The church that served as a safety-deposit bank

Ever wondered why some churches are round? This one was built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. They wanted a structure that mirrored the Templum Domini in Jerusalem. This meant a circular nave 55 feet in diameter, featuring a circle of the earliest known surviving free-standing Purbeck Marble columns. It is a unique shape for a church, based on the architectural model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock.

Was it just a place of prayer? During the reign of King John, this building served as the royal treasury. The order functioned as proto-international bankers and the building served as an early safety-deposit bank, sometimes in defiance of the Crown's attempts to seize the funds of nobles who had entrusted their wealth there. The quasi-supra-national independent network and great wealth of the order throughout Europe is considered by most commentators to have been the primary cause of its eventual downfall. It also hosted the negotiations in January 1215 between King John and the barons that led to the signing of the Magna Carta.

After the Knights Templar were destroyed and abolished in 1307, the building was taken by King Edward II as a Crown possession. It was later given to the Knights Hospitaller, who leased the Temple to two colleges of lawyers. That is how it became the home of the Inner and Middle Temples. Today, you can still see the 13th- and 14th-century stone effigies and the massive chancel built for King Henry III. The church was heavily damaged by German bombing during World War II and has since been greatly restored and rebuilt.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons