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Royston Cave is a small artificial cave located in Katherine's Yard, Melbourn Street, Royston, England. It is located beneath the crossroads formed by Ermine Street and the Icknield Way. It is protected as both a scheduled ancient monument and Grade I listed building. It has been speculated that it was used by the Knights Templar, who founded nearby Baldock, but this is unlikely, despite its enormous popular appeal. There are numerous theories about the Cave covering Freemasons and Templars as well as possibilities that the Cave was a prison or an anchorite cell. However, none of these theories have enough hard evidence to warrant their being adopted by the Cave Trust. It is open to the public in the summer months on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday afternoons between Easter and October. Royston Cave is a circular, bell-shaped chamber cut into the chalk bedrock. It is 8 metres (26 feet) high and 5 metres (17 feet) in diameter with a circumferential octagonal podium. The origin of this chamber is unknown. This cave is unique in Britain - if not the world - for its numerous medieval carvings on the walls; comparable examples exist only in the former Czechoslovakia and the former Palestine.〔 Some of the figures are thought to be those of St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Lawrence and St. Christopher. ==Speculations== Royston Cave has been the source of many speculations, although it is hard to determine much about its origin and function. * Knights Templar: It has been recently speculated that the cave may have been used by the Knights Templar before their dissolution by Pope Clement V in 1312.〔Beamon, S 1992 ''The Royston Cave: used by saints or sinners? Local historical influences of the Templar and Hospitaller movements.'' Cortney Publications, 1);〕 Although claims have been made that this religious-military institution of the Catholic Church held a weekly market at Royston between 1199 and 1254, the market charter was in fact granted to the Augustinian Canons of the town. It has been speculated that the cave was divided into two floors by a wooden floor, the evidence consisting of a single posthole and what may be beamslots to secure the platform to the walls. Two figures close together near the damaged section may be all that remains of a known Templar symbol, two knights riding the same horse. However, as the image has been repaired in modern times, this cannot be confirmed. In 1953, the architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, wrote that the date of the carvings "is hard to guess. They have been called Anglo-Saxon, but are more probably of various dates between the C14 and C17 (the work of unskilled men)".〔Pevsner, N & Cherry, B 1971 ''The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire." Revised edition. Penguin, p 282〕 This would place the carvings after the time of the Templars; certainly the figures in armour are wearing full plate, which would date them to a century after the Templars' demise. * Augustinian store house: It has been claimed it was used by Augustinian monks from the local priory, who would have required a cool store for their produce and a chapel for their devotions. The idea that it might have been a meeting place for recusant Catholics during the Reformation of the 16th century has little to recommend it. *Neolithic flint mine: this has also been put forward as an explanation of the cave. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Royston Cave」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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