Minerve
| Minerve | ||
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| region | Occitania | |
| Department | Herault | |
| Arrondissement | Beziers | |
| Canton | Saint-Pons-de-Thomières | |
| Community association | Minervois Saint-Ponais Orb-Jaur | |
| Coordinates | 43 ° 21 ′ N , 2 ° 45 ′ E | |
| height | 137-604 m | |
| surface | 27.89 km 2 | |
| Residents | 121 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 4 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 34210 | |
| INSEE code | 34158 | |
 Minerve |
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Minerve ( Occitan Menèrba ) is a southern French municipality with 121 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region . Along with Montségur , Quéribus , Puivert and Peyrepertuse , it was a fortress of the Cathars .
Minerve is classified as one of the Plus beaux villages de France , the most beautiful villages in France .
geography
The medieval site was built on a rock that stretches between the Brian and Cesse rivers. It is only connected to the surrounding plateau, the Causses , by a small bridge and a rock ridge . Minerve is now a well-known excursion destination in the middle of vineyards - the Minervois . The impressive landscape also attracts many speleologists. The municipality is part of the Haut-Languedoc Regional Nature Park .
The village is around 280 meters above sea level. The name of the Roman foundation is derived from the goddess Minerva .
history
_St-Etienne.JPG)
The Romanesque church of Saint-Étienne was consecrated as early as 456 and is known for its white marble altar. In the vicinity of the church is the former house of the Cathar priests with a door of the Templar order from the 13th century and the octagonal tower La Candéla, the only trace of the castle and the fortifications.
Special mention is made of the massacre of 140 inhabitants in 1210. The Count of Carcassonne Simon IV. De Montfort was by Pope Innocent III. as well as the French King Philip II with the motto "Caedite eos, novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius!" (German: "Beat everyone dead, God knows his own!") to place all Cathars in Occitania in the Albigensian Crusade .
A small number of Cathars fled to Minerve after the Béziers bloodbath of July 22, 1209 and holed up there. After several weeks of siege, the town of Minerve fell into the hands of the Crusaders as the last refuge for the Cathars . On July 22nd, 1210, the Cathars decided to give up under the castle lord Guillaume de Minerve , who was not a Cathar. The Cistercian abbot Arnaud-Amaury - later Archbishop of Narbonne - promised free retreat as the spiritual leader of the crusade on the condition that they would return to the Catholic Church, also for the Cathars who remained in the city. Outside the city, however, around 140 Cathars were burned at the stake or drowned in the swamp.
The town and castle of Minerve initially became the seat of the king's garrison, but lost their importance and was abandoned. On the orders of Louis XIII. the castle was razed in 1637.
Population development
| year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2009 | 2017 |
| Residents | 138 | 125 | 106 | 112 | 104 | 111 | 125 | 121 |
| Sources: Cassini and INSEE | ||||||||
Culture
Minerve houses the Museum of Archeology and Paleontology ("Musée d'Archéologie et de Paléontologie"). This small museum exhibits fossils that are 600 million years old, as well as prehistoric objects and Roman and Visigoth documents. It is estimated that the surrounding caves were first inhabited around 170,000 years ago.
The Musée Hurepel is showing an exhibition on the Cathars.
literature
- Franz Eppel: Stations of the oldest art: In the land of the Stone Age caves . Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna / Munich 1963, DNB 451130472
- Pierre Minvielle: Grottes et Canyons . Paris 1977
- E. Ferrane Les cavernes des environs de Minerve . Spelunca Memoires, Paris 1901
- Philippe Galant, Jean-Pierre Holvoet: Contribution à l'étude de la grotte d'Aldène . In: Spelunca , n ° 81, 2001, p. 23 ff.
Web links
- Virtual 360 ° panoramic tour through Minerve
- Minerve on cathares.org (French)