I've already been in Carcassonne. The postcards of the other fortresses I found them in one of the many trips I did between Portugal and Switzerland.
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| Fortresses of Languedoc |
The serial property comprises eight fortified sites – Castle and ramparts of Carcassonne and the fortresses of Aguilar, Lastours, Montségur, Peyrepertuse, Puilaurens, Quéribus, and Termes – representing a core part of the Capetian defensive system established in the 13th–14th centuries following the Albigensian Crusade. Built on rugged rocky ridges in strategically significant locations, these fortifications formed the backbone of the newly created seneschalty of Carcassonne, asserting the authority of the seneschal over the former territories of independent feudal lineages. Together, they illustrate the political, military and territorial consolidation of the Capetian Crown in Languedoc through ostentatious architecture adapted to dramatic topography. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1755/
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| Cité de Carcassonne |
The Cité de Carcassonne is a medieval citadel located in the French city of Carcassonne, in the Aude department, Occitania region.
The fortified city consists essentially of a concentric design of two outer walls with 52 towers and barbicans to prevent attack by siege engines. The castle itself possesses its own drawbridge and ditch leading to a central keep. The walls consist of towers built over quite a long period. One section is Roman and is notably different from the medieval walls, with the tell-tale red brick layers and the shallow pitch terracotta tile roofs. One of these towers housed the Catholic Inquisition in the 13th century and is still known as "The Inquisition Tower". - in: wikipedia
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| Châteaux de Lastours |
The Châteaux de Lastours are four so-called Cathar castles in the French commune of Lastours in the département of l'Aude. The four castles are on a rocky spur above the village of Lastours, isolated by the deep valleys of the Orbeil and Grésilhou rivers. They were built at an altitude of 300 m along a rock wall just 1,300 ft (400 m) long by 165 ft (50 m) wide. Cabaret, Surdespine and la Tour Régine stand in line, while Quertinheux is built on a separate pinnacle close by.
In the Middle Ages, the site belonged to the lords of Cabaret, mentioned for the first time in 1067. Their wealth came mainly from the exploitation of iron mines.
The castles at Lastours were a centre of Cathar religious activity during the 13th century. The castle village sheltered numerous 'Perfects' homes and the Cathar bishops went to stay in Cabaret: Arnaud Hot, Pierre Isarn and Guiraud Abith. In 1229, the fortress launched the Cathar resistance in the Languedoc. This period was called the Guerre de Cabaret (War of Cabaret). - in: wikipedia
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| Château de Montségur |
The Château de Montségur is a former fortress near Montségur, a commune in the Ariège department in southern France. Its ruins are the site of a razed stronghold of the Cathars. The present fortress on the site, though described as one of the "Cathar castles," is actually of a later period.
In about 1204, Raymond de Péreille, one of the two lords of Montségur, the other being his cousin Pierre-Roger de Mirepoix, decided to rebuild the castle that had been in ruins for 40 years or more. Refortified, the castle became a center of Cathar activities, and home to Guilhabert de Castres, a Cathar theologian and bishop. In 1233 the site became "the seat and head" (domicilium et caput) of the Cathar church. It has been estimated that the fortified site housed about 500 people when in 1241, Raymond VII besieged Montsegur without success. The murder of representatives of the inquisition by about fifty men from Montsegur and faidits at Avignonet on May 28, 1242, was the trigger for the final military expedition to conquer the castle, the siege of Montségur. - in: wikipedia
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| Château de Peyrepertuse |
Peyrepertuse is a ruined fortress and one of the so-called Cathar castles located high in the French Pyrénées in the commune of Duilhac-sous-Peyrepertuse, in the Aude département, and has been associated with the Counts of Narbonne and Barcelona.
It is located on a limestone ridge at about an altitude of 800 m, on top of a hill which separates Duilhac from the town of Rouffiac-des-Corbières, towering over scrubland and vineyards. A strategic position which enables one at the same time to see far into the valleys that circle it, to control the mountain passes, or to send communication signals to the château de Quéribus a little further south. - in: wikipedia
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| Château de Quéribus |
Queribus is one of the "Five Sons of Carcassonne", along with Aguilar, Peyrepertuse, Termes and Puilaurens: five castles strategically placed to defend the French border against the Spanish, until the border was moved in 1659. - in: wikipedia
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| Château de Puilaurens |
The Château de Puilaurens is one of the so-called Cathar castles in the commune of Lapradelle-Puilaurens in the Aude département.
The castle is located on Mont Ardu. This name appears for the first time in 958 in a charter where Lothair confirms the donation of Sunifred II, Count of Urgell, lord of Fenouillèdes, at the Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa of the provostship of Puilaurens which is composed of the Boulzane valley or Sainte-Croix valley. - in: wikipedia
- Château et remparts de Carcassonne
- Château d’Aguilar
- Châteaux de Lastours
- Château de Montésgur
- Château de Peyrepertuse
- Château de Quéribus
- Château de Puilaurens
- Château de Termes
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