Aguilar Castle

Aguilar Castle
	Aguilar Castle
Creation time :	12./13. century
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	Castle ruins
Standing position :	Aristocratic seat / royal castle
Place:	Tuchan
Geographical location	42 ° 53 '26 " N , 2 ° 44' 49" E Coordinates: 42 ° 53 '26 " N , 2 ° 44' 49" E
Height:	321 m

The castle Aguilar on the territory of the municipality Tuchan in the southern French department of Aude is one commonly to the so-called Cathar castles and was once of great strategic importance. The castle ruin has been recognized as a monument historique since 1949 .

location

The ruins of the hilltop castle are located on a 96 meter high hill (321 meters above sea level), which overlooks the plain of Tuchan, and guards the entrance to the interior of the Corbières mountains .

history

The first evidence of a castle ( castrum ) at this point can be found as early as 1021. The Vice Counts of Carcassonne handed the place over to their vassals - the Seigneurs de Termes - in the 13th century . These were close to the Cathar doctrine; It is unclear whether the castle was destroyed as part of the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229). The castle came to the French crown for the first time in 1241, but 10 years later it was returned to its last owner, Olivier de Termes, who, however, passed it on to the French King Louis IX in 1262 . sold; henceforth the castle belonged - next to Termes , Quéribus , Puilaurens and Peyrepertuse - to the ' Five Sons of Carcassonne '. Their task was to guard and defend the border with the Kingdom of Aragon and later with Spain . But in the years 1525 and 1542, Charles V's troops only conquered the castle temporarily. The Peace of the Pyrenees of 1659 condemned the complex to insignificance because of the changed border location and it was abandoned.

architecture

Like most castles of the Middle Ages, Aguilar was originally built from stones that were only roughly or not at all hewn; Larger building stones can only be found at the corners of the building or at the entrances. For the expansion to a border fortress in the 13th century, i. H. For the outer wall with its six round towers , on the other hand, stone material that was already quite well hewn and smoothed on the surface was used, which was walled up in horizontal layers. As in the past, rubble was inserted between the outer and the rather simple inner walls. The inner residential tower ( donjon ) essentially comes from the 12th century. Just outside the castle there is a small Romanesque chapel ( Chapelle Sainte-Anne ).

South tower
Loopholes
Aguilar castle ruins
View from the ruins of Aguilar to the Corbières, vines and typical plants of the Corbières
View from the ruins of Aguilar to the Corbières, with the Pyrenees in the background