Château cathare de Quéribus

This is the town of Cucugnan, Corbières village immortalized by Alphonse Daudet in his famous sermon priest, stands the castle of Quéribus. Perched on a narrow rocky outcrop, the castle emerges and projects its massive silhouette at 728 meters. Mentioned in 1020, the castle of Quéribus becomes part of the County Besalù and Barcelona and finally enters the house of Aragon in 1162 as a royal fortress. A "family Cucugnan" appears for the first time in 1193. During the crusade against the Albigensians, it appears as one of the champions of the cause of the Languedoc. Thus, before 1240, Pierre de Cucugnan refueling heretics Castle Puylaurens and hosts the Faidit Aniort of Guiraud. In 1240, he joined Raymond Trencavel who laid siege to Carcassonne. Following the failure of the siege, he submits to St. Louis. The castle is still home to the Cathars Quéribus. The deacon of Razes, Benoît de Termes, took refuge under the authority of the Chevalier Chabert de Barbaira. It was finally forced to yield to St. Louis in 1255. Last bastion to fall, eleven years after the fall of Montsegur, it becomes a centerpiece of the defensive French. Quéribus is one of the "son of five Carcassonne" with Aguilar, Peyrepertuse, Puilaurens and Terms. Its strategic location of the first order allowed him to exercise a remarkable oversight on the Roussillon plain to the south and to bar the entrance of the Massif des Corbières to the enemy. It loses its strategic interest in 1659 when the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which sets the border with Spain to its current location.