually became so powerful and wealthy that the French king Philip the Fair did everything he could to get rid of them.