Puilaurens Castle

The Château de Puilaurens (Puilaurens Castle, also Puylaurens; in Occitan: lo Castèl de Puèg-Laurenç) is one of the so-called Cathar castles in the commune of Lapradelle-Puilaurens in the Aude département. The castle is located above the Boulzane Valley and the villages of Lapradelle and Puilaurens. There is a path from Axat to the castle.

The castle is located on Mont Ardu. This name appears for the first time in 958 in a charter where Lothair confirms the donation of Sunifred II, Count of Urgell, lord of Fenouillèdes, at the Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa of the provostship of Puilaurens which is composed of the Boulzane valley or Sainte-Croix valley. The document also mentions the presence of a Saint-Laurent church serving as a fortified and hilltop refuge from the Carolingian period.

The first known castellan of Puilaurens is Pierre Catala who appears as a witness in the acts of Guillaume de Peyrepertuse in 1217. In 1229, Guillaume de Peyrepertuse commanded the castle of Puilaurens and, in 1242, it was held by Roger Catala, son of Pierre.

In addition to the castle, a village was built all around it, which made Puilaurens a Castle.

It is known only for the role of refuge of the castle during the Albigensian Crusade. In 1240, a woman named Saurine Rigaud, inhabitant of Fanjeaux and a Cathar believer, found refuge in Puilaurens, where she met twelve monks including eight women.

In 1242, the Cathar deacon of Fenouillèdes, Pierre Paraire, stayed there. Several Perfecti were housed there from 1245 to 1246.

Around 1250, the castle passed into the hands of the crown of France. By a letter dated August 1255, Louis IX of France ordered the seneschal of Carcassonne to fortify the castle. It is these works which inaugurate the appearance of the castle as we know it today. Saint Louis had it reinforced to defend the Languedoc against Aragonese incursions. The Treaty of Corbeil of 1258 made the castle one of the fortresses on the border of the kingdom facing the Aragon.

It then becomes one of the "Five sons of Carcassonne" with the castles of Quéribus, Peyrepertuse, Château de Termes and Château d'Aguilar, all located at the top of “impregnable” rocky peaks.

Text adapted from “Château de Puilaurens” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Puilaurens Castle ranks #1,059 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #88 of the 469 mapped in France. Founded 1201, it is older than 77% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 825 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 6,221 times in the last 60 days, more than 87% of the atlas. Wikidata records about 22,000 visitors in 2019. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Perpignan, 50 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.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗