List of Knights Hospitaller sites

The Knights Hospitaller operated a wide network of properties in the Middle Ages from their successive seats in Jerusalem, Acre, Cyprus, Rhodes and eventually Malta. In the early 14th century, they received many properties and assets previously in the hands of the Knights Templar.

Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, 14th century
Grandmaster's Palace (Valletta), 16th-18th centuries

Middle East

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Order properties in the Middle East and Cyprus
 
Hospitaller commandery of Saint-Jean-d'Acre, 12th-13th centuries
 
Krak des Chevaliers
 
Margat

Kingdom of Jerusalem

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This includes both the Kingdom of Jerusalem and its Vassal entities.

County of Tripoli

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  • The Krak des Chevaliers (Hisn al-Akrad), the Hospitallers' major fortress in the Levant, 1142–1271
  • Margat (Marqab) on the Syrian coast south of Latakia, the Knights' other major redoubt, 1186–1285
  • Coliath or La Colée (Qalaat al-Qlaiaat), near the coast north of Tripoli
  • Gibelacar (Hisn Ibn Akkar) in Northern Lebanon, 1170–1203
  • Chastel Rouge (Qal’at Yahmur) on the coast just north of the Lebanese-Syrian border, ca. 1177–1289
  • Arab al-Mulk (Belda or Beaude, in Arabic also Balda al-Milk or Beldeh) near Margat, 1160s–1271
  • Qurfays (Corveis) also near Margat, until 1271

Cilicia

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Aegean Sea Region

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The Eastern Mediterranean ca. 1450, with Hospitaller territories in blue

Western Europe

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Hospitaller commandries in Europe, ca. 1300
 
Central European commandries, ca. 1300
 
Swiss commandries

References to countries below are using 21st-century borders.

France

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Italy

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Iberian Peninsula

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Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland

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Great Britain and Ireland

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Scotland

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England

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Ireland[8]

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  • Kilmainham Priory & Commandery, Dublin - the Order's former seat in Ireland was demolished and sited within the Royal Hospital Kilmainham campus
  • Kilmainhamwood Preceptory, Co. Meath (named after the Priory)
  • Kilmainhambeg Preceptory, Co. Meath (named after the Priory)
  • Hospital Church in "Any" Hospital, County Limerick
  • Church of St. John the Baptist, Johnstown, Co. Kildare
  • Preceptories of Kilbegs, Kilheel and Tully, Co. Kildare
  • Preceptory of Mourne, Co. Cork
  • Preceptory of Kinelekin, Co. Galway
  • Preceptory of Kilbarry, Co. Waterford
  • Preceptory of St. John the Baptist in the Ards (founded by Hugh de Lacy)
  • Preceptory of St. John & St. Brigid, Wexford (founded by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke)
  • Preceptory of Ballyheuk, Co. Wexford
  • Johnstown, also known as Coorthafooka, Co. Kilkenny
  • former Frankhouses and Liber Hospes in many towns in Ireland e.g. Mullingar and Fore, Co. Westmeath (sites not determined)

N.B. Other properties formerly of the Knights Templar came into the possession of the Knights Hospitaller after 1310.

Tripoli and Malta

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After the Ottoman conquest of Rhodes in 1522, the Knights made stops in Candia, Messina, Bacoli near Naples, and Civitavecchia. Pope Adrian VI provisionally relocated the Order in Viterbo, where they stayed from 1523 to 1527. Then at the invitation of Charles III, Duke of Savoy, they moved to Nice and nearby Villefranche. On 24 July 1530 in Bologna, Emperor Charles V granted them a new permanent base.[7][9][10]

Other locations

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Since 1798

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Palazzo Malta courtyard, Rome
 
Magistral villa, Rome

Following the expulsion of the Order from Malta by Napoleon in 1798, the Order's remnants temporarily relocated in Messina until 1802, Catania until 1826, and Ferrara until 1834. Gotland was offered to the knights by Sweden in 1806, but they refused as they still hoped to reclaim sovereignty over Malta.[11] The Order then settled in its long-held properties in Rome, which were granted extraterritoriality in 1869. In that period it assumed its modern name of Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

In Protestant countries

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Memorial stone of the Order's original Hospital in Muristan, Jerusalem, erected in 1972 by the British Order of Saint John

The Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg) (Johanniter) had become autonomous in 1538, and was dissolved in 1811. Since restoration in 1852 it has had its seat in Berlin until World War II, then Bad Pyrmont until 1952, Rolandseck (Haus Sölling [de]) until 1962, Bonn until 2001, Berlin-Lichterfelde until 2004, and since 2004 Potsdam as formal seat even though the main office remains in Lichterfelde. Its activities include the Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe.

The British Order of Saint John, formed in 1831 and chartered in 1888, manages several facilities in Jerusalem under the Saint John Eye Hospital Group, as well as the international St John Ambulance network. Its London headquarters, at St John's Gate, Clerkenwell, hosts the Museum of the Order of St John.

The Order of Saint John in Sweden was founded in 1920 following the disruption of the Johanniter in Northern Europe during World War I. Its headquarters is hosted by the House of Nobility in Stockholm.

The Order of Saint John in the Netherlands was created in 1946 in a similar development following World War II. It is headquartered at 48 Lange Voorhout in The Hague.

Johanniter International, a partnership of the four Protestant Orders of St. John and their national charities, was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Brussels.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Enrico de Lazaro (5 August 2013). "Archaeologists Find Impressive Building of Hospitaller Knights in Israel". SCI News.
  2. ^ Dionysios Stathakopoulos (January 2006), "Discovering a Military Order of the Crusades: The Hospital of St. Sampson of Constantinople", Viator, 37: 255–273, doi:10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.3017487
  3. ^ "The Hospital of the Knights in Rhodes". Via Gallica.
  4. ^ Helen Nicholson (2001). The Knights Hospitaller. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 54–55.
  5. ^ Mark Cartwright (24 August 2018). "Knights Hospitaller". World History Encyclopedia.
  6. ^ "Corinth". The Byzantine Legacy.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Edgar Erskine Hume (1938), "Medical Work of the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem", Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine, 6 (5): 399–466, JSTOR 44438330
  8. ^ Falkiner, C.L. (1906/1907) The Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in Ireland. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature. Vol. 26 (1906/1907), pp. 275-317
  9. ^ "Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller". British Museum.
  10. ^ Mario Buhagiar (January 2000). "The Treasure of the Knight Hospitallers in 1530: Reflections and Art Historical Considerations" (PDF). Peregrinationes. I. Accademia Internazionale Melitense.
  11. ^ Stair Sainty, Guy (2000). "From the loss of Malta to the modern era". ChivalricOrders.org. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012.