Captivated by Cathar country
In the southern corner of France, bounded by the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean, lies a rugged little area now branded, by the tourist authorities, as the Pays Cathare or Cathar Country. It is named after a religion which took hold in the area in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and has left a remarkable legacy which can be seen in the landscape today. Our plan was to search out some of this legacy as part of a trip which would also include some crosscountry and alpine skiing.
The Cathar religion was Christian in its origins, but it had very different ideas about what it meant to be a ‘good Christian’ from the Roman Catholic church. It promoted ideas of equality, neighbourliness and charity and turned its back on the pomp, hierarchy and worldly wealth of the Catholic church of the time.
As you can imagine, this did not go down very well. So, in 1208, Pope Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade to wipe out these heretical beliefs. For the next 50 years there were various campaigns and massacres before the Cathars retreated to their last stands in castles scattered around on the (nearly) inaccessible pinnacles in this part of France.
