Castles and strongholds of the Knights Templar in the Holy Land

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon — the Knights Templar — were founded in Jerusalem around 1119 to protect pilgrims travelling from the coast to the holy places. Within a century the Order owned a chain of fortresses across the kingdom that defined the strategic spine of the Latin East. Their grand master answered only to the Pope, their houses paid no taxes, and at their peak they fielded the most professional cavalry in Christendom.

This page catalogues every Crusader-era site in the atlas with a documented Templar affiliation. The order's signature project was Atlit — the Castle of the Pilgrims, founded 1218, the headquarters of the order in the Holy Land and one of the largest and best-preserved Crusader castles anywhere. Saphet, refortified after 1240, was the great Templar mountain stronghold in the Upper Galilee. Yehiam (Judin), Qaqun (Caco), and the doomed Vadum Iacob at Jacob's Ford were also Templar projects. The order's quarter in Acre held the kingdom's treasury when the city fell in 1291; the last Templar grand master was captured there.