Cathar castles
Encyclopedia
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc...
. Some of these sites, before the royal period, were fortified villages capable of sheltering Cathars and which were destroyed during the building of citadels.
The true "Cathar castles"
Languedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...
, the only real "Cathar castles" were fortified homesteads (castrum), such as Laurac
Laurac
Laurac is a commune in the Aude department in southern France.-Population:-See also:*Communes of the Aude department*List of medieval bridges in France...
, Fanjeaux
Fanjeaux
Fanjeaux is a commune in the Aude department in southern France.Fanjeaux is located west of Carcassonne. Between 1206 and 1215, Fanjeaux was the home of Saint Dominic, the founder of the Roman Catholic Church's Dominican Order.-Population:-References:...
, Mas-Saintes-Puelles
Mas-Saintes-Puelles
Mas-Saintes-Puelles is a commune in the Aude department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...
. Certain sites like Lastours-Cabaret
Châteaux de Lastours
The Châteaux de Lastours are four so-called Cathar castles in the French commune of Lastours in the département of l'Aude. The four castles are on a rocky spur above the village of Lastours, isolated by the deep valleys of the Orbeil and Grésilhou rivers...
, Montségur
Montségur
The Château de Montségur is a former fortress near Montségur, a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France. Its ruins are the site of a razed stronghold of the Cathars. The present fortress on the site, though described as one of the "Cathar castles," is actually of a later period...
, Termes
Termes
Termes may refer to:* Termes, Olive Oil, an olive oil producer company in İzmir, Turkey* Dick Termes, an American artist* Rafael Termes A Spanish banker-Spain:...
or Puilaurens were castra before being razed to the ground and becoming royal citadels. The legend of Cathar architects and builders is no more than a myth. The only monuments which witnessed the events of the first half of the 13th century, and therefore the only ones which can claim the description "Cathar", given that the Cathar Church never built anything, are the small castles, often totally unknown to the public, whose meagre ruins are away from the tourist routes.
The royal citadels
Following the failure of the attempt to recapture CarcassonneCarcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
by Raimond II, Viscount Trencaval in 1240, the Cité de Carcassonne
Cité de Carcassonne
The Cité de Carcassonne is a medieval fortified architectural group located in the French city of Carcassonne, in the department of Aude, in the region of Languedoc-Roussillon. It is located on the right bank of the Aude, on the hill, in the south-east part of the actual city. It was the historic...
was considerably reinforced by the French king, new master of the territory. He destroyed small castra in the Corbières region and built citadels to protect the frontier with the kingdom of Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
.
These five castles are often called the cinq fils de Carcassonne (five sons of Carcassonne):
- Château d'AguilarChâteau d'AguilarThe Château d'Aguilar is a 12th century Cathar castle located in the commune of Tuchan in the Aude département of France.- Architecture :...
- Château de PeyrepertusePeyrepertusePeyrepertuse is a ruined fortress and one of the so-called Cathar castles located high in the French Pyrénées in the commune of Duilhac-sous-Peyrepertuse, in the Aude département, and has been associated with the Counts of Narbonne and Barcelona...
- Château de Puilaurens
- Château de Quéribus
- Château de TermesChâteau de TermesThe Château de Termes is a ruined castle near the village of Termes in the Aude département of France. It is one of the so-called Cathar castles.-History:...
These five fortresses resisted various assaults led by the Aragonese army.
The abandonment of the citadels
In 1659, Louis XIV and the Philip IV of SpainPhilip IV of Spain
Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...
signed the Treaty of the Pyrenees
Treaty of the Pyrenees
The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed to end the 1635 to 1659 war between France and Spain, a war that was initially a part of the wider Thirty Years' War. It was signed on Pheasant Island, a river island on the border between the two countries...
, sealed with the marriage of the Infanta Marie Therese
Maria Theresa of Spain
Maria Theresa of Austria was the daughter of Philip IV, King of Spain and Elizabeth of France. Maria Theresa was Queen of France as wife of King Louis XIV and mother of the Grand Dauphin, an ancestor of the last four Bourbon kings of France.-Early life:Born as Infanta María Teresa of Spain at the...
to the French King. The treaty modified the frontiers, giving Roussillon
Roussillon
Roussillon is one of the historical counties of the former Principality of Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales...
to France and moving the frontier south to the crest of the Pyrenees, the present Franco-Spanish border. The fortresses thus lost their importance. Some maintained a garrison for a while, a few until the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, but they slowly fell into decay, often becoming sherpherds' shelters or bandits hideouts.
Other "Cathar castles"
- Château d’Arques
- Château de DurfortChâteau de DurfortThe Château de Durfort is a ruined castle in the commune of Vignevieille in the Aude département of France. It is 27 km east of Limoux and 3 km north of the Château de Termes....
- Châteaux de LastoursChâteaux de LastoursThe Châteaux de Lastours are four so-called Cathar castles in the French commune of Lastours in the département of l'Aude. The four castles are on a rocky spur above the village of Lastours, isolated by the deep valleys of the Orbeil and Grésilhou rivers...
- Château de Montségur
- Château de Padern
- Château de PieusseChâteau de PieusseThe Château de Pieusse is a one of the so-called Cathar castles in the French commune of Pieusse, near the town of Limoux in the département of l'Aude. It is a "true" Cathar castle in the sense that the site was never taken by the French crown during the annexation of Roussillon, but the buildings...
- Château de PuivertChâteau de PuivertThe Château de Puivert is a so-called Cathar castle situated in the commune of Puivert, in the Aude département of France. This building, on top of a hill overhanging the village and its lake, reaches an altitude of 605 m. The site is in the Quercob region, south of Carcassonne and east of Foix...
- Rennes-le-ChâteauRennes-le-ChâteauRennes-le-Château is a commune in the Aude department in Languedoc in southern France.This small French hilltop village is known internationally, and receives tens of thousands of visitors per year, for being at the center of various conspiracy theories, and for being the location of an alleged...
- Château de RoquefixadeChâteau de RoquefixadeThe Château de Roquefixade is a ruined castle built on a cliff overlooking the village of Roquefixade, situated 8km west of Lavelanet French département of Ariège....
- Château de SaissacChâteau de SaissacThe Château de Saissac is a ruined Cathar castle in the southernmost tip of the commune of Saissac in the Aude département in the north-west of Carcassonne, France. It was once the residence of the powerful vassal family of Trencavel...
- Château d'UssonChâteau d'UssonThe Château d'Usson is one of the so-called Cathar castles in what is now southwestern France. It is located in the commune of Rouze, in the Ariège département. It is sited upstream from Axat, along the Aude River gorge, carved out of the foothills of the Pyrenees. It is situated at 920 m in...
External links
- Association des Sites du Pays Cathare: historical and tourist information
- Castle of Termes official website, in English.
- Cathar country The story of the Cathars in Languedoc, and a short guide to Cathar heritage