Templars “Seize” the Old Fortress in Kamyanets-Podilsky

Last Wednesday, following a heated debate, Kamyanets-Podilsky city councillors voted unanimously to “surrender” the Old Fortress’s Day Tower and New Western Tower — architectural monuments of the 12th-14th centuries — to the Templars. “The Knights Templars, who have a diplomatic mission called “Magistrate of the Temple,” are registered in the city. Their organization requested the city council to lease out the two towers to the organization “The Great Hall of the Knights of the Round Table” for a period of five years,” Valery Klymenko, chief of the Department of Organization and Supervision at city hall, told The Day. He said the Day and New Western Towers are in pitiful condition, butthe local budget cannot allot UAH 500,000 for restoration. According to the Templars’ mission head Mr. Yablonsky, the cost of restoration work could reach as high as ten million dollars. The Knights Templars, whose movement was hitherto unknown in Kamyanets-Podilsky, were members of a Catholic military religious order founded in Jerusalem by French Crusaders around 1118-1119 to defend the Holy Sepulcher. In the late 13th century most of these knights moved to France. Although the order was disbanded in 1312, the Templars continued to lead a trouble-free existence. The names of the order’s current activists whom Mr. Yablonsky named made an indelible impression on the councilors of this ancient city, for they are the powers that be.