ABOVE: The memorial at Montségur

Cathar country

The castles of Cathar stand today as testament to a dark and troubling time in the history of France. Best-selling author Kate Mosse tells the gripping tale of genocide in the lush Languedoc, while Anthony Collins experiences the majesty of these ancient buildings on a walking tour 

This is a significant year in the history of the Languedoc. Now a popular tourist destination, it is a place of wild contrasts – the plains of the Narbonnais, the garrigue of the Corbières, the soaring peaks of the Pyrénées and the plains of Carcassonne. But this green, welcoming, fertile landscape was once the scene of the most brutal genocide and religious oppression. This year sees the 800th anniversary of the launch of what has become known as the Cathar – or Albigensian – Crusade.
In March 1208, Pope Innocent III preached a Crusade against a sect of Christians in the Languedoc. They are now usually known as the Cathars – a whole tourist industry has built up around this single word – but they called themselves Bon Chrétiens or Bons Homes. Bernard of Clairvaux called them Albigensians, after the city of Albi which was one of the main centres of Catharism in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Inquisitional Register refers to them as ‘heretici’, heretics. Pope Innocent aimed to drive the Cathars from the Midi and restore the religious authority of the Catholic Church. The northern French barons who joined his Crusade – the Count of Nevers, the Count of Saint-Pol, Pierre d’Auxerre, Count Eudes of Burgundy – saw an opportunity to acquire land, wealth and trading advantage, by subjugating the fiercely independent southern nobility.
Although the principles of Crusading had been an important fixture of medieval Christian life since the late 11th century – and during the Fourth Crusade at the siege of Zara in 1204, Crusaders had turned on fellow Christians – this was
the first time a Holy War had been explicitly preached against Christians
and on European soil. The persecution
of the Cathars led directly to the establishment of the Inquisition in
1233 under the auspices of the Dominicans, the Black Friars.

Occupation
Whatever the spiritual or theological motivations of the Catholic church – and some of the Crusade’s temporal leaders, such as Simon de Montfort – the Albigensian Crusade was ultimately a war of occupation and marked the turning point in the history of what is now France. It signified the end of the independence of the south and the destruction of many of what could be seen as its more democratic, more inclusive traditions, ideals and way of life. Like the term ‘Cathar’, the word ‘Crusade’ was not used in medieval documents. The army was referred to as ‘the Host’ – or ‘l’Ost’ in Occitan. 
In spring 1209, the organised army and the mob of hangers-on assembled in Lyon. With Arnold Amalric, Abbot of Cîteaux, at its head, and a little-known English baron, Simon de Montfort alongside him, the Host snaked down the Rhône Valley, red crosses stitched to their chests, then along the Via Domitia west towards Montpellier. There they paused, long enough for Raymond VI of Toulouse to switch sides and join the Crusaders to fight against his own people and kinsman, Raymond-Roger Trencavel, the Viscount of Carcassonne, Albi and Béziers. It was the first of many acts of treachery, which were to undermine the southern cause.
The first engagement was at Béziers on 22 July 1209, the Feast Day of St Mary Magdalene. Through a gate left open, the Crusaders were able to storm the city in an attack that was vicious, relentless and excessive. Estimates vary, but within the course of a few hours, Béziers was razed to the ground and some 20,000 Biterrois were massacred. Three days after the fall of Béziers, Narbonne surrendered without a fight. The Host turned west, its sights set upon Carcassonne. All along the route, Azille and Olonzac, towns opened their gates to the invaders. Hilltop villages were left deserted at the rumours of the savagery inflicted by the Crusaders. The mass of soldiers and accompanying civilians could plunder grain stores, farms and orchards.
Raymond-Roger Trencavel, Seigneur
of the Château Comtal, was preparing Carcassonne to withstand an attack. All available wood within La Cité had been utilised to make the overhanging galleries installed all along the top of the fortified walls, known as hourds. Even the choir stalls from the cathedral of St Celse and St Nazaire were ripped out.
The Crusaders arrived on 1 August and made camp in the shade on the banks of the River Aude. Outside the walls of the cité, three suburbs including the Jewish Quarter, were vulnerable to the invaders. On 3 August, Le Bourg was taken, giving the attackers control of the western bank of the river. From then on, with the citadins’ access to the water cut off, the cause was lost. In the event, the siege was over almost before it had begun. On 15 August 1209, the Feast Day of the Assumption, Viscount Trencavel gave himself up as a hostage to save his people and Carcassonne. He died in November in
the dungeon of his own castle.

Perilous punctuations
The brown heritage signs south of Toulouse that read ‘Vous Êtes en Pays Cathares’ are, for many of us, the sign
that we are home. The region is now, indeed, Cathar Country. And, in a physical and immediate sense, it is the so-called Cathar castles – so visible, so perilous, punctuating the landscape of southern France – that symbolise so perfectly the courage, the hopelessness, the nobility of the Cathar cause, from Usson, close to the ski resort of Ax-les-Thermes in the Pyrénées, Lastours to the north of Carcassonne, to Montségur itself, home to the Cathar church from 1204 until 16 March 1244, when the Crusade reached its bloody, poignant, ugly conclusion. When you look up to the ruins of Montségur – even though they are not actually the same walls that sheltered the besieged Cathar community, the fortress having been rebuilt several times over the intervening centuries – there is nonetheless the sense that it is only right there should be a city in the sky, halfway between the heaven and the earth, reminding us of what once was
800 years ago.

Walking the Cathar Way
The Sentier Cathare – or Cathar Way – was created to link many of the important sites in the Cathar story using the ancient tracks that have connected the settlements since prehistoric times. It starts in Foix and 250 kilometres later walkers completing the route can cool their toes in the Mediterranean Sea at Port-la-Nouvelle. Although the region is sparsely populated, the growing popularity of the route means there are now plenty of places to spend the night.The old pack horse tracks adopted by the sentier pass near to the principal castles but as any fortress worth its salt is built on an impregnable pinnacle, a castle visit will inevitably involve a detour with some stiff climbing. To do the full route justice would take ten days but if this is too ambitious, why not try some shorter rambles? And there is no better place to start than Montségur.                                        

Montségur
The imposing crag of Montségur dominates the landscape for miles around, and it was here that a defining event took place that ensured the Cathars’ place in history. After
a siege of ten months the Cathars were offered the opportunity to be free if they recanted their heresy. Instead they came down the mountain and surrendered and in March 1244 more than 200 allowed themselves to be burned at the stake rather than give up their beliefs.
It’s easy to see why someone would choose Montségur to make a last stand. The castle sits on a conical hill known
as a pog in the local Occitan language, an imposing sight in the landscape. The final lift is a sheer cliff that blends into the walls of the castle ramparts. My walk to the top coincided with an annual cycling event, the Ariégeoise. Not quite a race, but known as a cyclosportive, it attracts 3,000 club cyclists, riding 165 kilometres with 3,000 metres of climbing. While they crested the col to the accompaniment of an accordionist, I turned up the mountain path. Near the bottom, a Cathar cross marked with a little bunch of roses has been erected as a memorial to those martyred in the bonfires. Leaving the meadow, the rough path winds to the top through low trees, popping out on to the bare limestone outside the castle walls. What you see though is not really a Cathar relic. After Montségur was taken, the conquering army’s first action was to demolish the original fortifications to discourage future resistance. However, by incorporating the Languedoc within the Kingdom of France, the Albigensian Crusade had pushed out the border with Spain and now the strategic position of the mountain led to the building of a new castle. This was improved over the next 400 years until 1659 when the border moved south and Montségur and most of the other castles in the region were abandoned. All that remains today is the high perimeter wall peppered with the holes that once supported wooden floors. Very little trace remains of the Cathars themselves; just the terraced ruins on the hilltop and some artefacts found here that are kept in the little museum in the village below. The legacy of their occupancy has ensured that plenty of myths have grown up over the ruins, from one about solar alignments through the windows at the summer solstice to tales of generations of grail hunters and of mysterious formations of Nazi German planes flying over on the anniversary of the massacre. Although there is a great view from the top you need to have an aerial platform to fully appreciate the dramatic setting of the castle and I envied the
pilot of the microlight who buzzed overhead as I started the walk back down.

Quéribus
From a distance, the castle of Quéribus looks like as if it has been carved from the living rock with its single tower precariously balanced on a pinnacle of limestone. It was the last of the Cathar castles to be taken in 1255 but with less drama than at the fall of Montségur. In contrast to the ruined appearance of the former, it is one of the best preserved castles with an interesting vaulted ceiling in the tower supported by a single central column. Quéribus saw some further fighting in the 15th century when the Spanish briefly took up residence but after their eviction and the redrawing of the border, it lost its strategic purpose looking down from its eyrie on the passes below.

Peyrepertuse
The castle of Peyrepertuse is on a much larger scale. From below, with its jagged walls lining a long ridge, it looks like a mouthful of broken teeth, the limestone cliffs and castle ramparts reflecting a golden glow in the late afternoon when I made my exploration. The access road winds up to just below the final escarpment and there is only a short climb to reach the castle itself. Peyrepertuse was occupied by opponents of the Crusade but was not a Cathar stronghold and was surrendered without putting up too much of a fight.
It became one of the most important fortresses in the region, dubbed one of the five sons of Carcassonne, guarding the border with Aragon. Troops were garrisoned here as late as the French Revolution. From the entrance I walked through a series of ruined battlements towards the highest point, the castle keep of San Jordi (Saint George), reached by climbing a flight of steps carved into the solid rock. From here looking back, the whole fortification is spread out on the ridge below, the far end tapering to a point like the bow of a huge ship.

Roquefixade
In addition to the up and down walks to the castles there are also plenty of shorter, circular walks in the hills, such as  the eight-kilometre marked route at Roquefixade which can be completed in under half a day. Following the red and yellow paint waymarks the walk starts in front of the Mairie and crosses the large square overlooked by the castle on its high crag above the red tiled roofs of the little houses in the village. The route then gradually climbs and the view opens out to give a wide panorama of the Pyrenean foothills to the southeast – the pog of Montségur and its castle walls stand out clearly among them. Further up in a wide clearing is evidence of a later conflict, a memorial to 17 French Resistance members executed by the Germans in 1944.
Just before a small hamlet the route takes a left turn, route markings change to yellow, and shortly starts a long descent through a dense beech wood and the unfortunate consequence is the long and zig-zagging climb that follows. Part way up, the path passes an orri among the trees, the local version of an ageless construction method found all over the world where herdsmen needed a shelter. At last the top of the ridge is reached and the path
passes between little meadows with wild flowers. Round a corner the castle reappears and there is a spectacular view of the lush green valley in the direction of Foix. The last leg is an easy drop back down into the village rejoining the
Sentier Cathare on the way. While gluttons for punishment can make a detour to climb to the summit of Roquefixade Castle, I headed for the gîte d’étape in the village for a well deserved cold drink.


FRANCOFILE
How to get there
If you want to walk the entire Cathar Way you can reach the starting point at Foix by train and catch another at Port-la-Nouvelle where the route finishes on the Med. Unfortunately there isn’t a direct rail link to return to the start but the railway runs parallel to the Sentier from Quillan, roughly half way, if you fall behind schedule and need to rest your legs. For more information on getting to the area, turn to the Holiday Planner on page 88.

Places to stay
There are plenty of gîtes d’étape along the Sentier Cathar and if you are walking you will have to take pot luck with your overnight stops.

Gîte d’étape Roquefixade
09300 Roquefixade
Tel: (Fr) 5 61 03 01 36
www.gite-etape-roquefixade.com
A typical example of a gîte d’étape, Roquefixade has some smaller rooms as well as the usual hostel style dormitory.

Camping à la Ferme La Besse 
09500 Camon
Tel: (Fr) 5 61 68 84 63
www.camping-labesse.com
Modern wooden cabins, simply furnished but with all mod cons.

Tourist information
Comité Départmental du Tourisme de l’Aude
11000 Carcassonne
Tel: (Fr) 4 68 11 66 00
www.audetourisme.com

Comité Départmental du Tourisme Ariège Pyrénées
09000 Foix
Tel: (Fr) 5 61 02 30 80
www.ariegepyrenees.com

More information
Two invaluable pocket walking guidebooks by Alan Mattingly are published by Cicerone: Walks in the Cathar Region and The Cathar Way.