The cathars are know for being a religious group. Some people say a sect, I don't think it was. But it's not the subject, the thing interesting, is they had a sort of relationship to stone. And with the Counts of Toulouse, they built the most impressive defensive castles of France. In some crazy places and of consequent sizes.

http://www.creative-harmonics.org/art/cultures/sart%20images/memorila-to-cathars-minerve.jpg

For the begining. A minor castle. The Foix Castle.

http://home.arcor.de/svens-page/ChateaudeFoix.jpg

http://www.webster.edu/~kennelbr/foix.jpg

http://www.cathares.org/P11-11-12a-foix.jpg

Puilaurens Castle, built on a 680m tall cliff. Better not fall.

http://alterego.tut.by/galery/albums/castles/img/castle-of-Puilaurens.jpg

http://www.logis-de-france-aude.com/imgs/images-aude/grandes/puilaurens.jpg

http://kinkodev.free.fr/register/cp/cp_puilaurens1.jpg


Queribus Castle

http://www.cathares.org/P11-14-11a-queribus.jpg

http://www.logis-de-france-aude.com/imgs/images-aude/grandes/queribus.jpg

Peyrepertuse Castle

http://www.leydet.com/air/aromacamp/aromacamp_images/peyrepertuse.jpg

http://www.fhills.hotkey.net.au/~frenchcottage/7.4Peyrepertuse.jpg

http://tnemeth.free.fr/photos/peyrepertuse-061989.jpg

Montsegur Castle, built 1207 high.

http://www.logis-de-france-aude.com/imgs/images-aude/grandes/montsegur.jpg

http://gnosistraditions.faithweb.com/montsegur.gif

http://dominiqu.free.fr/montsegur.jpg

Carcassonne isn't a castle but a city. I had the chance to live in.

http://home.arcor.de/svens-page/Carcassonne2.jpg

so the Cathars are history today ?

so the Cathars are history today ?


More or less. The Catholic church exterminated them because the cathars accused it to be perverted and corrupted. There was also a problem of belief that made them heretics.

There are still a few of them and the more we discover of them, the more popular they are getting. If you are interested, Georges Jolliot is a famous one. He is a stone sculptor.

I just love the Cathar country.
I visited quite a few, but I don't remember their names.
anyway, it was beautiful and the ruins aren't in such a bad shape, and you can imagine how they lived.
And Carcassone is magical. at night when they light up the walls, it's like in a fairy tale.
But what I remember most is that I got a very, very bad brain freeze from their ice cream :D

nice castles, they built some amazing ones!

So which one is the castle where the cathars were besieged but, supposedly, two of the cathars escaped with a secret treasure?

It's Montsegur, the last to fall because of it's high place.

beautiful castles!!