Perhaps the most famous Templar church, founded in 1185 and consecrated by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, probably in the presence of the king Henry II of England on the 10th of February.
This church and surrounding land became the site of the Templar headquarters in England.
The round section was probably intended to represent the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, though some claim it's reminiscent of the octagonal Mosque of Omer (Dome of the Rock) on the Temple Mount, near to where the Templars had their base in Jerusalem.
The chancel is of conventional rectangular shape and faces in an easterly direction.
The Church as badly damaged by bombing during WWII at which time the crypt was filled and sealed to stabilise the structure.
Several tombs of Knights can be seen, not all Templars and some dating from after the dissolution and persecution of the order in 1307.
There are tales that the knights are not dead, but will one day rise, like those of King Arthur, to defend Christendom.
After the closure of the Templar order the church and land around it was given the the Knight Hospitallers - The Order of St John, who rented the land to two colleges of Lawyers who later called the area the Inner and Outer Temple.
The church become the college chapel. In 1540 Henry VIII abolished the Hospitaller Order in England with the dissolution of the monasteries and the church became the property of the crown.
The two poor knights on one horse were a symbol of the Templars.
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