Photo : --Pinpin 09:07, 25 May 2006 (UTC) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Château de Pieusse
The castle of Pieusse is a Cathar castle near Limoux, in the Aude. It is privately owned and cannot be visited.
It was built around 1140-1145, under Louis VII, by the Counts of Foix. In 1225 it hosted a Cathar council of about a hundred 'perfects' chaired by Guilhabert de Castres, Bishop of Toulouse, which decided to create the bishopric of the Razès, with Benoît de Termes ordained as its bishop. In 1229 Bernard Roger, son of the Count of Foix, ceded his fief to Louis IX, who attached it to the Archbishopric of Narbonne. From 1764 to 1790 it belonged to Monseigneur Dillon, Archbishop of Narbonne.
Only a few buildings can be seen from the village, some converted into homes. The north wall is still visible, as are paired round-arched windows with carved capitals and stone window seats overlooking the Aude valley, and the keep, standing to the first floor, with a fine round vault.
