Programme

The 2026 theme: the Knights Templar

The 14th edition is dedicated to the Knights Templar, the monastic-military order founded in the early 12th century to protect pilgrims bound for the Holy Land. Brindisi, the end of the Via Appia and a port of embarkation for the East, was an essential hub for pilgrims and the religious-military orders: men, ships and supplies passed through here towards Jerusalem, and pilgrims awaiting embarkation were welcomed at the Domus peregrinorum, today’s Casa del Turista. The church of San Giovanni al Sepolcro remains the emblem of that transit of pilgrims and crusader soldiers to and from Jerusalem. The Templar presence in Brindisi is linked in particular to the Castello di Terra, where the 1310 trial took place, and to the church of Santa Maria del Casale, where the apostolic commission met to draw up the charges.

The re-enactments, animated visits, talks and games of the 14th edition will tell this chapter of the city’s history. The full historical insight, curated with the festival’s historians, will be published on this page.

Templari - Brindisi porta d'Oriente: theatre, games and medieval crafts between the Domus of the Knights of Jerusalem, the Casa del Turista and the Brindisi seafront. The festival’s recurring formats are described on the Events page.

A historical monologue for a wandering storyteller, motionless figures and candlelight, in a darkened archaeological site. The staging is freely inspired by the records of the 1310 papal inquiry into the Templars held in Brindisi: the audience follows the storyteller’s lantern among living tableaux and hears the voices of Giovanni da Nardò, a sergeant-brother, and Ugo de Samaya, a preceptor - the two men who broke the silence in Brindisi.

For families, the evening opens with a narrated prologue introducing children to the story of the monk-knights and their time.

In May 1310 the apostolic commission, meeting at the church of Santa Maria del Casale, drew up the charges against the Order of the Temple in the Kingdom of Sicily; the trial itself was held in the Castello di Terra of Brindisi, where the charges were put to Giovanni da Nardò and Ugo de Samaya. Although public notices invited anyone to defend the Order, no one came forward: the only voices were those of two men in chains.

The edition’s talks - curated with the festival’s historians - retrace the twilight of the Templars from the fall of Acre (1291) to the dissolution of the Order (1312), between the debts of Philip IV of France, the surprise arrests of 1307 and the judicial construction of the accusations.