Commanderie de Jalès, Templar commandry in Berrias-et-Casteljau, France

Commanderie de Jalès is a fortified commandry in Berrias-et-Casteljau, Ardèche, built of rough light-grey and beige stone blocks. Its entrance is a tall round-arched gateway framed by cut voussoirs, with a small window opening in the wall to the left and a black metal lantern on a bracket above the arch. Inside, east and west wings enclose an interior courtyard.

Founded around 1140 by the Knights Templar, with Hugues de Payns and Raymond Pelet named as founders, Jalès was not a military post but a commandery collecting funds and supplies. It endured the persecutions of Philip the Fair, then passed to the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem in the 14th century, who turned it into a fortified house. Decline in the 16th and 17th centuries ended when commander Pierre-Emmanuel de Lauberivière de Quinsonas restored it from 1740.

The chapel, south of the courtyard, keeps its 12th-century plan: a semi-circular apse with a cul-de-four vault, a three-bay nave, a round-arched portal and two small Romanesque openings. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary in 1151, then placed under Saint Mary Magdalene in the 13th century, and turned into a granary in the 16th century. Remaining wall paintings date probably from the late Middle Ages.

The site houses a CNRS research unit attached to the Archéorient laboratory in Lyon, studying the ancient Near East from the late Palaeolithic to early antiquity. The courtyard hosts concerts during the Labeaume en Musique festival in June. Because the premises are used for research, check visiting arrangements before travelling.

Local legend holds that Suffren, a hearty eater, had a table with a notch cut out so his large belly would fit; he stayed at Jalès in 1786 and 1787 and wrote that the house was "fort logeable" with a good kitchen garden. It was his last visit before his health declined; he died in December 1788.