Catenanes are molecules made of two or more interlocked rings, and rotaxanes are composed of rings threaded onto axles that look like dumbbells because they are terminated by stoppers large enough to prevent unthreading ( Figure 1) [1]. [n]Catenanes are constituted by n interlocked rings, whereas [n]rotaxanes are made of n-m rings and m dumbbell components. Both constitute the prototypical molecular objects featuring the so-called "mechanical bond". Whereas the first syntheses of catenanes and rotaxanes date back to the late sixties [2], the real burst of these exotic-at-that-time classes of compounds really started a decade later, after the very first template methods (metal coordination [3], and - donor-acceptor interactions [4]) were discovered and developed [5,6]. Since then catenanes and rotaxanes, from the status of molecular curiosities (in terms of topology and synthetic access), attained the rank of useful synthetic molecules that could be endowed with functions. Indeed, the last two decades have seen the development of molecular machines that rely heavily on catenanes and rotaxanes, taking advantage of the mechanical bonds for the generation and observation of net molecular motions [7,8]. This contribution will account for the metal template technology, as among all the methods developed for making interlocked molecules, it is certainly the one that proved itself to be the most versatile and productive. Figure 1 The simplest [2]catenane and [2]rotaxane, made of two interlocked components.The exceptional power of metal templates, and especially transition metal templates, stems from their richness and variety in terms of coordination geometries, oxidation states, bond strength and lability, and reactivity. Metal templates were early recognized as being either kinetic and/or thermodynamic, depending on the property used [9]. A kinetic template preorganizes the reactants in order to drive the formation of a geometrically-or topologically-selective reaction, that is for instance a macrocycle vs. a polymer, or a catenane vs a macrocycle. A thermodynamic template works essentially the same, except that the intermediates are in equilibrium, which allows for the selection of the most stable one and the product thereof. The earliest metal templates that were used for making catenanes and rotaxanes were based on the Cu(dpp) 2 + complex fragment in which the Cu(I) cation in tetrahedral geometry intertwines two dpp (2,9-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline) chelates orthogonally to each other and this was followed by many other Cu(I) bis-diimine complex systems [10]. Other coordination geometries were demonstrated to work equally well (Figure 2), providing that the adequate metal/ligand combination is chosen, for example linear (two-coordinate) Au(I)/pyridyl (py) [11] and octahedral (six-coordinate) Ru(II)/2,2′;6′, 2″-terpyridyl (terpy) [12]. The use of less straightforward four-coordinate square planar (sp) Pd(II), and five-coordinate square-based pyramidal (sqp) and trigonal bipyramidal (tbp) Zn(II) and Cu(II) involved...