Location: Ariège department Map
The castle of Montségur (Montsegur in Occitan), is an old fortified castle, called "Cathar", rebuilt in 1206, but remodeled at the end of the 13th century, the remains of which stand in the French town of Montségur in the department of l Ariège, in the Occitanie region.
The castle is located on the highest point of the mountain overlooking the village of Montségur, at an altitude of 1,207 meters above the Pays d'Olmes.
The Château de Montségur was built on the site of the old castrum at
the request of Raymond de Péreille which, until the siege of 1244, was a
place of residence for the Cathars and the faydits. It was very
partially restored after the Cathar surrender of 1244 by the family of
the new lord of the place, Guy II de Lévis.
The castle on the
current site has known three major eras during which the fortress was
transformed little by little.
A first fortress, reported from the
twelfth century, was erected at the top of the mountain, also called
pog. A pog, is the free interpretation, by Napoleon Peyrat, of an Ariège
form of the Occitan word puèg / puòg, from the Latin pŏdĭum, meaning
"eminence", puech in Nîmes, or even puy elsewhere in France, to
designate the mountain in the shape of Montsegur sugar loaf. This
version is now commonly accepted, but exclusively for the benefit of
Montségur.
Little is known of this first fortress, except that it
was in ruins around 1204, when the fortified Cathar village was built
under the direction of Raymond de Péreille. It is the fortified village
or castrum to which archaeologists have given the name of “Montségur
II”.
The defensive device of this fortress was hardly different from that
which we know today. The castrum itself included the fortified residence
of the lord of the places Raymond de Péreille, the castellum or castèl
in Occitan (which was eventually slightly restored by the house of Lévis
in the 14th century for the construction of a chapel for the chaplain
and at the 16th century: built lintel arch) and the Cathar village of
the time surrounded by a fortified enclosure. On the side of the current
road, there were three defensive walls, the first of which was at the
level of the current ticket office for visiting the castle. On the other
side of the pog, about 800 meters away, was a watchtower (at the Roc
called "La Tor", "the tower") overlooking an 80-meter cliff. The
entrance to the castrum which overlooks this watchtower was defended by
a barbican. Inside the enclosure of the fortress, drew up a village of
which there remain only some terraces in the North-West of the current
castle. On the latter, there are the foundations of several dwellings,
stairs to communicate between the terraces, a cistern with a capacity of
50 m3 and a silo.
Montségur housed a large Cathar community. In
1215, the Lateran Council cited the fortress as a den of heretics. In
1229, the role of Montségur as a shelter for the Cathar Church was
reaffirmed following the Treaty of Meaux-Paris. From 1232, this role
continues to grow. At the same time, the castle also welcomed the Faydit
knights dispossessed of their lands by the Treaty of Meaux in 1229.
Among the latter was Pierre-Roger de Mirepoix, cousin and son-in-law of
Raymond de Péreille and military master of Montségur.
The daily
life of the Cathars was rich there, despite (or thanks to) the
isolation. According to archaeological discoveries, Cathar food was
based on cereals grown on site and especially in the valley. There were
also bones of oxen, sheep, deer, wild boar, geese, chickens and
fragments of fish bones. The meats had to be salted and/or smoked for
their conservation, because there remained in abundance and permanently
in the reserves of the fortress.
The Cathars established at the
castle did not only meditate or exercise religiously, they also had a
material and sometimes commercial activity, in addition to pastoral and
agricultural life. For example, they made clothing from sheep's wool or
animal skins and produced dyes (vegetable and mineral). Many tools and
jewelry were made on site, at the castle forge: pectoral crosses,
scissors, pendants, tweezers (to remove splinters and thorns), rings,
toiletries, religious objects, etc. But also lead metals which allowed
the recognition of Cathar groups between them, in order to participate
in secret meetings.
However, Montségur remains a stronghold,
suggesting that some of its inhabitants were not Cathar monks; the bones
of this time found on the spot prove that all the inhabitants were not
vegetarians. There was also no fundamental distinction between the
perfect and the simple believers, as they each took part in the daily
life of the fortress (and the village below).
We can assume that
the cemetery stood as it was done away from the castrum, the most likely
is that a burial place was probably at the intersection of the two paths
(Montferrier Lavelanet) at the bottom of the pog.
Everything that
emerges from the geographical position of the place, from the writings
and the relentlessness of the Capetians against Montségur from 1244,
suggests that it was, if not the capital, at least the stronghold of the
Cathars in Occitania.
In the first half of the 13th century, the fortress suffered no less
than four sieges by the Crusaders, only one of which was successful:
Guy de Montfort, made a first attempt in 1212;
Simon IV de Montfort,
his brother, directed the second in 1213;
in July 1241, Raymond VII
of Toulouse, on the order of Louis IX, began a siege which he lifted
without even giving an assault;
the last, which began in May 1243,
was the work of Hugues des Arcis (de), Seneschal of Carcassonne.
On the night of May 28 to 29, 1242, inquisitors were massacred in
Avignonet by around sixty men from the garrison of Montségur. The
seneschal of Carcassonne and the archbishop of Narbonne Pierre Amiel are
responsible for besieging the fortress, on the orders of Blanche of
Castile and Louis IX. In May 1243, the Crusaders, numbering around 6,000
men, surrounded Montségur; the garrison of Montségur is estimated at
seventy men: about fifteen horsemen, pedestrians and artillerymen.
Despite their overwhelming numerical superiority, the attackers were
unable to take the place and the siege took place. At the beginning of
the winter of 1243, a handful of “mountaineers” succeeded, following a
daring night climb, in gaining control of the watchtower. A trebuchet
was then transported and mounted, which relentlessly bombarded the
position of the besieged, as evidenced by the many stone balls carved on
the spot (between 23 and 78 kg) found on the site. About a month later,
perhaps as a result of local betrayal, the barbican fell into the hands
of the attackers.
A final assault launched in February was
repelled but left the besieged very weak.
On March 1, 1244, Pierre-Roger de Mirepoix was forced to negotiate
the surrender of the stronghold after a ten-month blockade. The terms
were as follows:
the lives of soldiers and lay people will be spared;
the perfect who deny their faith will be saved;
a fortnight's truce
is granted for the Cathars who wish to prepare and receive the last
rites.
On March 16, the fortress opened again. All the Cathars
who refused to renounce their faith perished at the stake which was
erected for a little more than two hundred victims, including the wife,
three of the daughters and the mother-in-law of Raimond de Péreille:
after having distributed all that they possessed to those who had
defended them for ten months, the perfect ones of Montségur were locked
up in an enclosure prepared at the foot of the mountain then the
crusaders set fire to the fagots that were piled up there. In all, two
hundred and twenty men, women and a young girl (all “volunteers”; the
young people were dissuaded by their parents from joining them…)
perished in the fire. Among them sacrificed soldiers of the garrison who
had not wanted to abandon them. It was reported that some were singing.
For some, the stake would have been set up 200 meters from the
castrum in the "Camp dels Cremats" (the burnt field) where a stele was
subsequently erected by the contemporary Society of Cathar Remembrance
and Studies. On the stele is the inscription: “Als catars, als martirs
del pur amor crestian. 16 of March 1244”. For others, the actual place
of the stake was placed on the hill above the car park to the right of
the pass on the way to Montferrier. According to Yves Dossat, the “pyre
of Montségur” is legendary: according to this author, the Cathars
arrested at Montségur were taken to Bram where they were interrogated by
the Inquisition, then set on the flames. On the other hand, in
Citadelles du vertige (Toulouse, Privat, 1966) Michel Roquebert places
the stake in Montségur at the “prat das cramats”.
Of the 220
executed on March 16, 64 can be identified, the list of which is
provided below.
Raymond Agulher, deacon of Sabarthès, then bishop
of Razès
Guillelme Aicard
Pons Ais, miller from Moissac
Pierre
Arrau
Bernard of Auvezines
Raymonde Beard
Raymond of Belvis,
crossbowman
Arnaud de Bensa, sergeant
Etienne Boutarra, sergeant
Brezilhac de Cailhavel, Faidit Knight
Pons-Capelle
Guiraude de
Caraman, chatelaine de Caraman
Arnaud des Casses, knight co-lord of
Casses (Aude)
Clamens
Jean de Combel
Saissa du Congost
Raymonde de Cuq
Guillaume Dejean, deacon
Guillaume Delpech de
Fanjeaux
Arnaud Domergue, sergeant
Bruna, wife of Arnaud Domergue
Rixende Donat
India of Fanjeaux
Guillaume Garnier, herdsman, then
sergeant
Arnaud-Raymond Gaut, Knight of Sorèze
Bernard Guilhem
Corba Hunaud de Lanta, wife of Raimond de Péreille
Marquesia Hunaud
de Lanta (Marquèze de Fourquevaux), noble of Lauragais, mother-in-law of
Raimond de Péreille
Stephen and...
Raymond Isarn, brothers from
Les Casses
Guillaume d'Issus, Knight of Montgaillard
John of
Lagarde
Bruna de Lahille
Guillaume de Lahille, knight, brother of
Bruna
Limoux
Raymond de Marceille, Knight of Laurac
Bertrand
Martin
Guillelme d'En-Marty, baker
Stone of the Mas
Maurine,
perfect
Montserver's Braida
Arsende-Narbonne
Pons-Narbonna
Guillaume Narbonne
Raymond de Niort, family of Niort
Arnaud
d'Orliac
Esclarmonde de Péreille, daughter of Raimond de Péreille
Person, perfect
Guillaume Raseire, perfect
Guillaume Razoul,
perfect
John Rey
Pierre Robert, perfect
Pierre Robert, Merchant
of Mirepoix
Martin Roland
Raymond of Saint-Martin
Bernard of
Saint Martin, knight
Pierre Sirven
Taparel, perfect
Rixende de
Telle
Arnaud Teuly de Limoux
Raymond de Tounebouix
Ermengarde
d'Ussat
Azalaïs Raseire: she was taken to Bram, her home village,
where she was burned
a purse maker, cited as present on March 13; it
must have been burned on the 16th
After the capture of the castrum in 1244, possession of the pog
returned to Guy II de Lévis, marshal of the faith and lord of Mirepoix
since the treaty of 1229. The remains of the Cathar village and the
outer fortified enclosure were razed. The castellum was refitted to post
a garrison of around thirty men there who would remain present until the
Treaty of the Pyrenees in the 17th century. It is the ruins of this
construction, baptized Montségur III, which are visible today.
Rehabilitation of the castle
The castle was classified as a
historical monument in 1862 and the puòg on which it is located joined
this classification in 1883. The archaeological remains and the lines of
defense were classified in 1989.
Since then, the site has not
ceased to ignite the imaginations to such an extent that many have not
hesitated to search the puòg on a personal basis because of the myths
developed around the site.
Paradoxically, the castle restoration
campaign started in 1947 slowed down this degradation and at the same
time erased certain archaeological clues. This restoration motivated a
speleological exploration of the mountain, led by the speleological
society of Ariège. The latter led, in 1964, to the exhumation of a
burial in the “avenc du trébuchet”.
In 1968, the archaeological
research group of Montségur and surroundings (G.R.A.M.E) was founded.
The latter has already conducted several excavation campaigns on the
site.
It should be noted that historians recognize in the current
ruins as a unit of measurement, the English cane, clearly later. It
should be noted that the castle has a 4.20 m thick shield wall on the
side facing the attack. This wall, thicker and higher than the rest of
the other walls, protected the rest of the buildings.
The Church
of Ariège asks for forgiveness
A request for forgiveness and mercy
took place through a ceremony presided over by Jean-Marc Eychenne,
Bishop of Pamiers, Couserans and Mirepoix, on Sunday October 16, 2016.
This initiative took place in the year 2016, desired by the Pope Francis
as a Year of Mercy.
Excerpt from the speech delivered:
Forgive
and ask for forgiveness!
As we give thanks to God who, in his
merciful love,
aroused in the Church a marvelous harvest of
holiness, missionary ardour,
total dedication to Christ and
neighbour,
we cannot fail to recognize the infidelities to the
Gospel committed by some of our brothers,
especially during the
second millennium.
Let us ask forgiveness for the divisions that
have arisen among Christians,
for the violence some of them
resorted to in the service of truth,
and for the attitudes of
mistrust and hostility sometimes adopted towards the followers of other
religions.
Protection
Are classified by list of 1862:
the
ruins of the castle.
Are classified by decree of March 3, 1989:
the archaeological remains on the Pog de Montségur, made up of the
village at the foot of the castle, the lines of defense located on the
north and south slopes, the lookout post at Roc de la Tour.
We owe Napoleon Peyrat, from Ariège, around 1870, the enthusiastic
rediscovery of Montségur; and to his inspired pen, the romantic
atmosphere that has since inhabited the place. So much so that it is
still difficult today for a certain public to admit that the temple of
Paraclete is only a small French castle of the 13th century.
Furthermore, a legend affirms that Montségur was the place of refuge of
the last Templars, after the suppression of the order by Pope Clement V.
The solar phenomenon of Montsegur
Each year, at the winter
solstice, the first ray of sunshine on the horizon crosses the length of
the castle and, at the summer solstice, it crosses the four arrow slits
of the keep to the northwest with millimeter precision and some evoke a
Zoroastrian cult. A comparable phenomenon is visible in Quéribus.
The treasure of the Cathar Church
Montsegur is believed to have
housed the rich treasure of the Cathar Church. Of this supposed treasure
we know very little. Two facts feed the assumptions around this
treasure.
The first is the escape on horseback of the perfect
Mathieu and the deacon Bonnet around Christmas 1243, carrying with them
“gold and silver and a large quantity of coins”. It is believed that
this treasure arrived in Italy in Cremona, the place in Italy where
another important Cathar community lived. This supposition is reinforced
by the proven epistolary correspondence between the two communities.
A second treasure would have been saved during the truce of March
1244 since it is reported that four individuals fled from Montségur with
a load. Historians conjecture that this treasure brought together the
many heretical texts kept by the Perfects in the fortress.
Montsegur was considered to be the castle of the Grail. The Grail
would have been one of the pieces of the treasure of the Cathar Church:
the cup in which Joseph of Arimathea would have collected the blood of
Christ on Mount Golgotha or the emerald that fell from the crown of
Lucifer during the fall of the Angels . The German Otto Rahn was the
zealous craftsman of this myth inspired by a scholar from
Ussat-les-Bains, Antonin Gadal. Another tradition tells us that the
Grail would always be locked inside the mountain of Montségur.
Otto Rahn had studied the history of the Cathars and was passionate
about this Languedoc rich in "legends". In 1932, he settled in the small
spa town of Ussat-les-Bains at the Les Marronniers hotel, which he took
over as manager. Thanks to the poetic theories of Antonin Gadal, he
wrote the Crusade against the Grail which actively participated, after
Napoleon Peyrat's first essay on Montségur, in the renewed interest in
Occitania.
Otto Rahn's theses have been seriously deconstructed
and contradicted, notably by the meticulous work of the Breton historian
Jean Markale in Montségur et l'énigme cathare (1986).
Gérard Bavoux, The Bearer of Light, Pygmalion, 1996.
Henri
Gougaud, The Expedition, Editions du Seuil, 1991.
Michel Peyramaure,
The Cathar Passion, Robert Laffont, 1999.
Antoine, Pierre, Marie,
Duke of Lévis Mirepoix, Montségur, Albin Michel, 1924.
Hervé Gagnon,
Damned, Hurtubise, 2010, France-Loisirs, 2011.
X.-B. Leprince, The
Ninth Crusade (The Fantastic Quest 2), Alsatia, 1956 (Signe de Piste
collection).
Arnaud Delalande, The Church of Satan (the novel of the
Cathars), France Loisirs, 2002.
Giacometti-Ravenne, The Triumph of
Darkness, Paperback, 2019.
Jean d'Aillon, Montségur 120119 I Read,
2012.
Children of the Grail by Peter Berling (3 volumes) paperback
1991-1995
The siege of Montségur and the burning of the "Camp dels Cramats"
that followed inspired various artists and groups including the famous
heavy metal band Iron Maiden who made it a song on the album Dance of
Death. But the major work centered on the Ariège castle is the song
dedicated to it by the Occitan poet and singer Claude Marti in the
1970s. Also, Era's first CD revolves around the Cathars.
In 2003,
Maxime Aulio composed a symphonic poem for solo trombone and concert
band, entitled Montségur, la Tragédie Cathare.
Claude Nougaro
evokes the castle of Montségur in his song Gloria, from the album Femmes
et Famines released in 1975.
In 2018, a team from the program Secrets d'Histoire shot several
sequences at the castle as part of an issue dedicated to Blanche de
Castille, entitled Blanche de Castille, la reine mère a du charac...,
broadcast on 5 July 2018 on France 2.
The clip for Ameno, the
flagship title of the Era group, was shot at the Château de Montségur.
The Montségur tourist office organizes guided tours of the castle from February to December (except in bad weather). Access to the castle is via a mountain path (not accessible to the disabled) with a walk of about twenty minutes.
In the Nephilim role-playing initiation book, the proposed scenario
takes place partly in the castle of Montségur.
In the The Cathar
Heresy scenario of the role-playing game Vampire: The Dark Ages
published by Arkhane Asylum, Chapter III takes place in Montsegur during
the siege of 1244.