Commandry of Cressac, Medieval commandry in Côteaux du Blanzacais, France.

The Commandry of Cressac is a chapel of rough light tan and grey stone, with a steeply pitched gabled facade pierced near the top by a circular opening with a cross-shaped cut-out. Below it sit three tall narrow arched windows with deep stone surrounds, separated by thick pilasters. The long side wall is divided by vertical buttresses and small windows, and a brown tiled roof caps the building.

The Templars built the chapel between 1150 and 1160, settling on the Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle pilgrimage route thanks to a well that never ran dry. After the Order of the Temple fell in 1312, the commandry passed to the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem. Sold as national property during the Revolution, it served as a farm building before the Protestant church of Barbezieux bought it in the early 20th century.

The north, east and west walls carry late-12th-century frescoes of the crusaders' victory at La Bocquée in 1163, where the army of Hugues le Brun de Lusignan and Geoffroy Martel defeated Nour ed-Din's forces. Painted with local red clay bound in egg white, they show armed horsemen, a ship and a bishop who may be Adémar. A Huguenot cross on the south wall recalls the chapel's use by the Protestant church of Barbezieux.

The chapel is owned by the United Protestant Church of Barbezieux and has served as a place of worship since the early 20th century; a Huguenot cross marks the south wall. Fresco restoration began in September 2013, after waterproofing work following damage noted in 2011. Look for the hollow "penitent's hand" mark on a stone of the south wall.

The south wall, which has no frescoes, carries a hollowed "penitent's hand" mark cut into one stone; each penitent was to rub this stone. A Huguenot cross stands at the centre of that same wall, placed there because the chapel has served the Protestant church of Barbezieux as a place of worship since the early 20th century.