Carcassonne

Carcassonne offers a real taste of what exactly was a medieval stronghold. Its towers offer views of very different landscapes and the city's strategic position between the Corbières and Pyrenees mountain ranges established a link between the Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds. Its unique geographic importance enabled the city's prominent role as a guarantor of the Franco-Spanish terrain for nearly three hundred years.
During the 11th century Carcassonne was under the rule of the Trencavel family and remained so in the following centuries as the family shrewdly secured its lands through strategic alliances with the ambitions of the counts of Toulouse and Barcelona, all this time remaining strong enough to counter the ambitions of both.
This all changed with the 13th century Albignesian Crusades against the Cathars as Pope Innocent III called on the crusaders to seize the lands of the lords who tolerated the heresy. By then the Trencavels of Carcassonne received many Cathars in their palace, some as their advisors. The Christian heresy gained a momentum in various parts of the Mediterranean and thrived in several regions of Southern Europe, almost reaching a status of a semi official religion. It was enough to pose a challenge to the dogma of the Church to such an extent that the Pope declared Crusades not only against the Muslims in Iberia and the Holy Land but inside Christian lands.
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