A Historic Day in the Fortress-City of San Juan de Acre
733 years ago, on this day in the year 1291, the fortress city of Saint John of Acre, the last seat of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, fell into the hands of the army of the Mamluk sultanate, a Muslim domain in the Nile Valley that in At that time it was expanding throughout the Middle East region. The siege of the city by the Mamluk army began on April 6, and after forty days of intense battle, they managed to break the city’s defenses.
Consequences of the Loss of San Juan de Acre
The loss of San Juan de Acre and the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, won a century earlier, had a significant impact on the religious orders of the time. The Order of the Temple, rooted in France and Catalonia, acquired an extension of land in the Millars river valley, between Albocàsser, L’Alcora and Benicàssim, which had been owned by the Catalan noble and military family of Anglesola since the beginning of the conquest of the Valencian Country (1229-1232). According to the documentation of the time, the Templars paid for this large area of land the figure of 500,000 Morabetinos, which was equivalent to the value of 500 buildings in Barcelona.
The Purpose of the Templars
The purpose of the Templars was to unite the two large estates that they had gained during the Catalan conquest of the lower Ebro valley and during the first period of the Valencian conquest. Its ultimate goal was to create an independent Templar state, with its capital in Culla, intended to be the launching pad for the military enterprises that had to restore the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. However, the Barcelona Chancellery moved to destroy this project when it learned of its existence.
