Quéribus

Even on the approach road from Duilhac, the nearest village, it is difficult to detect where the rock stops and the castle starts. The pinnacle is so sheer as to seem utterly inaccessible, but the climb from the car park to the castle is in fact relatively easy, ten or fifteen minutes’ walk along a shady path with very little scrambling required. The ruins are extensive, and impressive.

Peyrepertuse : Cathar castle

Near to Cucugnan and Duilhac

The main part of the château, over 200m long, is irresistibly reminiscent of the prow of a ship, running along the top of an 800m (2,600 ft) high crag. Further along the ridge, and at first sight completely unreachable, is the keep of San Jordi (Saint George), even higher than the castle itself. Investigation reveals a flight of 60-odd steps carved from the rock, winding their way from the curtain wall up to the ultimate "fortress within a fortress". Needless to say, the view from here is worth every minute of the climb. On the day we visited, hang-gliders were swooping silently around in the updraughts on the sunny side of the crest, like huge birds of prey.

Peyrepertuse was never subjected to siege or attack during the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars; it fell nevertheless to French forces in November 1240, through negotiation rather than force of arms. The King (Louis IX) naturally appreciated the virtues of its defensive position and it was he who had San Jordi and the steps linking it to the main fortress constructed. Peyrepertuse was now a base used to harass the remaining Cathars in the region. But unlike Montségur (in the neighbouring département of the Ariège) it was never illuminated by the flames of the bonfires on which Cathar perfecti were burned alive. Subsequently, along with Aguilar, Quéribus, Termes, and Puilaurens, Peyrepertuse became one of the "five sons of Carcassonne" protecting the frontier with Aragon. A small force was garrisoned there until the French Revolution.

Quéribus

Cathar castle ©CDT/Davy

Looking to the east from Peyrepertuse, you will see the château of Quéribus perched on its crag, like a finger pointing stubbornly at the sky, witness to the fact that it was the last of the Cathar strongholds to fall, in 1255. It is still probably the best preserved of the border castles, and the most inaccessible. The climb is longer and considerably steeper than at Peyrepertuse, but once again you are rewarded by the view. Very little remains of the original castle; it was much modified to meet changing needs.

If you are curious to find out more about the Cathars and their persecution, we can recommend three books, available through our association with Amazon UK. The Cathars, by Malcolm Lambert, is part of a series called The Peoples of Europe and covers the history of the heresy throughout Europe. A more local and colourful approach is taken by Zoe Oldenbourg in Massacre at Montségur. And there is also the classic Montaillou by Emmanuel Leroy Ladurie, a vivid account of the lives of medieval peasants in their own words, taken from the court records of the Inquisition.

Below Quéribus is the village of Cucugnan, which had fame conferred upon it by a well-known story, Le Curé de Cucugnan. The tale relates how the priest in the village, alarmed by the lack of faith among his parishioners, conjured up such dreadful visions of hell in a fire-breathing sermon that subsequent visitors to the village were struck by the universal piety of the inhabitants. The story was originally told in Occitan by Achille Mir, one of a group of 19th-century writers known as the "Félibres", dedicated to keeping Provençal culture (or at least a sanitised version of it) alive. It was subsequently popularised by another member of the group, Alphonse Daudet, in his collection of tales of Provençal life Lettres de mon Moulin ("Letters from my Windmill"). This probably accounts for the fact that lots of people think Cucugnan is in Provence. In any case, the village now houses a "pocket theatre", the Théâtre Achille Mir, in which the tale is re-enacted. A ticket for the theatre entitles you to entry to Quéribus, and vice versa. Incidentally, the church in Cucugnan has an unusual statue of a pregnant Virgin Mary.

The third castle in this terroir is Padern, a romantic ruin on a hill overlooking the stepped village of the same name on the banks of the Verdouble. Particularly picturesque at sunset, it has been known as "the gates of heaven". The castle was destroyed in the Middle Ages, rebuilt in the 17th century, and is now once more a ruin.

It is worth remembering that these evocative sites are not just "Cathar" castles. They can also be seen as memorials to a kingdom that never was, a culturally united realm of Catalans and Occitans. The splitting of Charlemagne’s empire between his three feuding sons in the 9th century ensured that the kingdom never became reality: instead Languedoc became a prize to be fought over by Aragon and France, with France the ultimate winner after the Albigensian Crusade. Today the memory is kept alive by the handful of Occitan militants and the more politically powerful Catalans. The Catalan spirit of independence is well summed up by the 12th-century oath of allegiance to the king: "We, who are as good as you, swear to you, who are no better than we, to accept you as our king .. provided you observe all our liberties and laws; but if not, not".