Commanderie de Coulommiers, Templar Commandery in Coulommiers, France.

The Commanderie de Coulommiers is a Templar commandery in Coulommiers, in the Seine-et-Marne department of northern France. The site groups several stone buildings around a walled courtyard, among them a chapel, a chapter house, a dovecote, and underground passages.

The commandery was founded between 1172 and 1173 on land given by Henry, count palatine of Troyes, and is named in his donation confirmation written between 8 April 1173 and 23 March 1174. Count Thibaud IV of Champagne, worried by the order's growing wealth, obtained from Louis IX a ban on Templar purchases without his consent. On 13 October 1307 Philip the Fair had the Templars arrested; only four brothers remained here, among them Jacques le Verjus de Rebais-en-Brie, aged 70. The order was dissolved in 1311 and the house passed to the Hospitallers.

The commandery's wealth came from cereal farming, especially wheat and oats, and from toll bridges and three mills with banal rights. Its position on the Champagne fair trade route brought wine, cheese, spices and cloth past its gates. The commander governed the community like an abbot or lord, answering to a provincial and ultimately the Grand Master.

The commandery stands on the Montbillard hill north of Coulommiers' upper town, about 20 km southeast of Meaux and 60 km east of Paris, so it is reached by road rather than on foot from the centre. The buildings are entered through the courtyard; the chapel hall has a flat green floor covering and a plain altar at its far end.

A legend holds that before the Templars were arrested, knights from the Paris Temple fled with the order's treasure and hid it at Coulommiers. Some historians consider this plausible, since the commandery was among the most important in Île-de-France. On 13 October 1307 only four brothers remained here, among them Jacques le Verjus de Rebais-en-Brie, aged 70.