Cathars and Catharism in the Languedoc: Cathar Castles: Montségur
(
Montsegùr)
 
 A
building on this site sheltered a community of Cathar women
at the end of the twelfth century. Early in the thirteenth,
Ramon de Pereille the co-siegneur and Chatelain, was asked
to make it defensible, anticipating the problems to come.
From 1232 it became the headquarters of the Cathar community
in the Languedoc, and a refugee centre for "faidits" - outlaws
who had been stripped of their lands and goods by the Roman
Church. These faidits, exact counterparts of the more recent
maquis, continued to wage a guerilla war against the invaders.
  After
the failure of the uprising against the French invaders,
the defeat of Henry
III, King of England of England by Louis IX of France,
the events at Avignonet,
and the capitulation of Raymond
VII, all in 1243, the Council of Béziers
decided to destroy the last vestiges of Catharism. The Cathar
sympathisers responsible for killing the Inquisitors at
Avignonet were known to have come from Montségur
in the the Pyrenees.
The Council therefore decided to "cut off the head of the
dragon" by which they meant to taking of the château
there, the last remaining major centre of Cathar belief.
The château, perched on top of a majestic hill (called
a pog), had already been reinforced.
 Things
to note:
- You can see the modern village of Montségur
from the castle miles below: the photograph on the right
shows the view from the castle walls.
- You can see the foundations of some Cathar buildings
(the original village of Montségur) behind the
present castle, which is of course French.
Despite this, you may well hear experts on the Cathars
expounding theories not only that the Cathars built
this castle, but that for religious reasons they built
it in a perfect alignment with the rising sun. -
perhaps a distorted version of the fact that the keep
and and one wall are aligned on a South-east - North-west
axis.
- You can get to the donjon (keep) from the outside.
Go through the postern gate and turn left.
- Not all castles had drawbridges. Montségur,
like many others, had an external doorway far off the
ground, with a wooden access ramp that could be removed
or destroyed whenever a siege threatened. (See modern
counterpart to the right)
- A single loophole (arrow slit) in the wall of the
donjon, covers the courtyard.
- You can just see the castle at Puivert
from the keep.
 At
the bottom of the pog on which the Castle sat is a monument
next the the field where 225 Parfait were burned alive.
They were herded into a specially made pen in the early
morning of 16th March. They included three generations
of one family - Grandmother, Mother and Daughter. People
still leave flowers there.
The French have a word for the act of burning people
alive - they call it a Bûché. There is no
exact counterpart in English. The nearest we have is burn
at the stake. You may see the word translated in some
literature as massacre or occasionally left as
bûché in English translations.
A stele (shown rigt) marks the spot where the Cathars
are belived to have been burned alive. Another monument
stone by the road reads in French:
EN CE LIEU
LE 16 MARS 1244
PLUS DE 200 PERSONNES ONT ÉTÉ BRULÉES.
ELLES N'AVAIENT PAS VOULU RENIER LEUR FOI.
| IN THIS PLACE
ON 16th MARCH 1244
MORE THAN 200 PEOPLE WERE BURNED
THEY CHOSE NOT TO ABJURE THEIR FAITH.
|
The castle was classified as an Historical Monument
in 1875.
Getting There: Montségur is in the Ariege,
in the foothills of the Pyrenees, not far from Lavelanet,
due South from Mirepoix.
 Montségur
lies at 42°52'35" N, 1°49'51"
E on a pog (a volcanic pluton) at an altitude of 1,207
meters. The castle is owned by the Commune of Montségur.
There is an entrance fee, which also covers entry to
a museum in the nearby town.
Guided Tours: www://www.citaenet.com/montsegur
guide.montsegur@wanadoo.fr
Tel: 05 61 01 06 94 Fax: 05 61 03 11 27
Mairie: mairie.montsegur@wanadoo.fr
Tel: 05 61 0110 27 Tourist Information Office:
Tel: 05 61
03 03 03
   If
you take flowers, as many do, make them red and yellow,
the colours of Aragon,
of Toulouse
and of Foix,
to whom the victims all owed their allegiance.
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