El Temple

El Temple stands in Palma, Spain, as the surviving remains of a fortified complex beside the medieval city wall. Its entrance still shows two sturdy towers, while fragments of the outer wall and a northern tower remain among later buildings.

Islamic rulers established the stronghold in the twelfth century, after the Mallorca crusade of 1114. A rectangular enclosure once measured about 95 metres along its longer sides and contained 13 defensive towers. After James I conquered Mallorca in 1229, the Knights Templar received the site and built a late Romanesque chapel and a commander’s house. The complex later served the Hospitallers, a prison in 1345, an Inquisition site, and an eighteenth-century military barracks.

Today, the Torres del Temple frame an inner portal that preserves the clearest medieval view. Parts of the original chapel survive, making it one of the island’s few Romanesque examples. Four square towers reinforce sections of the partly ruined wall, while a buried portal and tall garden palms add quieter traces of the centuries.