However, for the French seneschal Hugh de Arcy, they were rather wicked. In May 1243, at the personal insistence of the Queen of France, Blanca of Castile, with an army of ten thousand, he went to the castle and surrounded it. A handful of haphazardly armed heretics should have been easy prey for his knights. But month after month passed, and the besieged all lived - on a tiny patch, under the scorching heat and piercing wind. A powerful stone-throwing machine, which was installed at the sole of the royal engineers, showered them with a hail of huge stones - and they lived. Rains gave them water, local peasants brought food along secret paths. How they managed to bypass the posts placed everywhere, no one knew. True, it was rumored that sentries, among whom there were many people from Languedoc, did not carry out their service too zealously, however, Montsegur also stood as an impregnable citadel - Mount Segur, “saving mountain”, “reliable mountain”, “impregnable mountain” ...

Once, in the language of the Iberians, a huge hill was called Muno Egu - Mountain of the Sun. The castle, surrounded by the Pyrenean ring, like a halo, was indeed almost always illuminated by the sun's rays ...

He will receive his artistic embodiment thanks to the somewhat painful fantasy of Richard Wagner, who made Montsegur the setting for the gloomy opera about Parzival. However, long before Wagner, the Bavarian knight Wolfram von Eschenbach, the author of the literary Parzival, settled his hero in a mysterious castle owned by the legendary Grail family. Many researchers, however, believe that the name of the "book" fortress - Muncalves - is nothing more than a Germanized form of the name Monsalva. Like Montsegur, for many years this castle was a stronghold of the Cathars, and it suffered the same fate ...

... For almost a year the crusaders stood at the foot of Montsegur. Once upon a time, heretics already lived in these parts - their leader, the Spanish bishop Priscillian, was beheaded in 385 by the order of the Roman Emperor Maximus. His disciples, exiled to the Pyrenees, settled in the mountains, converting the local druids to their faith.

The forest near Montsegur is now called Priscillian - they say that the souls of those who suffered cruel reprisals from the first Christians live in its trees. There are no traces left of the ancient temple - according to legend, it was destroyed by one of the lightning bolts that often strike this peak. The fortress that was erected on the site of the temple by the Visigoths has not been preserved either. In any case, the record of the interrogation of the inquisitors testifies: Raymond de Pereye, at the insistence of Raymond de Belissen, Raymond de Blasco and other heretics, built a new castle on top of Montsegur, because the former one had collapsed to the ground. The case was entrusted to an architect named Arnaud de Bacallaria, seigneur de Villars. For almost 30 years, the castle became the main stronghold of the Cathars. Raymond de Pereye and his famous sister Exlarmonde, whose grave the heretics would worship as a shrine, kept the gates open to all who disliked the Catholic faith. Returning from dangerous and difficult trips around the Languedoc, the "perfect" always found a quiet haven in Montsegur. While he stood, their cause was not lost; and in moments of despair, exhausted by many years of struggle, the southerners were sent here.

To what did Montsegur owe such fame? Perhaps the location - but there were many similar impregnable castles in the Pyrenees, for example, the same Keribus, standing on an even more sheer cliff. Otherwise, the famous fortress can be considered an architectural mistake at all. The width of its gate was almost 2 m, and the height was more than three - such a huge entrance cannot be found in any of the nearby fortifications. They were located at the most vulnerable point and were not even covered by a lifting grate. No machicolations, no barbican, no gate towers, nothing. Moreover, in the opposite wall there was a second gate, as monumental as the first. The walls themselves rose only 3.5 m, and three of them are completely devoid of battlements. The donjon - the main tower - was too low and small to, if necessary, become the last stronghold of the defenders. At the same time, he so absurdly protruded above the wall that it was not difficult for a stone-throwing machine to hit him. The internal stairs were so narrow and steep that it was almost impossible to move along them during the battle. On a small platform carved by winds and rains on the eastern tip, it would be quite possible to install a formidable stone thrower - but nothing of the kind was done. Considering that the architect Montsegur was a student of the famous military engineer Eco de Linard, all these shortcomings look more than strange.

However, in Montsegur everything is strange - as befits the receptacle of such a strange faith. From above, the castle resembles either a ship or a sarcophagus. When you look at it through the window of an airplane, the famous boat of Charon comes to mind, on which the transition from the world of the living to the world of the dead across the River Styx was carried out ... The wall surrounding it has the shape of a pentagon, into which the square of the donjon is set. Just a godsend for occultists! A rectangle that has the proportions of the golden ratio gives rise to a five-pointed star, which, in turn, gives us a pentagon. An endless corridor leading to the Light - after all, even in Ancient Egypt, the pentagram was considered a symbol of Horus, the god of the Sun ...

If we descend from heaven to sinful earth, we will find that the pentagram is a prototype of man. Moreover, the Perfect man - such as he is presented in the famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. Old Sauniere, the hero of the sensational "The Da Vinci Code", having taken the pose of a star before his death, threw to the readers no less riddles than the castle on top of Montsegur - to his researchers. In vain attempts to find answers, they one day ended up in a cave called Bethlehem - and froze in dumb amazement. A pentagon was cut into the vertical rock, and so deep that a person could fit into it, putting his hands, feet and head into five notches in each of the five corners. But who were the people who visited the cave? Perhaps those who yearned for initiation, or the "perfect" themselves, sent sacraments unknown to anyone here? One way or another, reflecting on this mysterious find, the researcher Rene Nelli recalled that the Bogomils - the forerunner of the Cathars - represented the living Christ in the form of a man spreading his arms and legs: “Perhaps for the Occitan Cathars, the pentagram symbolized a material person, and the star in which he was imprisoned - the Spirit of salvation ... "

A lead pentagonal plate was found in the middle of the last century on the top of Montsegur. On it is a relief image of a dove with wings outstretched in the shape of the letter X. The name of Christ begins with this letter in Greek, as well as in Russian. Again we have a transition - from the Kingdom of God's Son to the Kingdom of the Holy Spirit, the symbol of which is a dove ... Whom did this ancient amulet protect - and did it manage to protect? And is Montsegur the embodiment of a ritual image from a nearby cave? If this is so, then it was not only (and not so much) a fortress, but also a temple ...

Engineer and climber Fernand Niel climbed to the top of Montsegur a hundred times. With the most modern instruments in hand, he explored the ruins of the castle up and down. As a result, three books were born: "Montsegur, the sacred mountain", "Montsegur, the city and its history" and, finally, "Montsegur, the temple and fortress of the Cathars of Occitania". It was Niel who established that the castle was oriented to the cardinal points. Visit it on the day of the summer solstice - and you will see for yourself. More precisely, your camera will convince you of this - since a person is unlikely to be able to gain a foothold on the cornice of the loophole. But in the picture it will be clearly visible how a ray of sunlight will pass through the slot of the loophole opposite exactly at noon ...

According to Niel, the mountain was an ideal place for building a castle: “... of all the surrounding peaks, Montsegur is really the only one where the eastern sector of the horizon is free. This allows the observer located there at any time of the year to accurately determine the place where the sun rises.

So what is this castle - a giant sundial, an astronomical observatory or the Temple of the Sun? In the Cathar treatise with the telling title "The Last Supper", scientists have found a position that could give a clue: the entire material world is the creation of Satan, with the exception of the Sun ... And now, opposite the loopholes of the donjon, on the feast of the summer solstice - St. about his shepherd's teaching: “As long as you have the Light, believe in the Light. And become children of the Light…”

Of course, there are skeptics who claim that the one who built the castle could not make such complex mathematical and astronomical calculations. There is some truth in their words. But, in the end, the famous pyramids of Egypt or the temples lost in the forests of Cambodia appeared much earlier - but didn’t they embody knowledge that could baffle even modern scientists?

... About what was happening on the top of the mountain for a long 11 months of the siege, we are best known thanks to the protocols of the Inquisition. After the fall of the fortress, Father Ferrer carefully interviewed the survivors. Here are the numbers: the garrison consisted of 12 knights, 10 squires, 55 men at arms, 10 couriers, a military engineer and their household. But the most important thing is that behind the walls of Montsegur were hiding all the "perfect" who were still alive - about 200 people. The names of 34 men and 25 women have come down to us. Among them are two of the four Qatari bishops - Raymond Agyuye and Bertrand Marty.

It is not known for certain where the death of Montsegur came from. Most likely, one of the surrounding peasants for "30 pieces of silver" showed the crusaders a secret road leading to the fortress. And so, shortly before Christmas in 1243, the Basque detachment, climbing to the top of the mountain, captured the barbacon. However, even after that, the besieged did not flinch. Eyewitnesses said that only on March 2, when the situation became completely unbearable, horns blew on the walls of Montsegur, announcing that the fortress was ready for negotiations. But Bishop Bertrand Marty was in no hurry to hand it over. He asked for a truce and even offered hostages for loyalty.

The terms of surrender were unusually mild for those harsh times - forgiveness was granted to all who renounce their sinful beliefs. They were even guaranteed free exit from the fortress with all their belongings. We agreed on a two-week delay - until March 15. On the 14th, the same mysterious ceremony took place in the castle. And on March 16, all who survived left the fortress. They had a choice: repent and leave - or die. But now everyone was "perfect" - and, having made this choice, he signed his own death warrant. About two hundred men and women were locked in a large wooden shed - and set on fire. And those who remained in the fortress looked from above at the blazing fire. However, most of them also soon found their death - on the branches of the nearest oaks. Now the crusaders could justifiably declare that none of the heretics "defile the world with their breath anymore."

Now this place is called the Field of the Burnt. From the fortress, which French historians call "Montsegur II", not a trace remains - by order of the pope, its walls were destroyed to the ground. What we see today - "Montsegur III" - is designated in guidebooks as "an architectural and historical monument typical of the post-medieval royal French defensive architecture of the 1600s." But even this version, "corrected and supplemented", still, like a huge magnet, attracts lovers of all sorts of secrets ...

... The ghost of countless treasures of the Cathars roamed all over Europe long before the start of the Albigensian wars. They said that they were all hidden in the dungeons of Montsegur. In fact, the poor Waldensians really possessed enormous wealth. Joining the “perfect” caste, they transferred all their property, movable and immovable, to a common “cauldron”. The Cathars did not refuse donations from sympathizers, among whom, as we know, there were people who were not poor. All this accumulated and multiplied exactly as long as the Cathar heresy existed - almost centuries. Part of the funds was used to fight the crusaders, as it became known during interrogations. But not all the same! Many rubbed their hands, waiting for the end of the truce, in anticipation of how, hidden in the depths of the mountains, the treasures of Ali Baba would appear before them ... However, after the fortress fell, nothing was found in it except kitchen utensils and tools. However, some things have come to light.

Realizing that the castle was doomed, the day before the surrender, four "perfect" left it. In the darkness, they descended a rope from a cliff more than a thousand meters high - and disappeared into the night. Commandant Arnaud-Roger de Mirepoix testified under torture: “The fugitives were named Hugo, Ecar, Clamen and Emvel. I don't know anything more about them. I myself helped them escape - they took our treasures and documents with them. All the Qatari secrets contained a bundle ... "

So what was in this mysterious bundle? And what made the hearts of the four beat furiously while their owners swayed on the slippery rope against the wet rock? It was truly a step of desperation - and it was possible to decide on it only for the sake of something that is higher than life and death ...

An old legend says that these four carried away the legendary treasures. But how much gold can a few people take with them? So, if there was a treasure, it was unlikely to be material. Most likely, it was something that simply could not be taken out in advance and remained in the fortress until the very last moment. It was for his sake that the defenders of Montsegur requested a truce, timing its end to a certain date. It is quite possible - by the day of the vernal equinox, since they understood that they could not reach the summer equinox ... Who knows - perhaps this mysterious "something" was, like air, necessary for the ceremony - in any case, as soon as it ended, "perfect "care was taken that it did not fall into the hands of enemies ...

Here is what the French researcher Gerard de Sede writes in his landmark work The Secret of the Cathars:

“... The four fled from the castle not to avoid the fire. They were ordered, risking their lives, to fulfill a mission of extraordinary importance: to save the treasure of the Cathar church ... It is assumed that this treasure was the Grail. Arnaud-Roger de Mirepoix, a Cathar knight, did not reveal a single secret when he told the inquisitors that four "perfect" who received orders to save the treasure, went to the "Castle of So". He shouted out this message, like a sailor throwing a bottle with a note into the sea, in the hope that future generations will find it, and at the same time led the enemies away from the desired goal. Montreal de So was not subjected to the raids of Simon de Montfort and the Inquisition - the Aragonese garrison stood here. Therefore, those who fled from Montsegur headed here.

After the end of the crusade, in 1272, Pierre de Vilar, the seneschal of the French king, on behalf of his sovereign demanded the fortress of Montreal de Saux from the king of Aragon, but the king responded with a categorical refusal. Later, the knights of the Order of Malta settled in the mountains around Vikdeso.

Montreal de So was just a fortress on the way to Aragon, there were two more - Castejon de Sos, in the north of Huesca, and Sos del Rey (Sos du Roi), near San Juan de la Peña. So, from one "castrum de So" to another "castrum de So" the treasure of the "perfect is the Grail"? - left the greedy inquisitors sent by Rome in search of ...

From the city of Tarascon, standing on the river Ariège, a narrow path along the coast leads to the village of Vic de Saux. Further, winding and rising up, it takes us to a tiny village with several houses - Olbier. On the left, from top to bottom, a dense forest runs down, where there are several mines for the extraction of iron and one for the extraction of copper. Above them, at an altitude of 1200 m, on a rocky cliff resembling an ellipse, rise the ancient ruins of two towers destroyed by battles and "wounded" by thunderstorms - this is the Montreal de Sault fortress, one of the oldest in the region.

M. Mandaman: “Numerous lords of the Upper Ariège accompanied Roger, comte de Foix, on the First Crusade. They went around all the places around Jerusalem that became famous, for the passionate path of Jesus Christ passed there: Bethany, the Gardens of Gethsemane, the cave where the tomb with His body was carried, the Kidron River, the valley of Jehoshaphat, and on the Mount of Olives a stone that preserved the footprint of the Lord ascending On sky. Returning and passing by Vic de Saux, the crusaders saw that the village of Olbier is located, like Bethany, on the southern slope of the mountain, and on the eastern side there is a cave and a stream, the valley below resembles the valley of Jehoshaphat. On the top of this mountain, it was decided to build a round chapel, reminiscent of the chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, and call this place in memory of the ascension of Jesus Christ the Royal Mountain. Montreal de Saux thus became a kind of "retrospective" of the place where the Lord suffered.

To get to the top of a small rocky peak, where the ruins of the castle still rise to this day, you need to be a tireless walker and not suffer from dizziness. From the side of Vic de Saux, the ascent is impossible, since the slope there is completely vertical. From the direction of Olbier, the slope is steep and dangerous, but those who still dare to take a walk along it to the top will be repeatedly rewarded for their efforts. He will see that the rocky ledge, where the castle of Montreal de Saux rises, is riddled with caves on all sides. No less than six holes are located on one impregnable slope, and even a cursory examination makes it clear that they are all man-made. One of the passages is closed with a stone slab, the other is covered with clay, the third cave is through, its other entrance hangs over a mountain stream. In 1308, during the siege of the castle, the defenders used trout instead of shells and threw it at the besiegers, thereby wanting to show that no matter how much they were kept under siege, they could not be starved to death. One of the caves, the smallest (it is especially difficult to get to), prepared the most impressive surprise for the researchers.

The entrance to the cave is located under the ruins of a square tower called the Tower du Campanal (Bell Tower). To get there, you need to overcome 10 m of a completely vertical wall, then go down the stones, remotely resembling a ladder (the distance between the steps is no less than a meter), and finally slip into one of the two loopholes overlooking the mountainside. From there, narrow steps of natural origin along a steep and slippery slope lead to the second room, located much higher and illuminated by light penetrating from three sides at once. This second room resembles a small chapel, in the center of which there is a sarcophagus and a prayer stool carved right into the rock. The prayer stool is located against a wall decorated with a striking fresco.

On the right are two squares inserted one into the other, the larger side is 40 cm, the smaller one is 35 cm, the outlines of the picture are made in red. The first square, which is the frame for the second, is decorated with Greek crosses, alternating with the crosses of St. Andrew. Six red drops of blood are depicted in the central square, surrounded by many small crosses. To the left of the two squares is a spear with a dark brown tip, to the right is a round dish, which can be considered an image of a bowl (view from above). This cup is golden yellow. The six small black crosses painted side by side do not fit into the overall composition.

In the drawing we find all the characteristic symbols of the Grail: the Holy Blood, the Holy Lance, the Chalice, or dish (lid), which, according to the text of Chrétien de Troyes, covers it.

For a long time, the existence of this fresco was known only to selected members of the sects. Only thanks to the confessions of one Rosicrucian, made by him in the 1930s, scientists were able to get acquainted with this drawing. Shortly before the war, Count Begouin, director of the Museum of Antiquities of Southern France, commissioned the well-known specialist Abbé André Glory to investigate it, but asked him to be careful. “The Grail,” he wrote to the abbot, “is a poisoned cup, which has already driven many researchers crazy.” Overcoming numerous obstacles, Abbot Glory arrived at the site and confidently dated the fresco to the 13th century. However, he outlined his research and observations in a book called “How I stayed in a cave and contemplated the Grail” ...

Hundreds of scientists around the world have written thousands of scientific treatises on the history of the Crusades. But perhaps no less number of researchers have devoted their minds and their pen to the history of the Holy Grail. If the former in their research rely on numerous documentary evidence - chronicles, letters, diaries - then for the latter, medieval novels have become a truly invaluable source of information. Inspired by the example of Schliemann, who, after reading Homer, dug up Troy swept by the sands, they do not tire of looking for clues in them that can shed light on their research fetish.

The Nazis are said to have heard about the Montsegur mystery from a man named Otto Rahn, author of two bestselling books, The Grail Crusade and The Judgment of Lucifer. His fate was cut short unexpectedly and absurdly - on March 13, 1939, the scientist froze on the Tyrolean mountain peak ...

And about the plans of the Third Reich to search for a superweapon, which could be the Grail, legends and even films will be made for a long time to come. But the pretty image of Indiana Jones can hardly be taken as serious evidence that the Nazi institutes really did this kind of research. True, some sources report that in 1944, on the very day when exactly 700 years had passed since the Montsegur tragedy, German planes were seen over the mountain. They flew in a strange formation that looked like a Celtic cross. Allegedly, Alfred Rosenberg himself, the ideologue of Nazism, was on board one of the planes. Whether this is so is impossible to verify. And we will certainly never know if the mysterious "parade" (if, of course, it took place at all) was somehow connected with the search for the Holy Grail ...

What is this elusive object, which for almost a thousand years has been an inexhaustible source of inspiration for lovers of mysteries? Why does it continue to excite the imagination and disturb the soul, despite the apparent lack of evidence that it exists at all?

“... She was dressed in Arabian silks. On green velvet she carried such a majestic object, the equal of which could not be found even in paradise, a perfect thing, to which there was nothing to add and which was at the same time a root and a flower. This item was called the Grail. There was nothing on earth that he did not excel. The lady, whom the Grail itself instructed to carry itself, was called Repanse de Choy (“Knowing no anger.” - E.M.). The nature of the Grail was such that the one who took care of it had to be a person of perfect purity and refrain from any treacherous thought ... "

This is again the famous "Parzival" by Wolfram von Eschenbach, who, like his predecessor Chrétien de Troyes, the author of the first novel about the Grail, was also haunted by the cherished vessel. However, the medieval romantic also did not know for sure whether this was a vessel. In his novel, the Grail miraculously reincarnates. From a marvelous flower, it turns into a cornucopia, spewing any dishes and jewelry in the blink of an eye. Whoever drinks from it is cured; he awakens the dead to life. But this is far from the last hypostasis of the Grail. “Valiant knights live in a castle where they guard the Grail. These are the Templars, who often travel to distant lands in search of adventure. Whatever the outcome of their battles, glory or humiliation, they accept it with an open heart, as atonement for their sins ... Everything they feed on comes to them from a precious stone, the essence of which is purity ... It is thanks to the stone that the phoenix burns itself and becomes ashes; it is thanks to the stone that the phoenix molts, to then reappear in all its splendor, more beautiful than ever. There is no such patient who, in front of this stone, would not receive a guarantee of avoiding death for a whole week after the day he saw it. Whoever sees it stops aging. Starting from the day when the stone appeared before them, all men and women take the form that they had in the prime of their lives ... This stone gives a person such power that his bones and flesh immediately find their youth again. It is also called the Grail.

So the Grail becomes a stone.

Someone is inclined to see in this the image of the Apostle Peter (Peter means stone), someone remembers the philosopher's stone, breathing new life into the phoenix. Actually, Christ, crucified and ascended, is the phoenix, capable of being reborn from the ashes. According to one theory, it was the blood of Jesus nailed to the cross that filled the cherished Grail. Blood - the basis of life - is identified with the heart; even among the ancient Egyptians, the hieroglyph denoting it had the shape of a vessel.

Later, this vessel was made by angels from an emerald that fell from the forehead of the overthrown Lucifer. The blood of the Savior, having filled the cup, atoned for Lucifer's sin... Given to Adam, the Grail was left by him in paradise - and is still there. They say that the one who finds it will give paradise to all mankind - isn't that what medieval heretic philosophers dreamed of behind the walls of their high-mountain fortresses?

As for the Templars who inhabited the literary Munsalvash, it was this line of von Eschenbach that strangely influenced many researchers. One by one, they began to discover some secret connection between the Knights of the Temple and the Cathars. It was even rumored that the Cathars were part of the highest leadership of the order - on the basis that the Grand Master Bertrand de Blanchefort, in his youth, fought against the French crusaders in the famous Albigensian army of Raymond-Roger de Trancavel. And the accusations brought against the Templars at the famous trial are painfully reminiscent of those that were ordered against the Toulouse heretics.

In fairness, we note that the word "templeise" that Eschenbach uses does not have to be translated as Templar at all. With the same success, the name of the knightly order he invented may sound like “Templars” or “Templars”. It must be said that Richard Wagner, already mentioned above, was more cautious than scientists. In remarks regarding the design of his opera, he emphasizes: “The costumes of the knights and servants of the Grail are similar to the costumes of the Templars, but instead of red crosses, doves with spread wings should be depicted on their cloaks and shields ...”

As for historical facts, Gerard de Sede spoke about this more convincingly than others:

“... The descendants of the Cathars remember well how the Templars and their patrons - the Cistercians defeated their native land, which ultimately became one of the reasons for the arrest of the Knights of the Temple and the subsequent trial of them. The fall of the order began because of the betrayal of one of its members, who gave the King of France Philip the Handsome the rites - real or imaginary - performed by his brothers. The traitor's name was Escu de Fluaran, he belonged to the command of Montfaucon, in the province of Agen. He was from a family of Cathars: before the destruction of the city of Beziers, J. de Fluaran was seen in relations with heretics; J. de Fluaran died along with the rest of the inhabitants of Beziers on July 22, 1209. The same can be said about Guillaume de Nogard, adviser to Philip the Handsome, one of the most active supporters of the destruction of the Knights Templar; Pope Boniface VIII once angrily called him “Pataren, son of Pataren,” that is, Cathar, son of a Cathar.

The thesis that there was a more or less close connection between the Cathars and the Templars is historically completely unjustified ... "

Well, let this remain another myth of Montsegur - a myth that the ancient fortress is so rich in ...

After the fall of Montsegur, individual Qatari fortresses still continued to resist royal power. Husson held out the longest - until 1258. Cathars became less and less. And when the “perfect” brothers Autier, Guillaume and Pierre were captured, followed by Guillaume Belibas, the heresy in Languedoc finally died. It came under direct royal control.

Later, the religious war once again overshadowed this region with its wing - in the 16th century it was the base of the Protestants. The well-known Henry of Navarre was a descendant of the once sympathetic Cathar family of Fua ...

Impregnable fortresses on the rocks, somewhat reminiscent of the famous Greek Meteora, for some time were part of the French border line with Aragon. When the Thirty Years' War between France and Spain ended in 1659, Louis XIV was given the territory of Roussillon, a narrow strip along the Pyrenees. The leading engineer of the court, Sebastian de Vauban, immediately arrived here. He strengthened the fortifications around Perpignan and the new city of Mont-Louis - and the Carcassonne castles of the Cathars were abandoned and forgotten. Their remains are still clinging to the sheer cliffs, like eagles' nests left forever by their proud inhabitants...

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A long time ago in the XI-XIV centuries in the south of France in the land of Languedoc lived people who called themselves Cathars, which in Greek ("katharos") meant "pure". They believed that there is no single god, but there are two: the gods of good and evil, contesting dominance over the world. The immortal spirit of mankind aspires to the god of goodness, but its mortal shell reaches out to the dark god. In life, the Cathars adhered to asceticism. Eating meat, even cheese and milk, was considered a mortal sin. The Cathars rejected icons and the need for churches, and worship consisted solely of reading the gospel. They wore pointed caps on their heads and actively spread their teachings among the gullible population. Ultimately, their teachings spread to other parts of Europe, creating a real threat to the Catholic Church.

It is not surprising that the Catholic bishops recognized the Cathars as heretics and organized the Albigensian Crusade with the leitmotif: "The Cathars are vile heretics! We must burn them with fire, so that the seed does not remain." To the question of one of the warriors, how to distinguish a Cathar from a decent Catholic, the answer was received: "Kill everyone: God will recognize his own!" A holy war began, in which the Cathars were slaughtered by entire cities. By 1243, the last stronghold of the Cathars was Montsegur castle located on a high mountain. Its siege lasted 11 months, several hundred Cathars held back the attacks of ten thousand crusaders. In February 1244, Montsegur was taken, and the Cathars, who refused to renounce their faith, were burned by the Holy Inquisition. The legend says that despite the siege, the Cathars managed to take out and hide their treasures, and a few days before the fall of Montsegur, four daredevils managed to descend the steep cliffs on ropes and carry something valuable with them. According to some assumptions, these were the archives of the Cathars and objects of religious worship, among which could be the Holy Grail - a cup in which the blood of Christ was collected.

Having learned about this story, I wanted to visit these legendary places and see everything with my own eyes, so Montsegur Castle from the very beginning got into the route of our road trip through Europe.

We drove to the castle of Montsegur from Carcassonne on a very picturesque road. Along the edges are green hills and fields, and ahead are the snow-capped peaks of the Pyrenees.

The castle becomes visible even from afar, and the first thought that arises when you see it: how did they build it so high? Aren't they tired of carrying stones, water, food, etc. there?

At the foot of the mountain there is a spacious parking lot, from which a path leads to the castle. Somewhere in the middle of the trail there is a booth in which you need to pay to visit the castle (something around 5 euros). By the way, the booth is open until 5 pm, and after that time there is no one to pay, and the path upstairs does not disappear from this, so, lovers of freebies, draw your own conclusions ;-)

The ascent takes about half an hour - even a child can do it.

Inside the castle turned out to be quite small - it was a little crowded here, probably, it was besieged.

In some places, behind the more recent, restored masonry, the original can be seen.

But, unfortunately, even these ruins have nothing to do with the events of the XIII century, because after the capture of the fortress by order of the Pope, it was destroyed to the ground, and the current buildings were restored and modernized much later by royal architects.

The stairs to the top are blocked by a chain with a prohibition sign. Naive! Can this stop a person with a camera?

This is what the fort looks like from above. It has the shape of a pentagon, which was considered a symbol of the "pure". The Cathars deified the pentagon, considering it a symbol of the dispersion of matter, a symbol of dispersion and the human body.

Below you can see the village, which was most likely founded by the builders of the current castle around 1580.

There is another staircase in the castle, not fenced off by anything, but for some reason there is no desire to climb it... =)

One of the towers is well preserved.

What can not be said about the spiral staircase.

The views around are excellent, even despite the cloudy weather. The piercing wind just blew down.

The mountain next to Montsegur, immersed in a cloud and parking on the road.

Needless to say, according to the law of meanness, when we went down, the clouds scattered, the wind disappeared, and the warm evening sun came out.

It was already around 6 pm, and we still did not have a clear plan where to go next and where to spend the night, so we decided to drive towards the small town of Foix, looking for a place to spend the night along the way. For some reason, the navigator told me to leave the main road and took us to the village of Soula, where we found an excellent guest house Infocus-Du-Sud. A sign near the door proudly announced that this guesthouse on Booking had a rating of 8.7. As it turned out, the price on the same Booking is €85, which was a bit too much for our budget, but the hosts gave us a discount for paying directly with them, and we decided to stay here.

The hosts Dirk and Lin were a very pleasant elderly couple who came here from Belgium. They fed us a delicious breakfast, kindled a fireplace especially for us in a separate living room, which, by and large, had nothing to do with our room, and Leo really liked to go to the garden and count the chickens running there.

The room was clean and comfortable, and the views from the window of the Pyrenees were just awesome. We liked it there so much that instead of one night, we stayed for three. It is worth noting that this was only possible because it was at the end of March and the season had not started yet. As the hosts said, for the summer most of the places were already booked in advance. In general, the guest house lives up to its high rating.

The next day we went to the nearest town to wash clothes and buy groceries.

On the way back, near the village of Rokfiskad, we noticed another castle on the mountain, and decided to take a walk to it too.

In the village, I was pleased with one hotel with a lot of homemade decorations. What are old sneakers-vases worth!

And "wind music" from old spoons and forks?

A path leads from the village to the castle with a sign that matches Leo's hat.

Just like Montsegur was the refuge of the Cathars during the Albigensian Crusade. And just like in Montsegur, these ruins have nothing to do with the times of the Cathars, since the original castle was destroyed by order of Louis XIII, and these buildings belong to a later period.

But nevertheless, the ruins of the castle and the views from the mountain are worth it to spend an hour climbing. Once again, Leo pleased us by going all the way without any problems.

It turned out that the castle is not at the very top, and from it you can climb even higher to the neighboring mountain.

From here the ruins of the castle look even more romantic...

And even sinister.

And another castle we visited is Foix. This French city is known as the capital of the Cathar movement, and the castle was the residence of the counts who became leaders of the resistance during the Albigensian Crusade.

Unlike the previous two, the crusaders did not manage to capture this castle, and it was captured only once in 1486 during a conflict between two branches of the de Foix family, and even then because of betrayal.

This concludes the historical excursion about the Cathars, and we go even higher to the mountains, to the very heart of the Pyrenees - a small but very proud state of Andorra.

Original entry:

Mount Montsegur (Château de Montségur) in the plan of my trip to Provence was designated as a place to visit.

It is believed that in ancient times there was a temple of the sun here, later in the era of the gloomy Middle Ages, Montsegur became a fortress (the very name of the mountain translates as “impregnable”) and the last refuge of the Cathars, an alternative Christian doctrine, whose followers were destroyed during the Albigensian Crusade () .

However, Montsegur attracted (and, by the way, continues to attract) wanderers and riddle seekers because, according to local legends, it was here that the Holy Grail was kept, or at least it was here that it was last seen.

Many people believe in the legend, for example, the researcher Otto Rahn, the author of the book “Crusade Against the Grail”, which inspired Dan Brown to write the novel “The Da Vinci Code”, spent several years in the mountains near Montsegur, trying to find out how true the ancient legend is.

In the photo: a stone with the names of the crusaders carved on it

Getting to Montsegur without a car is almost impossible. The path to the impregnable fortress lies along the roads of less steep mountains, located at a considerable distance from the routes of any public transport. The mountain itself, when you find yourself at its foot, looks like a large cone. You can climb to the top only on foot, narrow paths are not intended for cars.

Officially, the entrance to Montsegur is open until 19.00, but in practice, this means that a person in a booth located in the middle of a pedestrian climb up the mountain sells tickets to enter the fortress until seven o'clock in the evening. At 19.00 his working day ends, he goes home, and the entrance to Montsegur becomes free; that is why, with the onset of twilight, the number of those wishing to climb the mountain does not decrease, but rather increases, and climbing to the top with the onset of evening coolness is still more pleasant.

In the photo: climbing to the top of Montsegur

Having overcome the first, most sloping part of the ascent, we find ourselves on a field of fires. It received its telling name after the events of March 1244, when more than 200 Cathars, the last defenders of the Montsegur fortress, were burned here.

When in 1208 Pope Innocent III announced the beginning of the Crusade against the Albigensian heresy, there were about a million people in Provence and Languedoc who professed this faith.

In the photo: a map of the spread of catharcism in Europe

Being essentially followers of the teachings of Christ, the Cathars believed that our world was not the creation of the hands of God, but of Satan, we live more than once, but constantly reincarnate after death into other bodies (which is why many Cathars were vegetarians), but paradise can only be achieved in the event that everything earthly is rejected, then a person leaves the chain of reincarnations and joins Paradise - the world created by God.

For more than a decade of crusade wars, the army of Rome managed to destroy the population professing catharcism in almost all cities of southern France, and at the same time establish the Inquisition, which was later “famous” for hunting witches.

The last followers of Catharcism took refuge in the fortress of Montsegur, which, at the beginning of the war, Simon de Montfort, the leader of the Pope's army, tried to take, but he did not succeed. In the summer of 1243, the army of the crusade again stormed Montsegur (the reason for this was the murder of several inquisitors by the opponents of the pope). The mountain was taken in a tight ring, and the defenders of the fortress were under siege. Montsegur held out in a state of siege for a year, such a long period is explained, among other things, by the fact that the defenders of the fortress knew secret paths that allowed them to supply provisions to the castle.

However, the army of the cross managed to approach the walls of the fortress, and on March 16, 1244, Montsegur was forced to surrender. The Crusaders offered a pardon to the Cathars if they renounced their beliefs, but no one was willing to do so. Now a Qatari cross has been erected at the site of the mass execution, reminiscent of the tragedy.

Next - a long hike up the mountain along narrow paths lined with stones. During the ascent, it becomes clear why Simon de Montfort, who took all the fortresses in the district, failed to conquer Montsegur: catapults, which were the main weapon for bombing the fortress walls, cannot be pushed uphill so easily. And the crusaders managed to surround the walls of the castle only after the traitors showed them secret paths, without knowing which it is almost impossible to climb up.

From the fortress itself, only ruins now remain: walls made of gray stones where lizards live, and the foundations of a tower - time completed what was started by the crusaders, and the invaders, on the orders of the Pope, destroyed the fortress almost to the ground.

In the photo: the walls of Montsegur, which have survived to this day

It is believed that it was behind these walls that the beautiful maiden Esclarmonde kept an ancient relic - the Holy Grail, however, when the fortress fell, the Grail was not discovered by the crusaders. Locals tell a legend that on the night before the assault on the fortress, the bowels of one of the mountains opened up, and Esclarmonde threw the Grail into their depths, after which the girl turned into a dove and flew away to the east.

However, even the crusaders did not believe in the veracity of this legend. They probably believed, not without reason, that on the night before the assault, several people with the treasure went down the sheer wall of the fortress and took refuge in the surrounding forests (this version is also set out in the Soviet film "Maria Medici's Casket"). One way or another, since then no one has seen the Grail, and no one even knows exactly what it looks like.

We met the sunset at the walls of the fortress. The view from the top is especially beautiful in the evening: the sun, descending, gilds the green tops of the mountains, over which flocks of swallows rush, a light gray haze of fog rising from the ground twitches the piercing blue sky with a silvery translucent veil. Despite all the tragic events that have taken place here, Montsegur does not give the impression of a gloomy place. Rather mysterious and immensely sad.

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Julia Malkova- Julia Malkova - founder of the website project. Former editor-in-chief of the elle.ru Internet project and editor-in-chief of the cosmo.ru website. I talk about traveling for my own pleasure and the pleasure of readers. If you are a representative of hotels, tourism office, but we are not familiar, you can contact me by email: [email protected]

Name

The name Montsegur, meaning "saving mountain" (in Occitan Mount Segur, lat. Mons Securus), superimposed on the early, prehistoric name of the mountain: Muno Egu, which in the Iberian language meant Mount of the Sun.

Some sources report that in 1944, on the 700th anniversary of the fall of Montsegur, German aircraft were seen in the area of ​​Montsegur. They flew in strange formations similar to Celtic crosses. Some claim that Alfred Rosenberg, the ideologue of Nazi Germany and author of The Myth of the Twentieth Century, was on board one of the planes. It is unknown why the planes were close to this area and what their mission, if any, was.

• The basis of the plot of the novel by Yeremey Parnov "The Casket of Mary Medici" and the feature film by Rudolf Fruntov "The Casket of Mary Medici" based on the novel is built on the fact that the Catholics captured the Montsegur fortress. The actions of the novel and the film take place in the second half of the 20th century, but the plot contains repeated references to the time of the destruction of the Cathars.
• Iron Maiden composed and played a song called Montse'gur about the war of the Catholic Church against the Cathars. The song can be found on their 2003 album Dance of Death.
• Chancellor Guy composed and played the song "Montsegur Romance".
• The Tol Miriam group composed and played the song "Courtful Correspondence" with annotation "The Courtly Correspondence of Madame Esclarmonde de Foix and Messire Hugues des Arcies from A.D. 1243 to 1244 during the siege of the castle of Montsegur by the latter."
• In the album of Laura Bocharova "The Ashes of Montsegur" there are several songs on this topic.
• In Paulo Coelho's Brida (1990; translated into Russian 2008), the fall of Montsegur and the teachings of the Cathars play an important role in the narrative.

Here I would be exacted with a generous gift -
A mighty horse - I would be for the king
Under Balagyer he carried patrols sensitively.
In Provence, in Cros and in Montpellier - a massacre.

And the knights are like a flock of crows,
More shameless than a robber bastard.
Peyre Vidal. Translation by V. Dynnik

Ruins of Peyreperthuse castle. As you can see, the castle was perfectly tied to the terrain, so it was very difficult to get close to its walls. And the entrance to it was protected by several walls, one after another!

View of the mountain and the castle of Montsegur. The first thought is how people got there, and most importantly, how did they build this castle there? After all, it’s hard to look from below - the hat falls off!

Yes, but what helped the Cathars to hold out for so long against the army of the crusaders, who had throwing machines and various projectiles for them in abundance? Their faith and fortitude? Of course, both help in many ways, but after all, Carcassonne surrendered due to lack of water, although it was a first-class fortress at that time. No, the Cathars in France were aided by their castles, built in such inaccessible places that it was extremely difficult to take them by storm or by siege. About Carcassonne, which is currently the largest fortified citadel in Western Europe, with 52 towers and as many as three rings of defensive fortifications with a total length of more than 3 km, there has already been a large article on the pages of TOPWAR, so there is no point in repeating. But about many other castles of the Cathars, the story will now be continued.

Puylaurens Castle.

Not far from Carcassonne is the castle of Peyrepertuse, and he, like the neighboring castles of Puylaurens, Queribus, Aguilar and Thermes, was one of the outposts of the Cathars, which were located south of Carcassonne. And it was not just a castle, but a small fortified city at the intersection of the Corbières and Fenuyed mountains - with the streets, the Cathedral of St. Mary (XII-XIII centuries) and fortifications 300 m long and 60 m wide - in fact, a kind of Small Carcassonne. The fortress wall, the castle and the keep of Saint-Jordi were built by order of Louis IX, who wished to have an impregnable fortress here. But the old castle located below was built even before the crusade against heretics and belonged to Guillaume de Peyrepertus, the most influential lord in these parts. Guillaume fought the royal troops for twenty years and submitted to the king only after the suppression of the uprising of 1240 - the last attempt by Count Trancavel to recapture Carcassonne.

Just below the fortified village, on a spur between the hollows of two rivers, at a distance of only half a day's walk from Carcassonne in the direction of the southeast, rise the ruins of the castle of the seigneurs of Sessac. Moreover, the ties between them were long-standing and strong, since Roger II Trancavel (who died in 1194) chose the lord de Sessac as the guardian for his nine-year-old son Raymond Roger, the future new viscount of Carcassonne.

In the courtyard of Sessac Castle.

At the end of the 12th century, there were many heretics of both sexes in Sessac: "perfect" and deacons received "believers" in their homes and directly in the castle itself.

The donjon and several vaulted halls that have survived to this day date back to the era when the castle was captured by Simon de Montfort, who did not meet any resistance here. Senor Sessac himself "went into the partisans" and therefore was considered an exile. Before the establishment of peace, the fortress repeatedly passed from hand to hand. In the 13th century it was restored by the French, and in the 16th century it was also rebuilt.

Donjon of one of the strongholds of the lords of Cabaret.

The Cathars and four castles of the lords of Cabaret - the Cabaret castle itself, the castle of Sürdespin (or Flördespin), the castle of Curtine and Tour Regine - real eagles' nests on the tops of steep mountains, surrounded by gorges and located in a tight triangle within line of sight of each other. They are also called the castles of Lastour, as they are located on the territory of the commune of the same name. They are located only two to three hours on foot north of Carcassonne. The mountain landscape here is harsh, but these regions are rich in deposits of iron, copper, silver and gold, which brought wealth to the lords of Cabaret. At the end of the 12th century, these possessions belonged to the brothers Pierre-Roger and Jourdain de Cabaret, major vassals of the Viscount of Carcassonne. They provided shelter for heretics and patronized their churches, and hosted troubadours - singers of courtly love, which they themselves indulged in, and in such a way that it left a noticeable mark in their family chronicle.

The next castle of the lords is Cabaret. The one that was in the previous photo is visible in the distance. And it becomes quite clear that it was simply impossible to besiege all four of these castles at once, and taking them in turn would only be a waste of time!

Simon de Montfort failed to capture the Cabaret. In 1209, the fighting here did not last long: too many people were required to simultaneously siege all the castles, and too much time to capture them one by one, since the use of siege machines against castles located on peaks with a steep ascent was excluded. Meanwhile, the garrison, which included many "expelled" lords, ambushed, attacked a crusader column of fifty spearmen and a hundred infantrymen, and took hostage the lord Pierre de Marly, an ally of de Montfort himself, who at that time was just these three castles and besieged.

Here they are - all the castles of the Cabaret seigneurs one after another ...

At the end of 1210, several lords leave Cabaret and surrender to the crusaders. The castle of Minerve was surrendered, then the castle of Thermes. Pierre-Roger realized that, in the end, he would not be able to resist, and hurried to save all the “perfect” and “believers” who were with him, after which, in 1211, he surrendered to his own captive Pierre de Marly, stipulating that everyone those who surrender will be spared their lives.

A modern model of Therme Castle as it appeared in 1210.

Ten years later, his son Pierre-Roger Jr. recaptured all three of these castles and his father's lands, after which more than thirty seigneurs-rebels gathered in Cabaret, which turned it into one of the centers of resistance of the Cathars, which stopped only in 1229, when Louis IX forced the lords who patronized them to make peace with him. But even before that, all heretics, including their bishop, were evacuated and hidden in safe places. The last uprising took place in August 1240, when Raymond Trancavel again led his army to Carcassonne. The lords de Cabarets and their mother, the noble lady Orbri, then managed to regain all these castles, but in October all this was lost again, and this time for good.

When Simon de Montfort captured the Minervois region in the spring of 1210, he failed to capture two castles: Minerve and Vantage. Minerve Castle became a place of refuge for his lord Guillaume de Minerva and several other lords expelled from their lands. In mid-June, Montfort approached the castle with a large army. The village and the castle were located on a rocky spur of a limestone plateau, where the gorges of two mountain streams converged, which dry up almost completely in summer. The narrow passage on the plateau was blocked by a castle, the village was surrounded by steep ravines, and the walls and towers of the castle were a continuation of this natural defense, so it was simply impossible to send troops to storm under these conditions. Therefore, Montfort chose to surround the castle, installing a catapult at each position, and the most powerful of them, which even had its own name - Malvoisin, Montfort placed in his camp.

The non-stop bombardment of the castle began, walls and roofs collapsed, stone balls killed people, the passage to the only well with water was destroyed. On the night of June 27, several volunteers managed to surprise and destroy the gun crew at Malvoisin, but they, in turn, were caught on the spot and did not have time to set fire to it. There was a strong heat, it was not possible to bury the numerous dead, which greatly facilitated the task of the crusaders. In the seventh week of the siege, Guillaume de Minerve surrendered on the condition that all the vanquished be spared their lives. The crusaders entered the fortress, occupied the Romanesque church (it has survived to this day) and invited the Cathars to renounce their faith. One hundred and forty "perfect" men and women refused and went up to the fire themselves. The rest of the inhabitants went to reconciliation with the Catholic Church. When Minerve was taken, he also surrendered to Vantage. Later, the fortress was destroyed, and only ruins remained of it, including the octagonal tower "La Candela", reminiscent of the Narbonne Gate in Carcassonne with its masonry. Only a few stones left here and there remind today of the walls of the once mighty castle of the lords of Minerve.

It was crowded in the Munsegur castle, to be sure!

Known to almost everyone who has heard at least a little about the Cathars, Montsegur Castle was built in Ariège on top of a steep and lonely cliff by Raymond de Perey, the son of the heretics Guillaume-Roger de Mirepois and his wife Fourniera de Perey. This was done at the request of the "perfect" of the four Cathar dioceses of Languedoc, who gathered in 1206 in Mirpois. They considered that if the information about the impending persecution of them was confirmed, then Montsegur (which means “reliable mountain”) would become a safe haven for them. Raymond de Perey set to work and built a castle and a village next to it on the most steep part of the rock. From the beginning of the war in 1209 until the siege in 1243, Montsegur played the role of a refuge where the local Cathars hid when the Crusaders approached the area. In 1232, the Toulouse Bishop of the Cathars Gilabert de Castres arrived in Montsegur with two assistants and "perfect" - about thirty clergymen of high rank, accompanied by three knights. He asked Raymond de Perey to agree that Montsegur would become "home and head" for his church, and he, having weighed all the pros and cons, took this step.

Donjon of Montsegur Castle. Inside view.

Taking as assistants an experienced warrior, and his cousin, and later son-in-law Pierre-Roger de Mirpois, he made up the garrison of the castle from eleven "expelled" knights and sergeants, infantrymen, horsemen and shooters, organized its defense. In addition, he also provided everything necessary for the inhabitants of the village located next to him, whose population numbered from 400 to 500 people. The supply of food and feed, the escort and protection of the "perfect" during their trips to the villages, the collection of land tax - all this required constant traveling, so the Montsegur garrison was constantly increasing, and its influence was growing; many sympathizers came to the castle, artisans and merchants who kept in touch with the holy people, whose abode could be seen on the horizon from almost anywhere in the Languedoc.

The first and unsuccessful siege of the castle by the troops of the Count of Toulouse dates back to 1241, which thus maintained the appearance of cooperation with the king. In 1242, Pierre-Roger, at the head of experienced warriors, raided Avignon, killed the priests and inquisitors who had gathered there, and devastated everything in his path. This served as a signal for another uprising in Languedoc, which, however, was brutally suppressed. In 1243, all the rebels, except for the Cathars of Montsegur, signed a peace. The French decided to destroy this nest of heresy and besieged the castle in early June, but until mid-December, nothing special happened in its vicinity. Shortly before Christmas, two "perfect" secretly took the church treasury to the Sabartes cave. Meanwhile, the royal troops still managed to get to the top, and throwing weapons were placed near the walls of the castle. It ended up that on March 2, Pierre-Roger de Mirpois nevertheless surrendered the fortress, the soldiers and ordinary residents left it, they were spared their lives and freedom, but the “perfect” of both sexes, including their bishop Marty, were offered a choice - renounce the faith or go to the stake. A few days later, around the 15th, the fortress was opened, and 257 heretics, men, women, and even children, went up to the fire, surrounded by a palisade of spears. This place is still called the Burnt Fields to this day.

Legend says that in those days when the walls of Montsegur were intact, the Cathars kept the Holy Grail there. When Montsegur was in danger, and the armies of Darkness besieged him in order to return the Holy Grail to the diadem of the Prince of This World, from which he fell when the angels fell, at the most critical moment a dove descended from heaven, which with its beak broke Montsegur into two parts. The Guardians of the Grail threw him into the depths of the chasm. The mountain closed again, and the Grail was saved. When the army of Darkness nevertheless entered the fortress, it was already too late. The enraged crusaders burned all the committed not far from the rock, where now stands the Pillar of the Burnt. All of them died at the stake, except for four. When they saw that the Grail was saved, they went through the underground passages into the bowels of the Earth and continue to perform their mysterious rites there in the underground temples. Such is the story of Montsegur and the Grail in the Pyrenees even today.

After the capitulation of Montsegur, the peak of Queribus, which rose to a height of 728 m, in the very heart of the Hautes-Corbières, remained the last impregnable refuge of heretics. There they could stop during their wanderings - some for a while, and some forever. The citadel was surrendered only in 1255, eleven years after the capture of Montsegur, most likely after the departure or death of the last "perfect", such as, for example, Benoit de Thermes, the chief bishop of Razes, about whom from 1229, when he received refuge in this castle, there was no news. Keribus is a rare type of donjon with truncated edges; today it has a large Gothic hall open to the public.

Queribus Castle.

Another castle similar to it - Puylaurens, like Queribus, was built on a mountain 697 meters high. At the end of the 10th century, he moved to the abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cux. The northern French did not succeed in capturing this fortress, in which the lords expelled from everywhere found shelter. But after the end of the war, it was abandoned. However, perhaps that is why its defensive structures are so well preserved: the donjon of the XI-XII centuries. and jagged curtains with round towers on its sides, as it were, defy time. It was possible to get into the castle only along a ramp with partitions, and the steepness of the rock protected its walls from stone cores and from possible digs under them.

In the castle of Carcassonne, and now you can shoot movies, which, by the way, they do there!

Puyvert Castle is located in the Kerkorbe region. It was built in the 12th century on the shore of a lake (disappeared in the 13th century) on a barrow overlooking a nearby village. The open landscape here is much more pleasing to the eye than the wild cliffs on which most of the Qatari castles are located. And yet, this castle also belonged to the Cathars, the feudal family of the Congost, connected by numerous marriage ties with noble families of heretics throughout the Languedoc. So Bernard de Congost married Arpaix de Mirpois, sister of the lord of the castle of Montsegur, and cousin of his captain. In Puivert, she surrounded herself with a retinue of enlightened people, poets and musicians, which was fashionable in that era in the Provençal regions and lived to her fullest pleasure, without denying herself anything. Shortly before the crusade against heretics, she felt unwell and asked to be taken to the "perfect", where she died, having received "comfort", in the presence of her son Guillaume and relatives. Remaining faithful to the Cathar heresy, Bernard died in Montsegur in 1232, but Guillaume and his cousin Bernard de Congost, together with the Montsegur garrison, later participated in a devastating raid on Avignon. Both of them will defend these sacred places to the very end.

This castle itself, when Montfort approached it with his troops in the autumn of 1210, was held for only three days, after which it was taken and handed over to the French lord Lambert de Thury. At the end of the century, it became the property of the Bruyère family, thanks to which it was significantly expanded in the 15th century and re-enclosed with a magnificent fortress wall. The square keep of the castle consists of three halls, located one above the other. In the upper hall you can see eight wonderful consoles with sculptural images of musicians and musical instruments, reminiscent of the times so far from our days of Lady Arpaix and the “troubadours of love” belonging to her retinue.

One of the most unusual castles in Qatar is Ark Castle, built for some reason on a plain. Its walls are not high, but there stands an impressive donjon!

Here it is - the donjon of the Ark castle!

Side tower of the donjon of the Ark castle. Inside view.

Ark Castle was also built not in the mountains, but on the plain, and at present only its donjon with four corner towers remains of it. The fortress wall surrounding the castle is almost completely destroyed, but the elegant silhouette of the four-story donjon, now covered with pale pink tiles, rises above the surroundings as before. Its internal structure also testifies to the great skill and ingenuity of the Languedoc masters of that distant time, who managed to create such strong and monumental structures that they not only withstood the cruelty and foolishness of people, but also successfully resisted the forces of nature for many centuries, and even the most inexorable time.

And what a memory of that time at the foot of Mount Montsegur, there is still a cross on the “Field of the Burnt”!