The Templars and the Parisian Builders 129or eighth century. In the tenth century the counts of Meulan took pos-
session of this church and its properties and remained its masters for a
time until the difficulties connected to the administration of an ecclesi-
astical property induced them to make a present of it to the monks of
Saint Nicaise Priory, who were Benedictines of the Saint Maur congre-
gation, which they had founded in Meulan. In a charter of 1141,
Waleran, count of Meulan, numbers this monastery among his proper-
ties: Ecclesias Sancti Gervasii et Sancti Joannis quoe Sunt Parisius in
vico qui dicitur Greva. Le Pouille, a Parisian of the thirteenth century,
mentions that the parish district of Saint Gervais was named as such by
the prior of Saint Nicaise de Meulan.^38
Saint Jean Church was originally only a baptistery of Saint Gervais,
but later it became a separate chapel, which was expanded in the
eleventh century, then raised to the status of a cure in 1212, when Saint
Gervais underwent redistricting due to its "multitude of parish-
ioners"—a sign of urban development in this area. Saint Jean Church,
rebuilt in 1326, was demolished in 1800, with the exception of its com-
munion chapel, which was annexed to the Hotel de Ville,* where, as
the Saint Jean Room, it long served as a meeting place for various
groups until it was torn down in 1837.
We know that it was in the proximity of Saint Paul and Saint
Gervais that the Templars had their first establishments in Paris before
- In 1152 the count of Beaumont donated "to God and the broth-
ers of Solomon an oven and a house, which had belonged to Frogier
l'Asnier." This house gave its name to the street that today bears the
erroneous name Geffroy l'Asnier. An act of 1175 indicates that the
Templars then owned fairly large properties in the censive district of
Saint Eloi, which has since become Saint Paul Parish. For a long time
this quarter served as the Templars' principal establishment until the
definitive Templar church was consecrated in 1217.
Until 1217, then, the commandery's seat was in the Barres area, the
site mentioned in the 1152 donation charter for the house of Frogier
l'Asnier (domum Frogerii Asinarii ante barras sitam),^39 which, to be
more specific, sat by the south chevet of Saint Gervais. On a 1618 map,
* [Hotel de Ville refers to City Hall. —Trans.]