Castle of Puilaurens

The castle of Puilaurens is a Château cathare located on the commune of Lapradelle-Puilaurens in the Département of the Aude. This fortress is perched on a rocky outcrop dominating the valley of Boulzane to 697 meters of altitude. It locked the doors of the Fenouillèdes and belonged to five wire of the Cité of Carcassonne.

History of the castle

Beginnings of the castle

The castle is located on the Difficult Mont . This name appears for the first time in 958 in a charter where Lothaire concedes with the Abbaye Saint-Michel of Cuxa prévôté of Puilaurens which is made up of the valley of Boulzane or valley Saint-Cross. The document mentions also the presence of a St. Lawrence church being used as fortfié and perched refuge of Carolingian time.

The first lord of the manor of Puilaurens is Pierre Catala which appears like witness in the acts of Guillaume de Peyrepertuse in 1217. In 1229, Guillaume de Peyrepertuse orders the castle of Puilaurens. Then in 1242, the castle is maintained by Roger Catala, wire of Pierre.

The cathare presence

It is known only for the role of refuge of the castle during the Croisade against the Albigensians. In 1241, the deacon cathare of Fenouillèdes, Pierre Paraire remains there. Several perfect and perfect will be lodged there of 1245 with 1246. The fortress never fell between the hands from Simon de Montfort.

The annexation of the castle

Towards 1250, the castle passes to the hands of the French royalty. By a letter of August 1255, Louis IX orders to the seneshal Carcassonne to strengthen the castle. The Traité of Corbeil in 1258 passes the castle to the row of the fortresses of defense vis-a-vis the Aragon.

A garrison directed by Odon de Monteuil with a chaplain and 25 sergeants occupies the castle of Puilaurens in 1259. Consolidation work and of fortification continues under the impulse of Philippe Bold the of 1270 with 1285.

The castle then will resist several Aragonese attacks and will remain like the southernmost fortress of France.

The abandonment of the castle

Like the four others wire of Carcassonne, the castle of Puilaurens is prgressivement abandoned starting from the Traité of the Pyrenees in 1659 which fixes the Franco-Spanish Frontière at the level of the Pyrenean peaks. A weak garrison occupies some time the citadel. Then, badly defended and little maintained as of the end the 17th century, it is definitively abandoned with the Révolution.

State of the castle

The tower of the white Lady

A legend reports that the White Lady, small niece of Philippe Beautiful the, comes during the pale nights, to walk its vaporous veils on the covered way of the dismantled ramparts.

See too

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