Montségur History (as per Wikipedia)

In 1243-1244 - the Cathars - a mysterious heretical sect were besieged at Montségur by ten thousand Royal Catholic French troops. In March of 1244, the Cathars finally surrendered and approximately 220 were burned en masse in a bonfire at the foot of the pog when they not only refused to convert to Catholicism, but actually took the ultimate Cathar vow of consolamentum perfecti just before surrendering.

In the days prior to the fall of the fortress, several Cathars allegedly slipped through the French lines carrying away a mysterious "treasure" with them. While the nature and fate of this treasure has never been identified there has been much speculation as to what it might have consisted of: from the treasury of the Cathar Church to esoteric books or even the actual Holy Grail.

Montségur is often named as a candidate for the Holy Grail castle - and indeed there are linguistic similarities in the Grail romance Parzival (circa 1200-1210) written by Wolfram von Eschenbach. In Parzival the grail castle is called Monsalvat, similar to Montségur and meaning the same thing: "safe mountain, secure mountain." The name of Raymond Pereille, the actual historic seigneur of Montségur has slight simularities to protagonist of Eschenbach's epic, the knight Parzival. In Jüngerer Titurel (1272) by Albrecht von Scharfenberg, another Grail epic, the first king of the Holy Grail is named Perilla.

Myths and legends apart, the history of Montségur in actual fact is both dramatic and mysterious. The siege was an epic event of heroism and zealotry; a Masada of the Cathar faith whose demise is symbolized by the fall of the mountain-top fortress. (Although isolated Cathar cells persisted into the 1320s in southern France and northern Italy.)

Unfortunately for many romantics, the present fortress ruin at Montségur, is not from the Cathar era. The original Cathar fortress of Montségur was entirely pulled down by the victorious French Royal forces after its capture in 1244. It was gradually rebuilt and upgraded over the next three centuries by Royal forces. The current ruin so dramatically occupying the site, and featured in illustrations, is referred to by French archeologists as "Montsegur III" and is typical of post-medieval Royal French defensive architecture of the 1600s. It is not "Montsegur II", the structure in which the Cathars lived and were besieged and of which no trace remains today.

This is a fact that the French tourist authority underplays and one that Cathar enthusiasts often overlook; especially when discussing Montségur's alleged solar alignment characteristics said to be visible on the morning of the summer solstice. This often mentioned solar phenomenon, allegedly occurring in an alignment of two windows in the fortress wall, has not been scientifically surveyed, measured, recorded or confirmed.

The Groupe de Recherches Archéologiques de Montségur et Environs (GRAME) (Archeological Research Group of Montsegur and Vicinity) which conducted a definitive thirteen year archeological excavation of Montségur in 1964 -1976, concluded in its final report that: "There remains no trace of the actual ruin of the first fortress which was abandoned before the 13th century (Montsegur I), nor of the one which was built by Raymond de Pereille around 1210 (Montsegur II)..."

(See: Groupe de Recherches Archéologiques de Montségur et Environs (GRAME), Montségur: 13 ans de recherche archéologique, Lavelanet: 1981. pg. 76.: "Il ne reste aucune trace dan les ruines actuelles ni du premier chateau qui était a l'abandon au début du XIIIe siecle (Montsegur I), ni de celui que construisit Raimon de Pereilles vers 1210 (Montségur II)...")