Montaillou Castle
| Montaillou Castle | ||
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 The ruin of the castle |
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| Creation time : | 12th century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Place: | Montaillou | |
| Geographical location | 42 ° 47 '12 " N , 1 ° 53' 39" E | |
| Height: | 1362 m | |
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The castle Montaillou is the ruin of a ridge castle from the 12th century in the French department Ariège , not far from the place Montaillou .
history
Beginnings
The castle was built by the lords of Alion towards the end of the 12th century on a ridge north-northeast of Ax-les-Thermes ( Mont d'Aillou 1362 m above sea level). The facility encompassed an area of 100 by 30/40 meters. To protect them, a dry moat was cut into the bare rock on the north, east and west sides. On the south side, a ditch was omitted because of the steep slope. The walls were reinforced at the end of the 13th century. The donjon comprised an interior area of eight by ten meters and was probably three stories high. It was not only used for defense, but also for communicating with the towers of Prades and Camurac . The complex was first mentioned in a document in 1272 in a list of fortresses in the county of Foix .
Importance during the Cathar period
The Lords of Alion, originally from the Pays de Sault from the castles of Usson and Quérigut , were vassals of the Count of Barcelona . Bernard d'Alion married the daughter of the Count of Foix, Esclarmonde, in 1236. Because of his commitment to the Catholic doctrine and his assistance in the defense of Montségur in 1244, he lost all his property. Castle and village of Montaillou fell to the Count of Foix, who expanded them in 1415 to a border fortification between the Kingdom of Aragon , the County of Foix and the sphere of influence of the King of France . Bernard himself was burned alive because of his belief in 1258 by the Inquisition in Perpignan .
At the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries, the castle played a role again in the files of the Inquisition, when the bishop of Pamiers Jacques Fournier questioned the former castellan Béatrice de Planisolles and all the inhabitants of the village on suspicion of heresy . The castle itself survived the crusades against the Albigensians .
The end of the castle
During the Hundred Years War , the castle served the villagers again as temporary protection before the castle walls were torn down in 1638 by order of Richelieu . Today there are only remnants of the keep and the moat . Excavations in recent years have uncovered parts of the eastern fortifications and a house from the 13th century.
In December 1984 the ruin was added to the list of Monuments historiques .
literature
- Michèle Aué: Cathar country . MSM, Vic-en-Bigorre 1992, ISBN 2-907899-44-9 .
- Jean-Paul Cazes: Le site castral de Montaillou en Ariège . In: Archeologie du Midi Médiéval . tape 4 , no. 1 , 2006, p. 325–336 , doi : 10.3406 / amime.2006.1594 .
Web links
- Information about the castle on midi-pyrenees.biz (French) ( Memento of May 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- Historical outline (French)
- Report on repair work on the ruin (French) ( Memento from November 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Ruines du Château, Montaillou in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)