Commanderie du Ruou, Templar commandry in Villecroze, France.

The Commanderie du Ruou is a stone complex built on a slope in Villecroze, in the Var. A tall rectangular tower with a shallow pitched roof rises on the right, pierced by a small arched window with a rounded stone surround and a large rectangular opening higher up. Below it, a terrace wall holds two round-headed arches with a stone staircase climbing between them, and a battlemented ruined edge runs along the hillside to the left.

The first official mention of the Commanderie du Ruou dates from 1155, when local lords donated land to the Templars, granting them the right to take wood, stone and water for building. The first commander, Hugues Raymond, settled at Lorgues in 1170 while the commandry was still under construction; his successor Pons de Rigaud took possession in 1193. The house expanded from about 1190 to 1250, after which only two further donations are recorded.

The name Ruou comes from the domain the Templars received in 1155. The house held about ten brothers, more than other Var commandries, which had at most three. Its lands reached from the Verdon valley to the Mediterranean, and it kept about 240 tenures across communes such as Lorgues, Salernes and Draguignan.

The commandry lies in the Var countryside near Villecroze, about 7 km east of Salernes and 12 km west of Draguignan, so a car is the practical way to reach it. The buildings stand on a slope: a stone stair climbs between two round-headed arches below the tower, and the ground is uneven underfoot.

The commandry's territory covered about 1,000 hectares: roughly 600 hectares of arable land, 130 hectares of vines and 34 hectares of pasture. Its roughly 240 tenures were held across thirteen communes, from Callas and Comps to Tourtour and Villecroze.