The Cathar Castles

In the 13^th century Christians in the southern part of France got disillusioned with the corruption of the Catholic Church and its priest and a group of people calling themselves the Bonshommes decided to go back to the basics of Christianity.

Their numbers soon increased in size and became a threat to the power of the Catholic Church. This became the story of the Inquisition were huge numbers of the population were declared to be heretics and burned at the stake. The last strongholds of the Bonshommes were the castles in the Languedoc and Midi-Pyrenees regions of southern France. Today the Bonshommes are called the Cathars, the pure and perfect ones. The ruins of the Cathar castles still stand imposingly on mountain tops, evoking the tragic time in history they have witnessed.

Montsegur                                      Roquefixade              Peyrepertuse