Cathar Castles of Languedoc: The four castles at Lastours are, Quertinheux, Cabaret, la Tour Regine, Surdespine, 100km to the south you will find Peyrepertuse & Sant Jordi, a further 12km to the south east is Queribus (only 5km as the crow flies), and Puilaurens is 33km west of Queribus.

The Cathars were Gnostics, believing people should shun the material world and embrace the spiritual.  The Albigensian Crusade was declared by Pope Innocent III in 1209, against the Cathars as they were seen by Rome to threaten the authority of the Church. 

Quertinheux, seen from the village of Lastours. Three of the castles of Lastours, Cabaret, Surdespine and Quertinheux, were built in the middle of the XIth century, tour Régina was built sometime after 1255.

Three chateaux of Cabaret, la Tour Régine and Surdespine, stand in a line, on a ridge that is only 450m long and 50m wide. Quertinheux is built close by but on a separate pinnacle, overlooking the village of Lastours. The ridge is 300m high and there is a small dirt path between each chateau. 

Looking from Cabaret to Tour Regine and Surdespine

Peyrepertuse has always been a "remote castle on an inaccessible mountain top", it is on an 800m high limestone ridge. It was never attacked during the crusades but was surrendered in 1217. It was reclaimed, and then surrendered again after the 1240 Siege of Carcassone. It was originally built by either the Catalan Counts of Besalu or the Spanish kings of Aragon in the 11th century, (first mention is c. 1020) but was then annexed by France. It became a French possession in 1240. and a second, higher castle, le chateau Sant Jordi, was built by King Louis IX. Peyrepertuse then became a fortress of the French frontier line. 

The original castle, viewed from Sant Jordi.

Queribus is perched on a narrow rocky peak at 728m. Following the siege of Montsegur in 1244, the last of the Cathars were sheltered here - it fell to King Louis IX in 1255 and was another fortress on the French/Spanish border until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 when the border was fixed at it current location further south. 

Spot the man in the orange tee shirt walking up to the castle.

Finally on our trip we visited Puilaurens, spotting it one evening from the village of Lapradelle as the setting sun was reflected on the castle walls.