Château d'Arques

The Château d'Arques (Languedocien: Castèl d’Arcas) is a ruined 14th-century castle in the commune of Arques in the Aude département of France. It is one of the so-called Cathar castles.

In the 12th century, there was a conflict between the viscount of Carcassonne and several seigneurs, including Arques and Lagrasse. The estates at Arques became the property of the seigneurs of Termes.

In 1217, Béranger d'Arques was one of the associates of Guillaume de Peyrepertuse.

In 1210, after the defeat of the Château de Termes during the Albigensian Crusade, Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, attacked Arques. After having burned the village (Villa de Arquis), situated on the banks of the Rialsès, he gave this part of Razès to one of his lieutenants, Pierre de Voisins.

In 1284, Gilles de Voisins began work on building a castle, with the intention of defending the Rialsès valley and controlling the transhumance routes leading to the Corbières Massif.

In 1316, Gilles II de Voisins, known as "Gilet", altered and completed the castle.

In 1518, Françoise de Voisins, the last of the Voisins, married Jean de Joyeuse who took the barony of Arques. The castle was abandoned in favour of Couiza.

In 1575, the castle was besieged by Protestants and only the keep managed to resist the assault.

By the start of the French Revolution the castle had fallen into ruin. It was sold as a national asset and subsequently suffered severe damage.

The castle consists of an enceinte and a high square keep with four turrets. It was built after Albigensian Crusade of the 13th century on lands given to Pierre de Voisins, one of Simon de Montfort's lieutenants.

The almost square enceinte (51m by 55m) encircles the castle with a gateway furnished with machicolation and surmounted with a keystone bearing the arms of the Voisin family ("De gueules à trois fusées d'or en fasce, accompagnées en chef d'un lambel à quatre pendant de même"). Numerous buildings must have existed the length of the enceinte. Two well-preserved residential towers remain.

The square keep, 25 m high, is a work of military architecture inspired by castles in the Ile de France. It has four levels served by a spiral staircase. The various rooms were constructed with extreme care. The top floor was given over to defence of the castle.

Text adapted from “Château d'Arques” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Château d'Arques ranks #2,649 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #208 of the 469 mapped in France. Founded 1284, it is older than 67% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 825 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,402 times in the last 60 days, more than 57% of the atlas. Wikidata records about 8,506 visitors in 2019. 6 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Perpignan, 52 km away. It is one of the 18 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Cathar Country. See how France compares in the castle statistics.

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