Saissac
Saissac is another tenth century or earlier castle. It
was first mentioned in 958 when Gilbert the magistrate of Saissac made
a grant to Montolieu abbey. Lands here had been held by the abbey
as early as 950. Later in 960, it was bequeathed by Bishop Hugh
of Toulouse to Count Roger of Carcassonne
(d.1011). Judging from this, the castle could have been founded
by the Visigoths of Septimania represented by the viscounts of
Carcassonne against Merovingian Aquitaine represented by the counts of
Toulouse. In the 1002 will of Count Roger, he granted Saissac
castle with its castellany and magistrates to Vernassonne abbey.
Some time soon after 1030 and probably in 1034, in a statement of faith
to his uncle, Bishop Peter of Girona (d.1050), Count Roger of Foix
(d.1064) mentioned Saissac castle keep with its fortifications.
By 1070 the castle may have been held by a Hugh Saissac who witnessed a
contemporary concord for the count of Carcassonne.
Between 1107 and 1120 a Isarn-Jordan Saissac figured in the Crusades,
but in 1124 he and William Saissac revolted against Count Bernard Aton
Trencavel of Carcassonne (d.1129) in favour of the count of
Barcelona. Some years later a Hugh (Isarn?) Saissac paid homage
to Cecily Provence (d.1150) the widow of Bernard Aton.
Isarn-Jordan seems to have held Saissac as late as 1149, for in that
year he founded the abbey of Bonnefont en Comminges.
Catharism is attested early at Saissac with Pons Jaule Castelnaudary
being recorded there in 1159. The troubadour Peire Vidal also
stayed at the castle in this era. Later Bertrand Saissac was
charged with eradicating the heretics in his district in 1194, but he
did nothing. He was also one of the guardians of Count Raymond
Roger Trencavel of Carcassonne (1185-1209). He was married to Ava Fenouillet and was still lord in 1209, when the castle was seized on the fall of Carcassonne
and given to the Crusader, Bouchard Marly (d.1226). In 1224
Jordan and Oliver, the sons of Bertrand Saissac, together with Peter
Fenouillet (d.1242+), retook their castle. However in 1229 they
were evicted again and the fortress was granted to Lambert Thury after
1234.
The town of Saissac fell to Raymond Trencavel and Jordan Saissac in the
rebellion of 1240, but probably not the castle. Jordan eventually
made his peace and received Hautpoul and estates around Mazamet in
exchange for Saissac itself. Louis IX (d.1270) restored some of
the lordship to the descendants of Bertrand, but the castle remained
with Northerners. Finally in 1262 Peter Fenouillet's body was dug
up and burned for his heresy.
During the reign of King Louis IX (d.1270), a great hoard of over 2,000
coins dating from 1250 to 1270 were hidden near the village in a
ceramic pot. The coins can still be seen within the rebuilt part
of the fortress. Later the castle went to Eustace Levis (d.1327)
in 1325 after his marriage to the heiress Beatrix Thury (d.1361).
The Levis had come with the Crusaders from the Ile de France and had
been made lords of Mirepoix after its fall
to the Crusaders in 1210. However, the castle left the Levis
family with Eustace's only daughter Isabelle (d.1362+) who married
Bertrand l'Isle-Jourdain (d.1349). Bertrand's granddaughter
Margaret took the castle to Arnaud Euse Carmain and their son, Hugh
Carmain or Caraman by 1410. Arnaud was nephew to Pope John XXII
(1249-1334).
Around 1545 the castle passed to Jean Bernuy though his wife, Margaret
Caraman. The Bernuys then used the fortune they had made in
commerce to rebuild the castle during the time of the Wars of Religion
(1562-98). In both 1568 and 1580, Protestant troops destroyed the
village overlooking the castle but were unable to take the
fortress. By the end of the seventeenth century it was tending to
ruin and by 1759 was described as mostly derelict. In 1793,
during the French Revolution, the castle as confiscated, sold privately
and used as a stone quarry. Finally in 1862 the keep was
dynamited during a hunt for treasure.
Description
Unusually the village overlooks the castle, which stands on the edge of
a south running ridge at 1,500' above sea level. The fortress is
very long at 330' N-S by a maximum of 100' wide. That the site is
overlooked would suggest that the fortress was founded when artillery
was not as strong as it became after 1100. It is also apparent
that the village moved up the hill away from the castle and
church. Possibly this occurred during the Cathar Crusade
(1209-29).
The castle is very rectangular in layout, with its highest ward being
towards the church with the village beyond. At the highest point
of the ridge on which the castle stands, lay a great keep. This
area has been recently cleared and it shows a confused network of walls
which now stand mostly under 6' high. This network covered the
bulk of the rectangular main ward of the castle, being about 90' E-W
and 65' N-S. The ward itself is definitely composite as the
varied thicknesses of the walls and their illogical layout shows.
The original keep appears to have been a rectangle, about 42' E-W by
36' N-S with walls about 10' thick. The make up of this seems to
be semi-herringbone, with some layers rubble laid, and others at an
herringbone angle. One wall ran away from this structure from the
southern end of its west wall and ran out beyond the current line of he
west curtain. Its fossilised end can be seen in the exterior of
the west curtain.
At a later date, internal to the enceinte, rectangular towers were
added to N&S of this. The masonry of these towers was rubble,
but did not contain herringbone. To the north the NW tower was
built upon an earlier curtain. This can be seen as an external
offset that runs from the fossilised wall end to the west, around a
right-angled corner and to the site of the keep north wall which it
meshes into. This wall facing of the keep would appear to be a
replacement, made when the north face of the keep was made into an
eperon or spur, probably in the thirteenth century when the internal
stair turret was added. This face of the keep is built upon
bedrock which projects some 4' from the current ground level. The
joint between the tower and the upper storeys of the NW tower is
readily apparent.
The
remaining fragment of keep stands 3 storeys high and has 2 out of 3
straight crossbow loops remaining to the north. On the summit is
a further, later storey with a singular north loop and much thinner
walls. On top are remains of 3 merlons and 3 crenels some 65'
above ground level. On the spur's NE side one loop remains in the
top storey and some fragments of others lower down. At the base
to the NW are the remains of one side of a portcullis groove, protected
by what appears to have been a murder hole as wide as the portcullis to
the exterior. Presumably the original gate was to east of the
keep where the current doorway is at the end of the old wall running
east from the SE corner of the keep. The current gate was
therefore inserted when the keep north wall was rebuilt as the
eperon. Internally the space created by the eperon was filled
with the pentagonal stair turret.
To the south of the keep 3 walls ran towards the later curtain which
marks the boundary with the middle ward. To the east a tall
curtain revetted the ward and was buttressed to N&S by rectangular
towers that were built on the external ground level. These towers
were 2 storeys high from internal ground level, plus a deep
basement. Both housed latrines which emptied at external ground
level some 40' below the ward. To the SW a flight of steps led
down into the basement beneath the eastern side of the ward and into
the middle ward. The chambers above this might be as late as the
sixteenth century.
The roughly square middle ward contained a logis to the east.
This has recently been rebuilt and now houses a small museum.
From here access was gained to the later lower ward to the south.
This long rectangular ward was further extended south, probably in the
Wars of Religion, when two boldly projecting round towers were added
with a short stretch of curtain to the SE and SW. Previously the
ward seems to have had an unflanked end some 10' short of the
towers. Another set of lodgings were placed along the west
wall. At the ward's NW corner a hole in the wall gate was
protected by projections to N&S and a barbican wall to the west
North of the keep lay the outer ward. Possibly this was built to
allow another entrance to the castle, the west gate being the original
method of egress. This upper ward had two corbelled out circular
turrets to the NW and SW and an internal rectangular tower at the NE
corner. South of this tower was another 2 storey set of lodgings.
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