Château d'Aguilar

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Castle Aguilar

The Aguilar castle on the territory of the commune in southern France Tuchan Aude department is widely regarded to be the so called Cathar castles and was formerly of great strategic importance. Since 1949, the castle ruins is recognized as a monument historique.

Location

The castle is situated on a 96 -meter-high hill ( 321 meters above sea level. Above sea level), which dominates the plain of Tuchan, and guards the entrance to the interior of the highlands of the Corbières.

History

The first references to a castle ( castrum ) at this point can be found in the year 1021, the viscounts of Carcassonne handed over the place in the 13th century on their vassals -. , The lords of Termes. These were close to the Katharerlehre; whether the castle was destroyed during the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229), is unclear. For the first time the castle came in 1241 to the French crown, but it was 10 years later returned to her last owner Olivier de Termes, who, however, in 1262 to the French king Louis IX. sold; was then extended to the castle - in addition to Termes, Quéribus, Puilaurens and peyrepertuse - to the ' five sons of Carcassonne '. Their task was to guard and defend the border with the Kingdom of Aragon and later to Spain. But in the years 1525 and 1542 the troops of Charles V. conquered only temporarily the castle. The Pyrenees Peace of 1659 condemned the plant because of the changed boundary layer to insignificance and it was abandoned.

Architecture

Like most castles of the Middle Ages, as well as Aguilar was originally built of roughly hewn stones or not at all; larger building stone are found only at the building corners or entrances. For the expansion took place in the 13th century to a border fortress, that is, for the outer walls with their six round towers, one related on the other hand quite well hewn and smoothed on the surface of stone material that was walled up in horizontal layers. As in the past - - scree material was inserted between the outer and inner walls kept rather simple. The inner residential tower ( donjon ) comes essentially still the 12th century. Just outside the castle complex is a small Romanesque chapel ( Chapelle Sainte- Anne).

Pictures

South Tower

Loopholes

Chapel