Montaillou
In the eleventh century Montaillou belonged to the counts of
Foix. By 1226,
like Usson, it had come
into the hands of Bernard Alion, who in 1236 cemented his allegiance to
the anti-Crusaders by marrying Esclarmonde, the daughter of Count Roger
Bernard of Foix (d.1241). The castle passed to Alion's
brother in law in 1258, after Bernard was burned alive as a heretic at
Perpignan. The walls are then said to have been doubled in
thickness by Foix, though there seems no trace of such thickening. In 1318 the whole village was arrested on
the orders of Bishop Jacques Fournier, the former Cistercian abbot of
Fontfroide. He was later to become Pope Benedict XII and
because of this his voluminous notes on this inquisition was kept in
the Vatican until the present day. This allowed Emmanuel Le
Roy Laduire to detail the life of the village from 1294 to
1324. The castle was ordered demolished by King Louis XIII in
1638.
Description
On another craggy ridge end site, the castle has a rectangular tower on
its highest point to the south. This tower was at least three
storeys high, although all features, other than the bare walls with
putlog holes and the remains of two small apertures in the long north
wall, have long gone. The walls are thin and the masonry is
almost in herringbone style, although the south wall is totally
missing. The style points to an early, maybe pre eleventh
century construction. Beneath the keep is a rectangular
bailey to the NE. This retains vestiges of revetment walls of
uncertain date. Below to the east are outer works in no
better condition.
Why not join me at other French
castles? Information on this and other tours can be found at Scholarly
Sojourns.
Copyright©2019
Paul Martin Remfry