Israel tourism and travel guide 

Latrun is a strategic overlooks the road to Jerusalem, located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla.
The origin of the name of Latrun  is that it is a corruption of Le toron des chevaliers (the Castle of the Knights), the Crusader stronghold in the area.
In the  Bible, the Ayalon Valley was the site of a battle in which the Israelites, led by Joshua, defeated the Amorites (Joshua 10:1-11).Later, Judah  the Maccabee established his camp here in preparation for battle with the Greeks, who had invaded Judea and were camped at Emmaus. According to the Book of Maccabees, Judah the Maccabee learned that the Greeks were planning to march on his position, and successfully ambushed the invaders. The Jewish victory in  Emmaus led to greater Jewish autonomy under Hasmonean rule over the next century.
Little remains of the castle, which was held by the Templars by 1187. The main tower was later surrounded with a rectangular enclosure with vaulted chambers. This in turn was enclosed by an outer court, of which one tower survives.
In December 1890, The Latrun monastery was established in Latrun by French, German and Flemish monks of the Trappists, from Sept-Fons Abbey in France, at the request of Monseigneur Poyet of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The monastery is dedicated to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows. The monks bought the 'Maccabee Hotel', formerly called 'The Howard' from the Batato brothers together with two-hundred hectares of land and started the community in a building which still stands in the monastic domain. In 1909 it was given the status of a Priory and that of an Abbey in 1937. The monks established a vineyard using knowledge gained in France and advice from an expert in the employ of Baron Edmond James de Rothschild from the Carmel-Mizrahi Winery. Today they produce a wide variety of wines that are sold in the Abbey shop and elsewhere.