Castles cathares

Châteaux cathares is a term used by the contemporary Tourisme (following the example Pays Cathare) to indicate, in an arbitrary way, the series of fortresses built by the king of France on the southern border of its fields at the conclusion of the crusade against the Albigensians. Some of these sites had known, before with the royal period, a village habitat of castral type suitable for have sheltered cathares, shaved during the erection of the citadels. More strictly, it would be necessary to speak about castles of the Pays Cathare.

Truths “castles cathares”

In Languedoc, only true “the castles cathares” were the strengthened villages (castrum) of Laurac, Fanjeaux, Farmhouse-Holy-Puelles… and certain sites like Lastours-Cabaret, Montségur, Termes or Puilaurens which was however castrated before being shaven and becoming royal citadels.

The legend of the architects and builders cathares is only one last misadventure of the myth of Montségur. The only pilot monuments of the events of first half of the 13th century (and thus the only ones which could claim with the qualifier of “cathares” although the Church cathare never built anything) are small castles, often completely been unaware of of the public, and whose thin vestiges are with the variation of the tourist main roads.

Royal citadels

After the failure of the attempt at reconquest of Carcassonne by the Viscount Trencavel in 1240, the Cité of Carcassonne was reinforced considerably by the French, new capacity royal main of the territory. This last shaved the small ones castrated in the Corbières and set up citadels there to keep the border with the kingdom of Aragon.

These five castles were then named the five wire of Carcassonne :

These five fortresses resisted the various attacks carried out by the Aragonese army. The royal defense system is based on a powerful pivot logistic that are the five wire of Carcassonne and on castles dispersed on the frontline. These castles of guet, laid out on the watershed, were already occupied by the cathares because of their strategic position.

The abandonment of the citadels

In 1659, Louis XIV signed with the Kingdom of Spain the Traité of the Pyrenees, sealed by its marriage with Infante Marie Therese. This treaty modified the borders by giving the Roussillon to France. The border thus moved back on the watershed of the the Pyrenees, current Franco-Spanish border. The various fortresses lost their strategic importance then. Some still preserved a small garrison some time, sometimes until the Révolution, but they fell slowly into the lapse of memory, becoming very often shelters of shepherds or reference marks of brigands.

Other “castles cathares”

Château of Arch
Château of Durfort
Châteaux of Lastours
Château of Montségur
Château of Padern
Château of Pieusse
Château of Puivert
Rennes-the-Castle
Château of Roquefixade
Château of Saissac
Château of Usson
Château of Villerouge-Termenès

Chart

Country Cathare
medieval Castrum
Catharisme

External bonds

Castles of the Cathare Country the Aude Pays Cathare
Castles cathares History and traditions

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