At the foot of the great Cathar castles, several villages and towns of the Aude and the Pyrénées-Orientales keep the imprint of this eventful history, between medieval ramparts and esoteric legends.
A short selection, centred on the most emblematic sites of Cathar Country in the broad sense.
A fortified medieval town, with the history of the crusade against the Albigensians, the still-inhabited Cité de Carcassonne lies on the right bank of the Aude.
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At the exit of the gorges of La Cesse and the Briant, where the waters of the two rivers meet, Minerve appears at the end of a limestone plateau bordered by steep cliffs in a fantastic mineral and tormented landscape.
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The abbey of Lagrasse was founded in the eighth century in the Orbieu valley and, located on the Spanish marches of the Carolingian kingdom, played a particularly important role.
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Made world-famous by the legend of a treasure discovered by its priest Bérenger Saunière, this tiny perched village of the Corbières has inspired many novels and esoteric theories.
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The village houses a heritage of incredible historical richness: around the bend of medieval lanes you discover façades of mansions from the eleventh to the eighteenth century.
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In the Roussillon plain, south-west of Perpignan, this old fortified village nestles at the foot of a former feudal castle remodelled in the last century.
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