| Page Views: 714 Last Visit to Carcassonne: May, 2007 | The Cathar Route by Elisabcn - last update: Aug 9, 2009 |
The bloody crusades that were waged against the Cathars during the 12th century swept through the ancient civilisation of the langue d'oc: a civilisation of troubadours, courtly love, tolerance and democracy before its time, leaving behind them only ruin. These places steeped in history and left mysterious castles, lovely cittadels...there are some abbeys that have something to do about this topic too |
| French Pyrénées in Montsegur |
|  | My List There are a lot of places related to the Cathars but I only had 4days so I had to choose. This is what I visited:
-Carcassonne
-Mirepoix
-Montségur Castle
-Cahors
-Rocamadur Sanctuary
-A short technical step in Narbonne
-Fontfroide Abbey
-We wanted to visit Quéribus and Peyrepertuse Castles too but it was raining hard :-(( |
| | But who were the Cathars and the Catharism? Catharism is the last range of a long social and cultural development started in the far-off Persia, with Zoroaster, and took root in Languedoc (a region that during the Middle Ages had an incredible cultural development) during 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. It predicates the purity of the spirit and the renounce to all the material goods. From their houses (les maisons) the perfects or priests predicated a new vision of the world that had nothing to do about the official church (the Vatican) whose ministers were rolling in money. The perfects not only talked about theology but also about the woman’s emancipation, democracy and social welfare thanks to the daily work. At the beginning of the XIII century, the Cathar filosophy had reached a high influence in all Languedoc and its main cult places where the most important villages of the region: Carcassone, Toulouse, Béziers, Albi, Mazamet, etc
The Roman Catholic Church regarded the sect as heretical and fought hard to suppress them with the help of nobility from northern France.
There are a lot of legends and mysteries about Cathars in that region and some places like Montsegur have something . . . well I found there too much energy . . . |
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| Pros: | "beautiful landscapes, history, mysteries . . ." | | Cons: | "France is very expensive!" | | In A Nutshell: | "4 days are not enough :-((" |
Elisabcn's Carcassonne Travel Tips
 Comments for Elisabcn about Carcassonne | | | | |
balhannah Fri Oct 2, 2009 22:27 UTC
I found your pages very interesting. Your photos make me want to pack up and go there for a holiday straight away. These areas have always been on my wish list, just have to get there somehow! | nomad7890 Fri Oct 2, 2009 02:40 UTC
Hola Elisa! Just visited your pages- noticed you've been to Carcassonne - which I'd love to visit. I read a historical novel, La Reina Oculta by Jorge Molist, that touched on the Catars - this is why I want to visit the area. Nice pages! Martha | Nemorino Mon Aug 24, 2009 22:16 UTC
I like the way you describe this area from the viewpoint of the (defeated) Cathars, not the victorious Catholics. After all the awful things that happened, the guidebook has a lot of nerve to proclaim the "deep spiritual and serene peace" of Fontfroide. | tiabunna Mon Aug 24, 2009 08:15 UTC
Very enjoyable reading and thank you for enlightening me about the black madonnas, Elisa. Like you, I find the Cathars fascinating. |
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