Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc
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How it came to be
In August 1209 the crusading army of the papal legate Arnaud Amalric besieged Carcassonne, a stronghold of the Cathars. Viscount Raymond-Roger Trencavel was seized while negotiating a surrender and died in his cell three months later. After the Albigensian Crusade the city submitted to the kingdom of France in 1247.
In the 13th and 14th centuries the Capetian kings built a defensive network of 22 fortresses across the former seneschalty of Carcassonne. The castles guarded the seneschal's seat at Carcassonne, held down newly annexed land and watched the border with the Kingdom of Aragon. They took fortification models developed for the plains of the Ile-de-France and fitted them to the crags of the Montagne Noire and the Pyrenean foothills.
When the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659 gave Roussillon to France and moved the border south, the mountain fortresses lost their purpose and became shelters for shepherds and bandits. Carcassonne's ramparts were restored by Viollet-le-Duc from 1853 to 1879. In 2026 Carcassonne and the fortresses of Aguilar, Lastours, Montségur, Peyrepertuse, Puilaurens, Quéribus and Termes were inscribed.
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