Templar and Hospital Commandery of Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon, Sainte-Eulalie de Cernon
The Commandery of Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon, sometimes also called Sainte-Eulalie de Larzac is a hospital commandery former Commandery Templar located in the department of Aveyron, at the foot of the Larzac plateau 20 km south-east of Millau. The history of the Templars in Larzac begins in 1151 when the abbey of Saint-Guilhem le Desert, Raimond, donated the Church of Sainte-Eulalie. From 1159, the Templars began to rebuild the church, then they built the buildings of the Commandery. Sainte Eulalie presents two separate fortified but adjoining fortifications: the ramparts surrounding the village, built in the 15th century by the Hospitallers and the Commandery (partly taken over in the 14th century by the hospitaliers) in the form of a fortified quadrilateral on the outside which includes agricultural buildings, the church, and the community building with an interior courtyard in the center.
About this building
The Church was rebuilt by the Templars when they settled in Sainte-Eulalie in the 12th century. It is of a sober construction, with a nave oriented to a single vessel, composed of 4 spans and an arched apse at the end of the oven. All the side chapels are from the 19th century with the exception of the first south side which dates from the 14th. Its particularity is its entrance portal which was pierced late in the original chevet in 1641 by Commander Jean de Bernuy Villeneuve; he had his direction reversed so that the entrance gate opened onto the square.
