Temple Isle

Temple Isle is a small island on the north side of Novigrad, joined to Gildorf by St. Gregory’s Bridge, and it is impossible to miss. Its skyline belongs to the Great Temple of the Eternal Fire, a colossal church whose spires and walls dominate the view from almost anywhere in the city and from the river beyond. Around the temple, steep stone streets, squares and tall houses crowd onto the island, and the drop to the water is never far away.

This is the seat of the Church of the Eternal Fire, the faith that officially rules Novigrad through its Hierarch, and the Temple Guard is never far away either. The atmosphere is pious on the surface, but the island is not as holy as it looks: one of Novigrad’s most notorious crime bosses lived here.

In The Witcher 3

Most visitors arrive at Electors’ Square, the island’s fast travel signpost, which sits in the middle of the island right by the Great Temple. The temple itself cannot be entered, but the square has a priest who is secretly an alchemist and sells runestones, glyphs and formulae on the quiet.

Temple Isle is also where Whoreson Junior kept his living quarters (see Whoreson Junior’s Hideout). In Get Junior, Geralt finds the house already ransacked by Cleaver’s men. The flashback Visiting Junior shows what happened there earlier: Ciri slips in over the rooftops to rescue the doppler Dudu, and in Breakneck Speed she and Dandelion race on horseback towards the Great Temple, with Junior’s thugs and the Temple Guard on their heels. In Payback, Ciri comes back to settle her score.

Quests on Temple Isle

Good to know

Watch your footing when fighting as Ciri in Breakneck Speed: the street runs along a cliff edge, and a careless blink can send her over it. Temple Isle is also one of the stops in the hunt for the Cat School gear diagrams.

In the books

In Sapkowski’s novels Novigrad has nineteen temples of the Eternal Fire, and the Great Temple houses the sarcophagus of the Prophet Lebioda, whose remains are brought out on some holy days for the faithful to kiss. The game keeps the temple’s doors shut, so you will have to take the books’ word for it.