The Remains of Arnau de Torroja, 9th Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Discovered in Verona

Abstract

The members of the Torroja family were extremely important as advisers on political and military strategy to the counts of Barcelona (monarchs of the Crown of Aragon) Arnaldo was elected Grand Master of the Knights Templar (1181–1184). On 30 September 1184, the Templar Master passed away in the city of Veneto; Arnaldo de Torroja was buried at the church of San Vitale in Verona. The church was destroyed when the river Adige flooded it in the 18th century, and it was closed down in 1760 as a result of the damage caused. Some years ago, behind a wall, a sarcophagus was discovered on which was carved the typical Templar cross (Cross patty) and, in 2016, it was opened by a team of Italian scientists. The skeletal remains corresponded to the age Arnaldo. Thanks to the book that I recently published “Armorial de los Obispos de Barcelona, siglos XII–XXI”, it has been realized that the sarcophagus of the brother of Arnaldo of Torroja, Guillermo is contained within the Family heraldry “Golden a castle of Gules”, they requested that the aforementioned bishop’s remains be analysed, in order to compare them with those of Arnaldo.

1. Introduction

The introduction of the Knights Templar into the shires of what is now Catalonia was further encouraged by the fact that Ramón Berenguer III (1096–1131) took his vows to enter the Order five days before his death, in July 1131.

The first castle that this Count of Barcelona donated to the Templars was that of Granyena, in 1130. The Count of Urgel granted the castle of Barberá to the Order in 1132, while other barons (including the Seneschal Guillem Ramón de Moncada, his brother Ot de Moncada, Arnau de Sant Martí and Gifré de Santa Coloma) made other donations, which were validated in 1133 by Ramón Berenguer IV (1113–1162).

In 1131, Alfonso I ‘the Warrior’ (1073–1134), King of Aragon, drafted a testament in which he bestowed all his possessions to the Temple. The Aragonese did not respect this will, but, in exchange, they granted several castles to the Temple, including those of Montso and Montgai, Xalanera, Barberá, Remolins and the castle of Corbins.

After these territories were recaptured in the 13th century, the Templars set up several encomiendas in the most important locations, including Tortosa, Lerida, Barcelona, Castelló de Ampurias, Valencia and the city of Mallorca. The same occurred in areas that were essentially agricultural, for instance Masdeu, Rosellón, Rourell, Camp de Tarragona, Barbens, Pla d’urgell and Aiguaviva, while, in the Gironés region, fortified castles were more common (such as those of Miravet, Montsó Gardeny and Selma), as well as smaller fortresses, like the ones at Barberá, Puig Reig, Granyena and Corbins.

Ramon Berenguer IV (1114–1162) pledged his court entourage to the Knights Templar. On 15 April 1134, at the command of Santa Magdalena de Palatio Salatan, (Palau-Solità, the first command on Catalan territories), at which he emerged as head templar commander the Count of Barcelona decided on the conditions to be established for the Knights Templar in Catalonia.

In Lateran on 22 March 1188, Pope Clement II confirmed the donations that had been made to the Knights Templar by the counts of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer IV and Alfons II.

The members of the Torroja family were extremely important as advisers on political and military strategy to the counts of Barcelona (monarchs of the Crown of Aragon) Ramón Berenguer IV, Alfonso I and Pedro ‘the Catholic’, and they took part in the Conquest of Tortosa and Lerida, among other exploits. See Figure 1.

2. Genealogy

According to Armand de Fluviá in his genealogical study (Fluvia 2018), Arnau de Torroja was one of the children of Bernard Ecard de Torroja and his wife Valença, and he was brother to the successor Ramón I de Torroja, de Berenguer, as well as to Guillermo (Archdeacon of Urgel, Bishop of Barcelona and Archbishop of Tarragona), and to Ponç. He was also the brother of Pedro (though some believe him to have been his uncle), Archbishop of Zaragoza, and Saurina, wife of the dignitary Guerau de Jorba. His grandparents were Ecard Miró and Maiença, and his great grandfather was Miró, the founder of the dynasty or lineage and lord of the castle of Solsona, which we know came into his possession in the year 990.

Initially, this family’s last name was Miró, though, in 1191, we find that it has been changed to the toponym Torroja. In 1091, for the next donation that the Count of Urgel made to Santa Maria de Solsona from the church of San Salvador in the castle of Gerp, he signed his name as “Echardus de Turre Roya”, or Ecard de Torroja. This is the first time a lord of Solsona appears in the documentation with this surname attributed to him.

One of the brothers of Arnau (or Arnaldo) was Guillermo de Torroja (1144–1171), Bishop of Barcelona and (1171–1174) Archbishop of Tarragona, who gave great support to the individual who concerns us here.

This bishop governed the diocese of Barcelona from 1144 to 1171. His term of office was a particularly unsettled one given that it took place during the time when the expansion of the county of Barcelona was at its height, through the political and military actions of Count Ramón Berenguer IV (1131–1162), who with his campaigns seems to have completed the Reconquest of “Catalunya Nova”.

One of the foundations that came to write a glorious history of the religion, art, culture and colonisation of the lands conquered from the Saracens derived from the donation that established the Cistercian Order in his kingdom. For that purpose, in 1150–1151, the bishop ceded to Abbot Sanç de Fontfreda the lands known as “hortum populeti”. The work was completed with the arrival of the first monks in 1151–1182.

In the year 1150, records exist of the dedication of the church of San Juan de Ripoll, in 1158 that of the Arutense monastery in the diocese of Elna, and in 1163 that of Santa María de Solsona in the diocese of Urgell. The bishop was involved in the initial founding of the Monastery of Santes Creus, of the Cistercian Order, before it was moved to a spot beside the river Gaya (Villanueva 1976), and he ceded Ascó to the church of Tortosa.

It is documented that, on 18 November 1167, the bishop enshrined the altar of the Holy Sepulchre in the Cathedral, in addition to those of the saints John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter the Apostle, Nicholas, Stephen and Sylvester. During the bishop’s stewardship, he devoted great efforts to conserving and augmenting ecclesiastical properties (to that end, he instituted a census at the time of main festivals of the liturgical year), and also to taking care of the poor and the sick, which led him to donate an allodium to fund the construction of several hospitals in the city of Barcelona—those of Marcus, “dels Masells” (or Santa Margarita) and Sant Llatcer.

Furthermore, he took part in the Reconquest of “Catalunya Nova”, lending his support to Count Ramón Berenguer IV (1131–1162) at the siege of Tortosa (1148), and he granted 50 pounds in silver to the Count, for which the latter ceded him the village of Viladecans with a windmill (Aymerich 1760).

Queen Petronila of Aragon (1135–1163) appointed the bishop as the executor of her will, as she was about to give birth; the baby would become the future King Alfonso II (1162–1195).

Count Ramón Berenguer IV had the support of the papacy; the bishop always maintained his allegiance to Pope Alexander III (1159–1181) during the conflict of the schism, which led to the election of the Antipope Victor IV (1159–1164). As proof of his esteem, the aforementioned Pope Alexander III wrote to him on 27 May 1169, validating for him his possessions and the territory of the diocese, duly stating the boundaries and including the islands of Mallorca and Menorca within same.

The prelate acted as a witness to the alliance that was signed in Agreda between Fernando II of Leon (1157–1188) and Alfonso of Aragon (1162–1196), son of the last Count-Sovereign of Barcelona, Ramón Berenguer IV. He was also a witness to the signing of the Concord, on 3 November 1168, between Alfonso II of Aragon (1162–1195) and Lope (or Lobo), the Moorish king of Valencia, for which the Count paid 25,000 morabatins.

Finally, during the episcopacy of Guillermo de Torroja, on 26 March 1157, Pope Adrian VI (1154–1159) wrote to Count Ramón Berenguer IV to insist upon and demand compliance with the promises made to the Church by his predecessors, and specifically to Pope Anastasius (1153–1154), on 25 March 1154. This is how the boundaries of the archdiocese of Tarragona were defined, and 11 suffragan churches were placed expressly under the Archbishop’s Metropolitan jurisdiction; at the same time, he invited the Bishop of Barcelona, Guillermo de Torroja to return certain churches to his Metropolitan jurisdiction, properties which had been unjustly occupied by the former1 (Villanueva 1976).

After the violent death of Hugo de Cervelló, Archbishop of Tarragona, in 1171, our Bishop was chosen as his successor. See Figure 2.

Guillermo de Torroja’s coat-of-arms of can be found in his tomb at Tarragona Cathedral (carved at a later date, given that in those days bishops did not possess coats-of-arms), and is described as follows (Figure 3):

It is a family coat-of-arms that includes devices. It does not feature any kind of crest to mark its ecclesiastical dignity. It was painted subsequently, as noted by GramuntOne important figure in this lineage was Ramón II de Toroja, who married Gaiá de Cervera, the youngest daughter of Poncio, Viscount of Bas and Almodis, sister to Ramón Berenguer IV. The Count of Barcelona was unable to repay the money he owed the Genovese for the conquest of Tortosa. However, Ramón II helped to pay it.

Together with his wife, he also assisted the Knights Templar in the form of several donations.

Another ecclesiastical brother, Pedro de Torroja, was Bishop of Zaragoza from 1152 to 1184. He belonged to the Torroja family, which possessed the Lordship of Solsona, and he was the Abbot of Vilabertrán before he was appointed bishop, thanks to help from his relative Guillem de Torroja, Bishop of Barcelona and subsequently Archbishop of Tarragona (and therefore Pedro’s superior). His works and deeds as bishop include: determining the boundaries between the diocese and the diocese of Segorbe-Albarracín, while Pope Adrian IV validated the old boundaries from the time of Wamba. He began work on the Romanesque cathedral of La Seo de Zaragoza. He succeeded in persuading Pope Alexander III to establish the regular nature of the canons of La Seo de Zaragoza. He also brought the head of St Valerius to Zaragoza62 (Llorens 1986, p. 191).

As Ramón III de Torroja, son and heir of Ramon II, predeceased him, Hugo de Torroja was declared his heir; he also replaced his uncle Ponç de Cervera in the administration of the Vizcountcy of Bas. He was a counsellor to Pedro I ‘the Catholic’, and, in 1208, by order of the king, he occupied (together with the grand Seneschal Guillermo de Moncada) the castle of Monsoriu, Ager and other possessions of the Viscount Guerau de Cabrera after the latter attempted to take ownership of the shire of Urgel.

Another of his sisters, Agnes de Torroja, married the Viscount of Cardona, Ramón Folch VIII (1217), but she was the last in line of the Torroja dynasty, and the lordship of the castle subsequently changed ownership (Figure 4).

The Cardona family came to power in Solsona, and the thistle came to replace the chequy on the coat-of-arms of the counts of Urgel.

The last of Arnau’s brothers, Berenguer de Torroja + 1160, a dignitary in the court of Ramón Berenguer IV, helped the latter in his conquest of Tortosa and Lleida. He witnessed several donations to the Knights Templar.

3. Arnau de Torroja (Solsona 1122–Verona 1184)

Arnau de Torroja, a Templar friar from 1162 to 1166, was the Grand Master of Barcelona and Provence when he was chosen to head the Order in early 1180, succeeding Eudes de Saint-Amand (1171–1079), who died in captivity in Damascus.

After his military training, he is likely to have come into contact with the cream of society and royalty (the Counts of Barcelona and the Royal Court of Aragon). Doubtless he was in the court of Ramón Berenguer IV, as is suggested by his presence at the conquest of Tortosa. The goods and assets that he gained from this conquest were used to make donations to the Templars. Arnau de Torroja also took part in the conquest of Lerida.

He was the first benefactor of Poblet. In order to strengthen his settlement in the region, Ramón Berenguer IV granted the orchards of Poblet to Abbot Sanz de Fontfreda. Arnau granted some land to the monks in the area of Fontanet; the Saracen Farfón had been in Lerida. He had a great friendship with the Templars; he had probably met them at the conquest of Tortosa and Lerida, though the Torroja family also had a strong friendship with the Templars.

He entered the monastery of Gardeny in December 1162, and, as was customary for members of the Catalan nobility entering this religion, he donated part of his wealth. These assets were situated in three areas: Tortosa in Torre Grayera, the territories of the city of Lerida, and Barbens. Arnau was the provincial Templar Master, the successor to Hug Gaufred, who was head of the district from 1163 to 1166. Other previous Masters included Pedro Rovira (1143–1158) and Hugo Barceló (1159–1162). Fra Arnau differed from the others in that he came from a noble lineage that was politically important at that time, as were Arnau Claramunt (1196–1209), Ramón de Gurb (1200–1201), Guillermo de Montrodon (1214–1218), Guillermo de Cardona (1244–1252), Pedro de Montcada (1279–1282) and Berenguer de Cardona (1291–1307).

He was favoured by the Royal house thanks to his contributions to the Reconquest and the colonisation of new lands that enlarged the King’s domain. At the same time, he gained new privileges for the Temple. Ramón Berenguer IV rewarded the Order with a 12th part of all the rights, censuses and usages that he received personally, in addition to several castles. Likewise, he was responsible for the validation of the Privileges from the Holy See. The central monastery in Jerusalem received several donations that were made to the Order, both in the East and in the West.

Sometimes, when there was a financial surplus, the Order helped certain individuals, especially the noblemen and monarchs who had mortgaged their castles or goods, which the Order retained when they could not repay the sums lent. The members of the Knights Templar did not render allegiance to the county ordinary, the bishop of the diocese, but to the Grand Master. Their agricultural land was exempt from tithing, thanks to dispensations from the Holy See. When Arnau visited the commands, this was duly noted in the documents, whether it was to receive donations or payments by members of the Order.

The journeys he made were to visit the command or the King, in his function as Royal counsellor, accompanied by the nobles and benefactors of the Order in the event that any concession of lands, castles or rights were to take place. Also noted in the documents was the entry of new members into the Order, especially when they were individuals with a certain social importance, such as noblemen or their sons, or when the future devotees made financial contributions to the Order.

He was responsible for the creation of new commands and for appointing new commanders. These included the command at Corbins (1166–1181) and Luna (1167) on the peninsular side of the Catalan-Provençal province; Barbens (1168); Huesca (1171), Barberá (1173) and Navarra (1179), Ascó and Grañena (1181) and Zaida (1182). The Knights Templar held an annual celebration of chapters, at which new stewards and commanders were appointed or dismissed. Arnau was a great beneficiary of the legacy of his brother of Torroja, and the executor of another.

By accepting the provincial status of the district of Provence and certain parts of Hispania, Arnau de Torroja took on the responsibilities of the material and spiritual governance of the Order.

Arnau embarked on his third journey to Palestine following the death of the Grand Master of the Order, Eudes de Saint-Amand (1171–1179). He moved to Jerusalem, having been called by his religious brothers to fight against the great Kurdish warlord Saladin, who, in a very short time, after 1171, occupied Egypt and abolished the Fatimite caliphate. Then, in 1174, Saladin took control of Syria and also much of Mesopotamia. It was in this context that Arnau was elected Grand Master of the Knights Templar (1181–1184). He was the 9th head of the Knights Templar (Grand Magister of Temple order). He was no doubt elected in summer 1181 owing to his renown as a good administrator and warrior against the Saracens, not to mention the fact that he was related to the King of the Crown of Aragon. The news produced great satisfaction in the territories of the Crown of Aragon and in the Royal Court3 (Sans i Trave 2006).

On 30 September 1184, the Templar Master passed away in the city of Veneto, and he was buried at the house that belonged to the Order there. It is said that he was to have been interred at San Vitale, but the details are not very clear, given that at the time of the burial, there was a certain amount of dissent between the Order and the canons, and so it is not very likely. Arnau de Torroja was buried at the church of San Vitale in Verona, presumably in a sarcophagus, as was customary for Grand Masters of the Order. The church, which had belonged to the Knights of Malta ever since the dissolution of the Temple, was destroyed when the river Adige flooded it in the 18th century, and it was closed down in 1760 as a result of the damage caused. The objects were redistributed to nearby churches, including San Fermo Maggiore.

Some years ago, behind a wall, a sarcophagus was discovered on which was carved the typical Templar cross (Cross patty) and, in 2016, it was opened by a team of Italian scientists. The skeletal remains corresponded to the age at which Arnau de Torroja was when he died, and the remains of a silk shroud were also found, which indicated that it was a distinguished individual. The radiocarbon dating laboratory at the University of Salento (CEDAD) dated the remains to between 1020 and 1220, a timescale consistent with the life of Arnau de Torroja (1120–1184).

As no first-degree relatives exist with whom the remains can be compared, individualised genetic identification is impossible. First, his DNA was analysed, with the aim of analysing the genome of the bones presumed to be those of Arnau de Torroja. Later on, when the Verona scientists Giampiero Bagni and Professor Fachini learned about the publication of my book Armorial de los Obispos de Barcelona (Darna 2016), which includes a biography of Arnau’s brother Guillermo de Torroja, who was buried in Tarragona, they requested that the aforementioned bishop’s remains be analysed, in order to compare them with those of Arnau. We believe that a comparison of the two genomes will serve to identify the remains, given that the brothers will share 50% of their genetic information. In order to carry this out, we needed the root of one of Guillem de Torroja’s teeth. If they were found to match, the remains of Arnau de Torroja would be reinterred at San Fermo Maggiore with all due honours.

Since then, following a decision by the Chapter of Tarragona Cathedral and the Archbishop Dr Jaume Pujol Balcells, the remains of said archbishop buried in the old chapel of Santa Barbara have been exhumed. Professor Carlos Lalueza Fox, a biologist from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, extracted two teeth and has sent them to Harvard University (USA). We are now awaiting their findings.

The study of heraldry in genealogical research is very important. In our case, the heraldry that we find in the tomb of the Cathedral of Tarragona leads us to certify that it was that of the family Torroja and a gold shield with a tower of Gules belonged to the two brothers Arnau de Torroja (1120–1184) and Guillermo de Torroja (1144–1171). His parents, with the construction and possession of the castle in the place of Torroja, had adopted this talking shield.

The genealogy confirms the fact that Arnau and Guillem were brothers. All this leads us to the conclusion that, if there is a coincidence in the DNA, the remains found in the Templar sepulchre of Verona would be those of the Grand Master. If they were not coincidental, we have the trustworthy studies that they were brothers and this probably would have been lost. The remainders Grand Master in the floods that both affected the Church of San Vitale in Verona. This has been a very important discovery for mediaeval history, given that there was no knowledge of other remains or tombs of any Grand Master of the Knights Templar, probably because they had all been buried in Jerusalem, where everything was subsequently destroyed.

The cross of the temple that is sculpted in the tomb patty and ficheed or processional of the suppose Grand Master of the Order of the Temple Arnau de Torroja buried in Verona is patty and fiched.

Since the discovery of the tomb of the Order of the Temple in Verona, there has been an interest to identify this cross as that of a Great Dignitary; however, it is no more than a processional cross (Figure 5).

There are those who affirm that this patty cross, sign of many Christian religious institutions, is multi-secular, with the use of the Latin or Greek cross and patty is the typical cross of the temple. The one that is extended towards the outside is a papal insignia, granted by Eugenio III (1145 to 1153).

Some authors affirm4 that this is a particular typology of the cross patent of Latin form, which is unique. It refers to the cross “Fiched” that shows the entire lower branch gradient in the tip. Another type is with rectangular peduncle always under the lower arm, a stylized figuration of the antler cross, a processional insignia associated with the prelates.

As for the meaning of such ardiglione (tongue), it could be a military concession. To deepen our study, due the absence of other sarcophagi of Great Masters of the Order of the Temple—who were initially buried in Jerusalem, or died in captivity—it is important to analyze their stamps.

5. Cross Patty and Fiched

The crosses, chiseled or sculpted in stone, erected by the Templars (city Cross, commanding, crossroads, domain used as a property terminal, etc.) stylize the cross more or less patté to the often rounded ends and sometimes enclosed in a Circle (Gisors, Plégues, etc.) or whose branches exceed a full circle (the Hoguette, cross-column of Salehy, etc.). The presentation of the cross on a shaft is the specific feature of these crosses at the Visigothic times. This cross is used for example in the ensigns of Charlemagne or the Byzantine emperors on their coins. The processional cross finished on the pole was still the usual way to represent the Christian symbol.

Throughout almost forty years of heraldic research, I have found many examples of crosses fiched or processional crosses that have nothing to do with the Order of the Temple. In the heraldry of the crown of Aragon, this type of cross is quite common. PedroIV, in texts of 1344, 1348, and 1373, considers the cross with Spike, without astil, like the emblem proper of the old kings of Aragon, previous to the Dinastia Barcelona5 (Menendez Pidal 2014). The old chronicles tell us that, during a battle course against the Muslims in which Íñigo Arista took part, a silver cross appeared in the sky. This legend took rootand happened to symbolize the spirit of resistance in the mountainous places against the Islamic occupation. Iñigo de Arista is considered the first king of Pamplona (the denomination of Navarre did not then exist). In the mid-ninth century, the reason why this emblem appears in the Coat of Aragon is in memory of the close connection of the kingdom of Pamplona with the lands that constituted the then County of Aragon, an entity documented with that name since the first third of the ninth century, and which encompassed the surroundings of the Aragón and Aragón Subordán rivers (lands of Somport and Hecho, and later those of Ansó and the Canal de Berdún).

At the beginning of the 11th century, the lands of the County of Aragón were ruled by Sancho Garcés III of Pamplona, also called Sancho el Mayor. In 1035, on the death of this monarch and by the provisions of his testament, Aragon separated from Pamplona. This date supposes the official birth of the kingdom of Aragon whose first king was Ramiro I. Nowadays, we tend to call this emblem simply “Cruz de Arista” or “Aragón Antiguo”.

In the case of the coat of arms of Bishop Francisco Clemente Sapera (1410–1415) (Figure 6), a native of Zaragoza, canon of Barcelona in 1391, cubiculario of Pope Luna and his ambassador; archdeacon of the Penedés in 1402 bishop of Mallorca in 1403, of Tarazona in 1405 and later, in 1406, bishop of Tortosa: “From gules a gold chevron, above two crosses patty and fiched of silver and below a pear of gold”.

In the heraldic of the Crown of Aragon, it is quite common: this type of crossing is the coat of arms of Bishop Francisco Clemente Sapera (1410–1415) with the appointment of Bishop-Administrator and Patriarch of Jerusalem; he took possession again on January 13th of the same year. His shield is found in several places of the cathedral, on the walls of the chapel of the Immaculate, in keys of the vault of the temple (Figure 7) and in the cloister, and at the door of Santa Eulalia. The blazon is represented by the following figures and pieces: “Of regulates a golden Chevron, above two pointed crosses (set) of silver and down a golden pear”.

We find also drawn, the arms of this bishop in a manuscript of the diocesan archive of Barcelona in the Fund of communium (Figure 8).

The Communium, corresponding to the years 1410–1415 of the diocesan archive of Barcelona, is drawn by the same scribe, that of the coats of arms of the bishops Armengol and Blanes. In the archive of the chapter of the Cathedral of Vic, there is also a seal that Segarra describes as well: “Inside a ring, the bishop’s coat with two crosses and a pear, is read: SIGILLUM FRANCISCI clementis PATRIARCHE IERO [SALEM]...”

Imprinted on the back of letters addressed to the Cabildo of Vic, about damages caused by the sub-collectors of the rights of the Apostolic Chamber, and dated in Barcelona on 10 July 1423, these arms coincide with that of his surname and we could classify them as “Talking Emblems”, since, when called “Sapera,” his shield bears a pear.

We can see that the cross is patty and fiched on spike at the bottom, as it is in one of the beams, of the 13th century, which had been in the Bishop’s Palace (Figure 9), which is now preserved in the Diocesan museum.

In addition, the cross, as can be seen in a pillar of the crypt of Santa Eulalia, 14th century.