- Département
- Marne
- Site
- Vesle valley near Châlons-en-Champagne, outside the wine-growing zones
- Inhabitants
- 304 (2022)
- Source
- Wikipedia, eigene Zusammenfassung
Saint-Hilaire-au-Temple is a small village on the Vesle near Châlons-en-Champagne, part of La Neuville-au-Temple since 2025. It lies away from the vineyard slopes and is known mainly for arable farming and its Templar history.
Location
Saint-Hilaire-au-Temple lies in the Marne département, about eleven kilometres north-north-east of Châlons-en-Champagne and roughly 34 kilometres south-east of Reims. The village sits in the Vesle valley at a little over 115 metres above sea level. The terrain is flat. The only notable rise is the isolated Mont Gavonne in the far south-east, at 151 metres. Just north of the A4 motorway, the village has its own station on the Châlons–Reims line.
Since 1 January 2025, Saint-Hilaire-au-Temple has no longer been an independent commune. Together with Dampierre-au-Temple, it forms the commune nouvelle of La Neuville-au-Temple. In 2022 the village had 304 inhabitants.
Not a wine village in the strict sense
If you are hoping for rows of vines, you will be disappointed. Saint-Hilaire-au-Temple is neither grand cru nor premier cru. Well over 91 per cent of the commune's land is arable, around 6 per cent is built up and around 3 per cent is woodland, mostly along the Vesle. For wine lovers, then, this is above all a stop on the plain east of Reims, not a destination for winemaker visits. The wine villages of Champagne are within reasonable driving distance from here.
For 1971 to 2000 the source gives an average annual temperature of 10.3 °C and average rainfall of 695 millimetres.
Name and history
The name tells you more than any sight could. Saint-Hilaire refers to Hilary of Poitiers. The addition “au-Temple” recalls the Knights Templar. In the 12th and 13th centuries the lordship belonged to the commandery of La Neuville, regarded as the most important house of the Templars and Hospitallers in Champagne. Today all that remains of it are the names of the three surrounding villages: Dampierre-au-Temple, Saint-Étienne-au-Temple and Saint-Hilaire-au-Temple.
During the French Revolution the village was briefly called Veslecourt. On 19 October 2004, the first section of track for the TGV Est line was laid here.
Landscape and climate
The Vesle flows through the commune from south to north and joins the Aisne after 139 kilometres. The climate is oceanic. For 1971 to 2000 the source gives an average annual temperature of 10.3 °C and average rainfall of 695 millimetres. The nearby weather station at Mourmelon-le-Grand recorded a heat record of 41.3 °C on 25 July 2019. The region's winemakers know summers like that too.
Sights and curiosities
- The church of Saint-Hilaire, the village's listed monument
- The station, which appears in the film “L'Armée des ombres” (1969) with Lino Ventura
- The Vesle and its riverside woodland
The sculptor and medallist Georges Guiraud died in the village in 1989. If you are looking for traces of the Templars in Champagne, Saint-Hilaire-au-Temple offers a quiet point of connection, best combined with a visit to Châlons-en-Champagne.
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