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Castles · AriègeWorth a visit
Château d'Usson
Perched on its peak at 923 m, the castle of Usson, in the Ariège, once controlled access to the Donezan through the Aude valley. Its history goes back more than a thousand years.
In 1035 it belonged to the Counts of Cerdagne, but it seems to have been built earlier. It then passed to the Counts of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon. In 1208 Peter II of Aragon ceded the castle and the lands of the Donezan to Raymond Roger, Count of Foix. The last Count of Foix, Henry IV, annexed it to the Kingdom of France.
