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Château de Montségur is a ruined fortress in southwestern France. It was rebuilt on what is considered the last Cathar stronghold destroyed at the end of the Albigensian Crusade. At just over 1,200 m above sea level, the fortress dominates the valleys of Ariège along the Pyrenees.
In the beginning of the 13th century an existing fortress was restored by Occitan nobleman Raymond de Péreille in order to provide Cathars a safe haven on top of a rocky outcrop as French crusaders pressed against them. The fortress became a refuge and eventually the seat of the Cathar Church, joined by faydits, lords and knights dispossessed of their land by the crusaders. The Catholic Church in turn called Montségur the 'Synagogue of Satan'. Several hundred men and women, the majority of them non-combatant, made their last stand on this peak facing thousands of crusaders.
The first major assault of the Albigensian Crusade was the Massacre at Béziers in 1209, in which 20,000 victims were reportedly slaughtered.
On the night of 28th May 1242, a group of faydits from Montségur killed eleven church inquiry members who traveled through Avignonet, drawing the Crusade's attention to the Cathar community gathered at the site.
King Louis IX of France ordered a siege at Montségur which started on May 1243, lasting 10 months, including a harsh winter, until the besieged surrendered on March 1244. After surrendering, the Cathars had to choose between renouncing their faith or perish. On 16th March 1244, more than 220 Cathars were burned at the stake, according to some reports at a field at the bottom of the stronghold.
After the fall of Montségur, the Cathars had to go underground or flee to Italy and Spain as the Inquisition resumed to deal with survivors it deemed to be heretics. Occitanie was annexed to the Kingdom of France, and the decline of its distinct culture began.
Catharism was a dualistic sect of gnostic revivalism that established itself in medieval Occitanie. They held that the material world was the creation of Satan, and that the Catholic Church was serving this evil principle, the True God was to be found in the spiritual realm beyond this fallen creation. Although the Catholic Church focused on heresy, the Albigensian Crusade was entangled with politics, such as the fact that Jews and Cathars could participate in the fabric of life in Occitanie, and a desire to annex the region to the Kingdom of France which at the time was allied with the Crown of Aragon, rivals of the French.
In modern days, Montségur became politicized and cherished by mystics identifying with the tragedy of the spiritual community who made it their last stand. Otto Rahn, German medievalist and Ariosophist, and later SS officer believed he found a pre-Christian Aryan pagan community in Montségur. In the 1930s he rewrote reports about a lost Cathar treasure hidden before the fall of Montségur to fit German Grail myths, later to be appropriated to the esotericism of the Third Reich. To Rahn, the Holy Grail was no longer a chalice containing the blood of Christ, but a stone that dropped to earth along with the fallen angels, more specifically an emerald once adorning the crown of Lucifer himself, whom he considered to be the true lightbringer. Fallen out of grace with the Third Reich, according to some reports because of his sexual orientation, Rahn was found dead on March 13, 1939 in Tyrol.
While some continued to appropriate the Cathars to Nazi Ariosophy, others saw the French Resistance as the true modern-day Cathars who fought the crusaders of the Third Reich in order to liberate their homeland.
Other theories involve the southeast-northwest alignment of the keep which correspond to sunrise during summer solstice as rays of light enter the embrasures and strike from wall to wall. Some speculate that the building was built as a solar temple. Others simply conclude that the alignment is a result of topographical necessities.
Attribution:
Music "Illumination" by Kai Engel
Available at freemusicarchive.org freemusicarchi...
Under CC BY-NC 4.0 creativecommon...
Music "Daedalus" by Kai Engel
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Under CC BY license creativecommon...
Music "Periculum" by Kai Engel
Available at freemusicarchive.org freemusicarchi...
Under CC BY license creativecommon...
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11 сен 2024
