Temple (Paris)

The Paris Temple
Paris, France
A view of the Grosse Tour-circa 1795, Ecole Française 18th century.
The Paris Temple
Type	Medieval fortress
Site information
Condition	Demolished
Site history
Built	mid-13th century
Built by	Knights Templar
Demolished	1808
Events	French Revolution

The Square du Temple is a garden in Paris, France in the 3rd arrondissement, established in 1857. It is one of 24 city squares planned and created by Georges-Eugène Haussmann and Jean-Charles Alphand. The Square occupies the site of a medieval fortress in Paris, built by the Knights Templar. Parts of the fortress were later used as a prison during the French Revolution, and then demolished by the mid 19th century.

The Knights Templar began in the 12th century, constructing a fort first (Vieux Temple or Old Temple) in Le Marais. In the 13th century, a new fortress was built as their European headquarters. The enclosure, called enclos du Temple, originally featured a number of buildings important to the running of the Order, and included a church and a massive turreted keep known as Grosse Tour (great tower), and a smaller tower called Tour de César (Caesar's Tower).

The location of the towers is drawn on the floor in front of the town hall, rue Eugene Spuller. The heavy doors of the Grosse Tour still exist and are kept at Château de Vincennes whose great keep, attributed to Raymond du Temple, is speculated to have been inspired by the nearby Templar fortress.

The Temple is also known for having been the place where the French royal family was jailed at the time of the Revolution. Members of the royal family imprisoned at the Temple's tower were:

In 1808, the Temple having become a place of pilgrimage for royalists, Napoleon ordered its demolition, which took two years. Remnants were demolished around 1860 under orders from Napoleon III.