Trip Report: A Templar Ruins in Southern France

by Lord Bartholomew Hightower of Canterbury (Dan Watson)

One of the happy parts of my mundane life is that I have the chance to travel to Europe from time to time to visit with my wife’s family, in southern France.  I  enjoy the company of my wife’s family, but I also like to get out with my wife or one family member, or even on my own, to go exploring.  I most enjoy those odd excursions that would normally be swept aside in a typical mad touristic rush to “see” Paris and Chartres and Marseilles in 3 days.

On our last trip, I took some time with my older boys (twins, aged 5) to explore an old Templar fortification known locally as “le Chateau du Barry” for reasons I don’t at all understand (though it might possibly be because there is a town called “Barry” close by).  I enjoyed very much our experience there, and thought it might be fun to share it with you.

The Templars in their time were great builders.  One of their self-appointed tasks was the protection of pilgrimage routes, not only from Europe to the Middle East, but also within Europe itself.  They had a habit of building fortifications in high strategic places, setting themselves immediately apart from feudal lords, who had a more pressing interest in protecting themselves and their villages from aggressive neighbors.  You can learn about the often mysterious and little-understood history of the Templars from many sources.  I would recommend the website http://www.euroknightstemplar.org as having a nice compact synopsis to whet your appetite.

These dwellings were built right up against the soft limestone cliff face, and take advantage of the natural overhang by building rooms back into the rock.  My sons appear in several of the images included here mostly because they wouldn’t stand still.  They do, however, give a nice sense of proportion.

Another view of the village. Very little cut stone was used, and then only for doorways an windows.

Barry is located along an old trade route that led through the town of Pont St. Esprit, the site of the first (i.e., the farthest downriver) bridge over the Rhone River – at least until the completion of the bridge at Avignon in1185.   The fortress site is high atop a limestone plateau with a commanding view of the surrounding region, and is just a few minutes off the current track of the A7 route.  If you are ever out that way, you can find the site by locating the old town church in Barry, which is near the town of Bollene, and heading uphill (by car) from there.  There is a winding road that climbs most of the 2-3 mile distance and dead-ends where it gets interesting.  You’ll find a mapboard and a set of maintained trails at the road-head. Other than that, the area is blissfully untouched by modern construction and tourism.

Near the beginning of the trail, there is an abandoned medieval village that has survived the centuries remarkably well, for two reasons:

1. Many of the dwellings were build right into the side of the limestone bluffs there and are protected by a slight overhang, and
2. It’s too high up to be of much use to the local residents, and it was easier to scavenge for stones down lower.

It’s the surviving village that makes this site so interesting to me.  Have you ever lived near a military base?   There always seems to be a thriving economy that builds up outside the base gates that thrives on the money coming out of the installation.  Things weren’t that different then, and this village is not un-coincidentally built at the location of the highest water spring on the way up to the fortifications.

This rough chapel sits half in and half out of the cliff.  Another larger and now demolished chapel built primarily of cut stone sits a few dozen yards ahead.

There is a (demolished) church there, the remnants of the old spring, and various dwellings that were chiseled right out of the stone.  Many of the facades remain, and there are steps and nooks and crannies galore to explore.  The area is the site of many recent impromptu parties and graffiti expositions, but it’s still quite possible to stand in the middle of the village and let your mind drift back to imagine what it must once have been.  The local townspeople have been working slowly to restore the village, and have been doing a remarkable job so far.

The remnants of the ancient road continue on through the village and then heads seriously up the hill.  The road in many places was hacked out of the stone in order to facilitate passage of many of the more treacherous parts, and you can see the ruts in the stone road carved by the passing of countless ox carts (I did not measure the distance between them).

At one point the road curves around at the top of a cliff that overlooks the Rhone Valley.  Imagine a patchwork quilt of tall poplar-lined fields of tomatoes and canteloups, greening vineyards, and deep forests. The trees all have a curious northward lean that is the result of growing up under the influence of the Mistral wind from the south.  There is a large canal from the Rhone that runs just past the base of the plateau, a thousand feet below. The scent of lavender and sage fills the air, and there is nothing to hear but the sound of the wind playing with the live oaks.  Yeah, it was that good.

The boys take a winding road out of the village heading up to the top of the plateau. 

The road cuts back from the edge and heads up a deep cut through a live-oak forest.  Near the top of the plateau, it heads back toward the escarpment.  The road dies out, and a scramble through the woods puts you at the edge of what appears to be a large ditch, about 50 feet wide.  It took me a while to figure this out, but it appears that the builders quarried stone for the walls and keep by forming a channel in the top of the plateau around the castle site – a dry moat.  The sides were probably quite steep when the fortress was active, but the boys and I had only moderate trouble getting down and then scrambling up the other side with the aid of a few well-placed tree trunks.

On top of the cliffs, there is another small hill to be climbed before reaching the ruins of the fortress.

The approach to the fortress is a sunken road through a live oak forest. The remnants of many terrace walls are visible along the route, but their organization and purpose is difficult to discern.

The fortress itself is perhaps 100 feet on each side.   We had a little difficulty getting inside the walls, but I found a hole in the wall along a ledge on one exposed side with about a 20-foot drop for the careless.  I had to carry the children one at a time from our perch at the top of the dry moat along the base of the walls around the corner and through the hole.  It was really much less scary than it sounds, but I was not willing to trust the surefootedness of two 5-year olds at the same time.

 The upper parts of nearly all of the walls are not present, but a few of the ramparts are visible.  The base of the keep is still there, although the arched doorway is now just a low arch, thanks to all the rubble.  The gate location is discernable by the grooves in the stone where the portcullis was set.  There are a number of trees growing inside the walls and keep, and although there is perhaps ten feet of rubble in the interior, it’s been covered over by dirt and grass, and the trees give it a nice “park” feel. 

At several points along the walls, you can see channels for the pouring of hot things, as well as the tops of several arrow slits, which are rounded at the top and slanted through the walls downward and at an angle.   The overall plan of the fortress is rectangular, but no towers are discernable.  The keep is square and forms one corner of the rectangle, diagonally opposite the gate.  The gate itself is on the face of the fortress that borders the cliff.    There are no remains of the gatehouse standing, other than the walls themselves.  .

Inside the fortress, the footing is very easy, thanks to all the rubble and soil that has accumulated over the centuries. 

The approach road to the fortress long ago eroded away, but the gate itself is quite a bit lower than the rest of the castle, so that anyone approaching the fortress would have to come along the most exposed path and walk up a steep hill, even once inside the walls.  I left the boys for a few minutes and scrambled down outside the gate to get a look.  I would not have enjoyed begin a part of any attacking force trying to make an assault from that direction

There are lots of things to climb on, and good places to sit for a picnic.  The rubble-filled and dirt-covered interior makes access a breeze.  The views from the top are outstanding.  The difficult approach and overall primitiveness of the site means fewer people.  We didn’t see another soul the whole time we were there, from 9 in the morning till well after mid-day.  Next time we go, the boys and I are bringing boffer swords.