As the name it has kept since ancient times suggests, the convent must have been where the living quarters of the Knights Templar stood, after they settled at the Circeo in the mid-13th century. However, the alterations made to the site in modern times allow us to reconstruct its original appearance only in part, although a plan of the Land of San Felice from the early 19th century helps in this difficult task.
This plan shows how the fortified locum of San Felice must have looked in the Middle Ages. The fortified area, dominated by the Templar Tower, was clearly separated from the town itself, where the homes of the local population stood alongside small plots of land and vineyards.
What is now called the Convent was a kind of arcaded gallery and served as a representative façade, giving a monumental appearance to the entrance to the buildings where the Knights lived. This rectangular, two-storey block ran at right angles to the eastern side of the church.
The church serving the convent did not stand where the parish church of San Felice is today, but between the Templar Chapel, now home to the Pro Loco, and the gate through which you currently enter the town hall square from Piazzale San Francesco. The lintel of its entrance doorway survives, still in its original position.
The buildings where the monks lived, together with the conventual church, the Tower and the Reception Hall, were separated from the rest of the fortified locum and were reached through the arch leading from Piazza Vittorio Veneto to the Piazzetta del Convento, since the two gates through which you now enter the town hall square did not exist in the Middle Ages.