Jerez de los Caballeros Templar Festival

Jerez de los Caballeros reached an age of splendour under the Knights Templar (caballeros being the Spanish term for “knights”), in the mid-thirteenth century, when Alfonso IX of León entrusted these monastic knight warriors to take the town from the Arabs and with its later custody.

To recall this past, every July, Jerez de los Caballeros celebrates its Templar Festival, organising parades, theatre performances, the “three culture market”, medieval concerts, conferences, guided tours of the historic town centre, gastronomic routes, Templar dinners and children's activities, such as games, puppet shows and workshops.

These events are held around the former Templar fortress, whose Keep, known as the Bloody Tower, was where the last Templar knights opposing the dissolution of the Order decreed by Ferdinand IV in 1312 were killed by having their throats slit.

During the festival visitors will run into knights, beggars, falconers, clergy, merchants, artisans, musicians, dancers, acrobats, rogues and other medieval characters.

Immersed in this monumental site, for a few days turned back into a medieval village, locals and visitors alike are invited to dress up in period costume, stroll through streets and squares, enjoy the local gastronomy, take part in history seminars and workshops, interact with medieval characters in guided tours, discover monument legends…

*(Gallery images by courtesy of Jerez de los Caballeros City Council).