In 1095 Pope Urban II called on Europe's knights to take Jerusalem. Four years later, in July 1099, the armies of the First Crusade captured the city after a bloody siege and founded the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. For almost two centuries European lords, monks and merchants ruled parts of the Holy Land.
The kingdom depended on military orders: the Knights Templar, named after their headquarters on the Temple Mount, and the Knights Hospitaller, who began by caring for sick pilgrims. They built and defended the great castles and became powerful international organisations.
The turning point came in 1187, when Saladin defeated the Crusader army at the Horns of Hattin, above the Sea of Galilee, and soon took Jerusalem. The Third Crusade, with Richard the Lionheart, recovered much of the coast, and Acre became the capital of the kingdom. It remained so until the Mamluks conquered it in 1291, ending the Crusader presence.
Crusader history is everywhere in Israel. In Acre you walk through the vaulted Knights' Halls and the Templar Tunnel. At Caesarea you can see the moat and walls built by King Louis IX of France in 1251. Belvoir castle looks down over the Jordan Valley, Montfort hides in a green valley of the Western Galilee, and in Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre largely owes its present shape to the Crusaders.
Our Acre and Caesarea tours bring these stories to life on site.
Keep reading
- HistoryThe Knights' Halls of Acre: A Crusader City Under the CityGothic halls buried under an Ottoman citadel, a secret Templar tunnel and a UNESCO old city by the sea.
- HistoryA Timeline of the Holy Land: From Canaan to Modern IsraelEvery era in one page - the empires, kingdoms and peoples whose layers you see on every tour.
- HistoryUNESCO World Heritage Sites in Israel: The Complete ListMasada, Acre, the White City, the Bahai Gardens and the lesser-known sites worth a detour.