Temple Church is one of the most fascinating stops for those visiting London. Its incredible stories, closely linked to the Order of the Knights Templar and the mysteries of the Holy Grail, attract thousands of visitors every year. It’s easy to get there: located in the Temple area, you’ll find it between Fleet Street and the Thames. The Temple District, now home to the most prestigious law firms, remembers in every place-name the past glory of the Order that from these places administered and managed all the affairs of the Order in England: Temple Bar, Temple Court, Temple Place. There is also a subway station, called Temple, on the Circle line (the oldest).
Two of the most important professional associations of barristers, that is, the lawyers who in the English legal system defend their clients at the Higher Courts, have their headquarters here, and for this reason they are called Inner Temple and Middle Temple. Both revolve around the Royal Courts of Justice, the Court of Justice. In the same area there is also the Outer Temple, a company of lawyers who work in civil courts.
Temple Church was built in the 12th century and dedicated to the Virgin Mary in 1183. The main part of the church (the ‘Rotunda’) follows the model of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the place where Jesus was buried after the Crucifixion.
The presbytery was built later, in 1240, as a burial place for King Henry III and his wife, which then did not happen, because in fact they were buried inside the Abbey of Westminster. the church and all the surrounding area was granted, in 1608, by King James I to the two aforementioned corporations of lawyers, the Inner and the Middle Temple, which since then and without interruption have been responsible for the maintenance and preservation of the Church.
In 1941, an incendiary bomb hit the church in full, seriously damaging it; what we admire today is a reconstruction.
