Photo : MDanis / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Château de Montségur
The Château de Montségur is perched on the pog, a peak 1,207 metres high in the Ariège, above the Pays d'Olmes. It was built in 1206 by Raymond de Péreille and became one of the main Cathar bastions, sheltering both perfecti and dispossessed knights.
The most famous episode is the siege of 1243-1244. After the murder of inquisitors at Avignonet in 1242, an army of about 6,000 men surrounded the fortress. After a blockade of about ten months, the garrison surrendered on 1 March 1244; 220 people then perished at the stake rather than renounce their faith. A stele at the foot of the path recalls this tragedy.
The ruins seen today correspond to the reconstruction carried out by the Lévis family. The enclosure has a pentagonal plan and has, on the side exposed to attack, a shield wall 4.2 metres thick. Listed as a historic monument in 1862 and again in 1989, the site is reached by a mountain path of about twenty minutes and overlooks a vast panorama.
