The Knights Templar in the Golden Age of Spain: Their Hidden History on the Iberian Peninsula

by Juan García Atienza, Federico E. Rodriguez Guerra (Translator)

A thorough examination of the history of the Templars in Spain and Portugal

• Explores the mysteries surrounding the location of Templar enclaves

• Examines the Templar connections to the Cathars and to the troubadour culture

• Looks at the Order’s influence in the kingdoms of Aragon and Catalonia and the Spanish monarchy itself

The rise and fall of the Templar Order constitutes a fundamental and decisive episode in medieval history, and the destruction of the Order constitutes a pivotal point that fundamentally altered the direction of society. While much is known about the history of the Templar Order in France, home of its chief commandery in Paris, and in the Latin States of the Middle East, their contribution to events on the Iberian peninsula has until now remained obscure and unexplored.

Renowned Templar scholar Juan García Atienza reveals here the important role the Templars played in the Reconquista that saw the Moors driven out of Spain and demonstrates the great influence they exerted in the kingdoms of Castille and Navarre and the territories of Catalonia and Aragon. He examines the mysterious connections between the Templars and the Cathars and troubadours as well as the mystery surrounding the location of all the Templar enclaves in the Iberian peninsula. He also unveils the important role the Templars had as teachers of the Spanish king James I, known as the Conqueror, whose attempt to establish a universal theocratic empire may have been a reflection of Templar ambitions, and explores the Order’s suppression in Spain and how it survived in Portugal by simply changing its name.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 2006

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 2 out of 5]

A tough nut to crack or judge. Tiptoes the line between revisionism & theosophy. The one by enlarging the gaps in historiography to reject consensus, the other by putting question marks at a Templar legacy, while simultaneously taking freemasonic measurements between Templar castles and geographical reference points on the Iberian map. The idea of a superchristian religion that would incorporate the mysticism of Judaism and Sufi Islam is another stretch. Familiarity with comparative religion is not the same as a Vast Plan to unite Europe, or something.
Perhaps something got lost in translation, because naming Spanish and Portuguese kings "John" does NOT help while reading a somewhat haphazard text with scores of unintroduced players.
Needs more footnotes. And more Portugal. Tell me about the Siege of Lisbon of 1149 as Saramago didn't tell us, instead of the Head of Baphomet.

[Michael Romo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of fascinating facts and stories of places that I saw or passed by while walking the Camino de Santiago. For example, the picture of the castle on the front cover is of the Templar Castle on Ponferrada, Spain. Garcia Atienza, one of Spain's leading experts on the Templars and the Middle Ages, certainly gives us a book that is well-researched and well written. Bravo.

[Labijose · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 🌞🌞🌞🌞

Este no es un libro más sobre los misterios que rodean a la Orden del temple. No fomenta el esoterismo de los estudios que se han venido haciendo sobre ella incidiendo sobre factores presuntamente mágicos. Aquí, por el contrario, se intenta aclarar el auténtico significado de estos, en un contexto histórico que ha sido muchas veces manipulado, tanto por buscadores alucinados por lo irracional, como por la historiografía más académica.

Juan G. Atienza (1930-2011) intenta aunar rigor histórico con la especulación a la que invitan los hechos, no en vano fue uno de los mayores especialistas en el tema, aunque no siempre sus estudios y conclusiones fueron bien recibidos.

¿Qué se escondía detrás de esta misteriosa orden? ¿Es cierto que siempre ocultaron sus verdaderos fines? ¿Por qué eligieron de manera tan precisa los emplazamientos para sus instalaciones? ¿Eran conocedores de la localización exacta de las fuerzas telúricas necesarias para establecer contacto espiritual con dios?

Además de un gran autor y divulgador de temas mistéricos, Juan G Atienza fue guionista, director de cine y documentalista. Son innumerables las obras referentes a la España oculta que nos dejó, así como las referidas al Camino de Santiago (su pasión), leyendas populares y guías de viaje esotéricas. Incluso se consideraba un experto sobre la Atlántida, ahí queda eso. Fue un personaje muy carismático comparable a otro de similar calado, el doctor Fernando Jiménez del Oso. Otro día os traeré algún libro suyo también.

Ya no conservo apenas ninguna obra de estos dos magníficos divulgadores, pero, tengo que reconocer que, tanto en formato programa de televisión como en el de libro, a ambos les debo muchas horas de evasión.

Esta reseña es de mi primera lectura sobre los templarios en inglés, en una edición ya desgastada y con la mitad de las páginas despegadas, del año “del señor” dos mil y seis.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was generally good but I found it lacking in a few respects. For one, it is abundantly clear that it was originally intended for a Spanish audience and the translation and phrasing of some of the parts was weird and hampered the flow of the book. In addition, while I thought it was generally well researched there was a surprising lack of actual facts or clear timeline set out by the author. So overall it was pretty good but I think could have been done better.

[Victor · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a historian the narrative is inconsistent and even contradicts his own assumptions. There are some interesting pieces of information with reasonable guess work. If you're interested in reading history between the lines of known facts with dollops of conjectures then this book is just up your street. But when the author drops names as a measure with no understanding to whom and why he uses those named. Twice. He does know his subject but quite a few times forgets the reader. There is some biased perspective even inflated claims about Cataluña at the expense of Aragon. Aragon is constantly described with a negative outlook and on equal footing with Cataluña. And...is definitive wrong describing the two areas as realms, when in fact Aragon is a kingdom while Cataluña never has been and always subjugated to other crowns e.g. Toulouse, Narbonne, Perpignan, Carcassonne and Zaragoza. Never an individual entity as peddled regularly in the narrative.
Furthermore describing the templar’s unique in their time to lead in their singular military religious doctrine, when in fact the Mohammedans had introduced this religious jihad much earlier. This resulted with large sways of the population escaping up to villa Franca in the Pyrenees to start the proto-Aragón state. There's a number of other points which I find inconsistent, wrong or just too whimsical within the inner abstracts conjectures which prevail through the pages. More substance needed to nail author's views. Ok mobile rant over.

[Lizbeth Morgade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una buena recomendación para las personas que están interesadas en conocer a los templarios, como se fundaron, su esplendor y su declive en España