those dispatched to ‘save’ the Holy Land. After a long struggle, the Cathar church was exterminated and the French Crown seized Languedoc.
After the crusade, the border of France moved south to Cathar country. It needed strong fortification against France’s Spanish neighbours, so the French rebuilt and strengthened several of the castles in which the Cathars had once taken refuge. In the 17th century the border moved south once again, after a war that ended in triumph for the French. That left many of the ‘Cathar castles’ a long way north of the new border. The castles thus lost their strategic importance; most were demolished or abandoned, and then fell into ruin.
And thus the ‘castles in the sky’, now symbols of the Cathar faith and its demise, were bequeathed to posterity. The sometimes romantic, sometimes forbidding castles such as Montségur, Quéribus, Puilaurens, Peyrepertuse and Lastours became the centrepieces of fantastic fables and, in our time, tourist attractions of international repute.
The citadels we see today would have mostly been unrecognisable to the Cathars; in the majority of cases, the remains are of structures that were built after the Cathar period. But no matter: what is beyond dispute is that the castles offer stunning sights and are fascinating places to visit. They are irresistible focal points for fine walks in a lovely part of the French countryside. They will also forever be linked to the thought-provoking story of the Cathars, which touches everyone who visits this region.
Walking and thinking go together. Cathar castle country offers profound opportunities for both.
Languedoc, the ‘Cathar castles’ and the Pays Cathare
In medieval times, Languedoc was a large region in what is today south-central France. Its name was derived from the language spoken by its inhabitants (the langue d’oc – see below). The region was not a single administrative unit; its unity was based principally upon its language. The main city was Toulouse, in the west. Languedoc extended north towards the Dordogne, east towards the Rhône valley and south towards the Pyrenees.
Languedoc was invaded and occupied successively by the Romans, the Visigoths, the Moors and the Franks. In the 10th century it was divided up into feudal principalities, the biggest of which was the domain of the Count of Toulouse. Those principalities were not part of the French kingdom.
The Cathars propagated their beliefs in Languedoc from around the 11th century. In the middle of the 13th century, following the crusade that was launched to crush them, Languedoc became part of the French kingdom.
Today, the name ‘Languedoc’ survives in the title of the administrative region known as Languedoc- Roussillon, covering the administrative departments of Aude, Gard, Hérault, Lozère and the Pyrénées-Orientales. But medieval Languedoc was much bigger than today’s Languedoc-Roussillon region.
The langue d’oc was a collection of Roman dialectics spoken in much of what is now southern France. It is in contrast to the langue d’oïl, the collection of Roman dialects which was spoken in the northern half of France and which formed the basis of the French language. The term langue d’oc is synonymous with ‘Occitan’. It was a major language of culture in the Middle Ages and is still spoken today. Occitan is also used as an adjective, meaning of or from the area where the Occitan language is spoken.
The so-called Cathar castles are the medieval fortifications (or, more often, just the remains) that are found in Languedoc and located in places where the Cathars lived, preached or sought refuge. Many were built on vertiginous cliffs, crags or steep-sided pinnacles. They are striking in appearance and are loaded with sombre history and mystery. Today, these castles attract pilgrims, tourists, historians, archaeologists, writers, painters, treasure-hunters and charlatans with one of the most powerful magnetic forces of its kind in Europe.
Many of the castles were substantially reconstructed after the time of the Cathars. Little is known about how most of them looked when the Cathars inhabited them. However, they are located on sites with strong historical connections with the Cathars. ‘Cathar castles’ is a therefore a perfectly acceptable title.
A little information about each of the castles is given in the walk descriptions. The emphasis here is on walking rather than monuments, so this book does not offer detailed accounts of history, archaeology and legends. Plenty of literature covers those topics, much of it in English; books, leaflets and other publications are offered for sale at many of the castles, and in shops and information centres round about (see Appendix 2).
An entrance fee is charged for access to most of the Cathar castles featured in this book. Subsequent chapters give general indications of the times of the year when these are open to the public. Detailed information about current opening times can be obtained from local tourist information offices (see walk descriptions and Appendix 1). If you plan to visit several castles and other monuments in the area it is worth buying a carte inter-sites, which gives a discounted entrance fee to 16 places.
Bear in mind that some castles merit a long visit; you could spend half a day exploring the nooks and crannies of the extensive remains of Peyrepertuse. At the other end of the spectrum, there is very little left of the castles at Montaillou and Minerve. However, the latter are worth seeing, as they provide a tangible link to poignant historical events.
Looking down on Foix from a viewpoint on the Foix walks (Section 4)
Anyone who visits the area will see Pays Cathare (‘Cathar country’) signs along the way. The French department of Aude, centred on Carcassonne, refers to itself as the Pays Cathare. However, this name is used by public and commercial organisations over a much wider area than that covered by Aude alone.
The Sentier Cathare long-distance footpath runs east–west across Cathar castle country, from Port-la-Nouvelle on the coast to Foix. It is a popular route, and sections of it are incorporated in some of the walks in this book. The Aude department’s Pays Cathare logo appears on signposts along much of the Sentier Cathare.
That logo is used widely throughout Cathar castle country. It is a curious emblem which apparently depicts the sun (or maybe the moon) rising above the land. In doing so it represents the influence that the Cathar religion radiated over this country. The sun/moon is divided into a black sector and a white sector, representing the dualism of the Cathar faith. The slightly scribbled appearance of the motif is said to denote the ‘cuts’ that were inflicted on this region by the painful events of the crusade against the Cathars.
Subtle the Pays Cathare logo may be, but the extent to which the Cathar theme is exploited to attract tourists is the antithesis of subtlety. Signs and advertisements for enterprises with names like ‘Cathar-ama’, ‘le relais Cathare’, ‘Cathare Immobilier’ (an estate agent) proliferate. A 20th-century motorway (the A61 west of Narbonne) has been named ‘le chemin des Cathares’, and a sign at an exit from the A9 coastal motorway even offers you a welcome to ‘the beaches of the Pays Cathare’.
The Pays Cathare logo seen here on an information board near Quéribus castle
When you are in the country of the Cathars, you can count on being frequently reminded of your whereabouts.
‘CATHAR CASTLE COUNTRY’
This term has been coined simply for the purposes of this book, and the area so defined lies in a part of Languedoc that is southeast of Toulouse. Béziers is in the northeast corner; the Mediterranean forms its eastern border; the southern border is a line running roughly between Perpignan and Ax-les-Thermes; and the Ariège valley, which runs through Foix, forms the western border (see the Overview Maps). Most of the best-known Cathar castles are found within Cathar castle country.
However, it should be remembered that the Cathars were based over a much wider area than that defined as ‘Cathar castle country’. The Cathars’ main centre was Toulouse; their influence extended far to the north of Carcassonne, to Albi and beyond. The name often given