In a recent post about the curly haired horses of Patagonia, I quoted a text from a Declaration Project submitted to the provincial legislature by representatives Facundo Manuel López, Norberto Moreno and Soraya Yauhar (see it here). The project stated that one of the possible origins of these horses were the Knights Templar ("let's not ignore the story that tells about the role played by the horses used by the Knights Templar in their long journey transporting the Holy Grail escaping from Europe where they were being persecuted, as mentioned in the company's website"). Yes! Such is the poor quality of our elected representatives. Wasting taxpayers' money on stupid declarations based on fantasy.
There are some sites online proclaiming that the Knights Templar settled in the San Matís Gulf after their properties were seized and the order's members arrested, tortured, and put to death by the French King, King Philip IV in 1307.
Of course this is not based on any factual evidence, just tenuous conjectures. (Some site promoting this fantasy: site A, site B, site C, site D, just to mention a few.
The "proof" is a site called "Fuerte Argentino" (Argentine Fort), a natural bluff overlooking the sea which is a supposed fort. The place is said to be an "ancient fort", after an entry in a map by Martin de Moussy, who prepared a book with maps of the Argentine Confederation in 1873. The map shows a spot on the coast of the Gulf of San Matís marked as "ancien fort" or "ancient fort" (See this map online, shown below).
In my opinion it not the meseta by the sea, as it appears to be further north, closer to the towns of Las Grutas and San Antonio Oeste.
de Moussy's map shows many ancient forts that were built to protect the border with the natives. The word "fortín" was used in the 1700 and 1800s as an outpost against the Indians. It had adobe huts, a fence made of posts and a few soldiers to man it. Not a castle.
There are many fortines on the map: Ft. anc. de la Encarnación (where "anc" means "anciene") and Ft. Villarino both on Choele Choel Island on the Rio Negro River. A "Fortin" on the Colorado River, and in a wide arch, from Tandil in Buenos Aires there is a line of Forts all the way to San Rafael in Mendoza (Ft. Tandil, Ft. de la Laguna Blanca, Ft. Salamanca, Ft. Esperanza, Ft. Rauch, etc.) and several Ft. projecté (projected forts). Below is a typical fortin in a photo taken in 1881.
But, how ancient is the fort on the coast of San Matias? Spanish naval officer Basilio Villarino navigated and rode along the coast of Patagonia in 1779 following royal orders to explore the region to select suitable spots for settlements intended to block any British intentions of settling the area (the British managed to do so, 54 years later, by occupying the Falkland / Malvinas Islands). Villarino wrote a diary and prepared maps. The final outcome of his voyage was the town of Carmen de Patagones, in Buenos Aires province, on the Negro River, and two failed settlements (Floridablanca in San Julián, Santa Cruz province, and San José in Chubut province).
The map Basilio Villarino prepared (source) shows the itinerary he took during an expedition between his camp (L) on the Rio Negro River, where Carmen de Patagones would later be founded in April 1779 and Port San Jose (A). He did not make it to San Jose. Villarino reached (H), a permanent briny watering spot, and passed by (Y) freshwater springs and sand dunes. Lack of food made him turn back when he was 13 leagues (62 km, 39 mi.) from San Jose. As you can see, he didn't mark any "fort" or "castle" on his map. So the ancient fortification did not exist in 1779. (See this interesting paper on this expedition).
Paz Soldan's map of 1886 (online) shows the spot as a "fortín" (fort). Since de Moussy mentioned it before the 1878-79 campaign against the Indians, it was probably a fort from Juan Manuel de Rosas' "Desert Campaign" of 1833. He was a rancher in Buenos Aires, and was tired of the natives rustling his cattle to Chile, so he prepared an army and engaged the Puelche, Ranquel, and Mapuche natives from Mendoza in the west, San Luís in the center and Buenos Aires in the east (the latter was his wing of the campaign) in a bloody war. Only Rosas' army division was successful. They pushed the natives beyond the Colorado, Negro, Neuquén and Limay Rivers, killed thousands of warriors, freed thousands of captives, and led to three decades of peace. He established forts along the Negro River, in Choele Choel,ewand what is now Cipolletti, but they were soon abandoned due to lack of funds. It is possible that the division of Rosas' army that advanced into Valcheta under the command of Leandro Ibañez and defeated chief Cayupán there, set up a fort along the road linking Carmen de Patagones and the Chubut River. Another fort was located west of Patagones, the "Fuerte Invencible" shown on Paz Soldan's map.
By the time General Julio Argentino Roca advanced into the Patagonia and occupied it, pacifying the natives (1879-1885) these forts had vanished. The map by Manuel Olascoaga who was later the first governor of Neuquén, (see it here map) does not show any forts in the coast along San Matías.
You can also read my 2010 post, which mentions this "fort".
This spot on the coast would be a convenient site for a "fort" during the 1830s as it close to a river (gully, mostly dry) but seems to have a small pond, and an enclosure. Perhaps a digging in the area would reveal artifacts from that period. A fort built to keep the natives at bay. But not a castle of the Knights Templar.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025by Austin Whittall ©
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