The imposing Commanderie building by the river at le Temple-sur-Lot has been listed as an historical monument since 1952. It was an important location of the Knights Templar, an order founded in Jerusalem in 1118, who established a presence in the Agenais region in 1154.

The Knights Templar, with their fortified building, became an important element in the social and political landscape, and increasingly powerful. However, this situation originally encouraged by the Church became to be viewed with suspicion, especially after the fall of Jerusalem in 1244. In 1309 all the Templar possessions were seized by Pope Clement V and many Templars arrested, tried and executed. The properties and possessions were transferred to the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John.

The ancient Commanderie burnt down during the last decades of the Hundred Years war and a new fortified brick building constructed between 1485 and 1510 in an enclosed courtyard plan. It was restored in 1650 and again more recently after many decades of neglect.

In the le Temple locality . . .