Order of Aubrac

The Order of Aubrac was a military order and hospital chartered in the twelfth century. It operated in the Rouergue to protect and care for pilgrims on the Way of Saint James and the Via Francigena.

The headquarters of the order was the monastery and hospital called the Dômerie d'Aubrac in the town of Aubrac in the Diocese of Rodez. According to later tradition, it was founded in 1031 by Adalard, viscount of Flanders, who was beset by brigands while passing through the County of Rouergue on his way to the shrine of Saint James in Compostela. If this later story is accurate, then the Order of Aubrac is a unique example in the eleventh century of a military order in the style of the later Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller.