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Castle in France

The Château de Montségur (English: Castle of Montsegur; Languedocien: Castèl de Montsegur) is a former fortress near Montségur, a commune in the Ariège department in southern France. Its ruins are the site of a razed stronghold of the Cathars. The present fortress on the site, though described as one of the "Cathar castles," is actually of a later period. It has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1862.

The ruins of Montségur are perched at a precarious altitude in the south of France near the Pyrenees. Located in the heart of France's Languedoc Occitanie regions, southwest of Carcassonne, Montségur dominates a rock formation known as a pog — a term derived from the Languedocien dialect of Occitan — puòg or puèg, meaning "peak, hill, mountain." The top of the ruin is reached by a path and is 170 m above the road.

The earliest signs of human settlement in the area date back to the Stone Age. Evidence of Roman occupation such as Roman currency and tools have also been found in and around the site. The name comes from Latin mons securus, which evolved into mont ségur in Occitan, which means "safe hill". In the Middle Ages the Montsegur region was ruled by the Counts of Toulouse, the Viscounts of Carcassonne and finally the Counts of Foix. Little is known about the fortification until the time of the Albigensian Crusade.

In about 1204, Raymond de Péreille, one of the two lords of Montségur, the other being his cousin Pierre Roger de Mirepoix, decided to rebuild the castle that had been in ruins for 40 years or more. Refortified, the castle became a center of Cathar activities, and home to Guilhabert de Castres, a Cathar theologian and bishop. In 1233 the site became "the seat and head" (domicilium et caput) of the Cathar church. The murder of representatives of the inquisition by about fifty men from Montsegur and faidits at Avignonet on May 28, 1242, was the trigger for the final military expedition to conquer the castle, the siege of Montségur. In 1242 Hugues de Arcis led the military command of about 10,000 royal troops against the castle that was held by about 100 fighters and was home to 211 Perfects (who were pacifists and did not fight) and civilian refugees.

Iron Maiden published a song titled "Montségur", about the Catholics' stakes of Cathars, on their 2003 album Dance of Death. German thrash metal band Paradox's album Heresy deals with the persecution of the Cathars. Belgian symphonic black metal band, Lemuria, also released a 2010 album, Chanson de la Croisade, dealing with Cathars persecution in the Albigensian Crusades. The Era albums allude to the history of the Cathars, and the first album mentions Montségur on its cover. In Peter Berling's pentalogy The Children of the Grail and in Julia Navarro's La sangre de los inocentes, the siege of Montségur is described. Maurice Magre's novels «The Blood of Toulouse» and «The Treasure of the Albigensians» center around the history of Catharism and the siege of Montségur. The Les Mystères du peuple (1849–1856) series of historical novels by Eugène Sue, features a historical novel about the persecution of the Cathars at Montségur. This story was later translated into English as The Iron Pincers. In Dan McNeil's novel The Judas Apocalypse, set just after the landings at Normandy during the Second World War, a German archaeologist and a group of American soldiers go looking for the Cathar treasure that was removed from Montségur. Sylvie Miller & Philippe Ward's novel The Song of Montségur (Le Chant de Montségur, 2001) pits the Roman Catholic Church against an ancient secret society of Nazis looking for the Holy Grail in Montségur. Kathleen McGowan's novel "The Expected One" incorporates the story of the Siege of Montsegur in the telling of Cathar history. Robert Shea's 1986 novel, All Things Are Lights features the siege of Montségur as part of its narrative. Sophy Burnham's novel, The Treasure of Montségur (2003) focuses on the siege of the castle. E. D. deBirmingham's novel, Siege Perilous, revolves around the Siege of Montsegur in a somewhat alternate/magical history. Richard Stanley's documentaries, The Secret Glory (2001) and The Otherworld (2013) detail the neo Cathar revival of the nineteen twenties and thirties, its ramifications in the present day and the mythic connections between Montségur and the Grail. The Casket of Maria Medici, 1980, Detective film based on Cathar treasures legend.