Coustaussa
The original castle was possibly built by the Bezier family as in 1157
Raymond Trencavel Bezier (murdered 1167) granted Coustaussa to Peter
Vilar (d.bef.1210). The castle fell in 1170 to King Alfonso
of Aragon (d.1195). When Simon Montfort (d.1218) and the Crusaders
advanced on the fortress after the successful siege of Termes in late
November 1210, they found Coustaussa abandoned. Apparently
the garrison, under the young son of Peter Vilar, seeing what had
happened at Termes, had fled. Consequently the army continued
on their way to try their luck at Puivert. After finding
Crusader rule intolerable Coustaussa, like many other Languedoc
castles, rebelled in 1211. This happened when Simon Montfort
was at Narbonne with a crowd of newly arrived Crusaders. They
immediately went to Coustaussa castle and attacked it, forcing its
surrender after a few days. They then marched on
Castelnaudry. It seems likely that the Vilar family are the
same as the Vivier family who were certainly holding Coustaussa by
1244, when they also had a house within Fenouillet castle.
The fortress passed to Peter Fenouillet of nearby Fenouillet castle and
in 1367 to the Montesquieus by the marriage of Geraude Fenouillet to
Saix Montesquieu. The Montesquieus retained the lordship
until the French Revolution. The castle was apparently intact
until the nineteenth century when its woodwork was sold.
Description
The castle lies at the high point of a ridge at the west end of
Coustaussa village. It consists of two concentric,
rectangular enclosures. Both are now heavily
ruined. In the inner ward are the remains of a Romanesque
loop which suggests the antiquity of the structure. The ward has
a low, square tower to the east, with the main body consisting of four
main chambers running from east to west with a central block that forms
a pair of transepts like a church. Surrounding this is the
outer ward which had a projecting rectangular tower to the north and a
suite of rooms to the south. The inner ward was rebuilt as a
house that had at least one bartizan at the NE corner, the upper floor
being of a different, thinner build than the lower two floors with the
Romanesque window to the east. The windows to the north look
sixteenth century at the earliest. The whole can be seen to
be much ruined and much rebuilt.
Why not join me here and at other French
castles? Information on this and other tours can be found at Scholarly
Sojourns.
Copyright©2019
Paul Martin Remfry