Montsegur castle - a cursed place on the holy mountain

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Montsegur is located on the top of an impregnable mountain, which in the south of France is called pogues. In the XIII century, the castle became the last stronghold of the adherents of Catharism.

In 1944, in the course of stubborn and bloody battles, the Allies occupied positions recaptured from the Germans. Especially many of them died at the strategically important height of Monte Cassino, trying to take possession of the castle of Mosegur, where the remnants of the 10th German army settled.

The siege of the castle lasted 4 months. Finally, after massive bombing and landing, the Allies launched a decisive assault.

The castle was destroyed almost to the ground. However, the Germans continued to resist, although their fate had already been decided. When the allies came close to Monsegur, something inexplicable happened.

A large flag with an ancient pagan symbol - the Celtic cross - hoisted on one of the towers. This ancient Germanic ritual was usually resorted to only when the help of higher powers was needed. But it did not help.

This incident was far from the only one in the castle's long history full of mystical mysteries. And it began in the 6th century, when a monastery was founded by Saint Benedict on Mount Cassino, considered a sacred place since pre-Christian times.

In 1243-1244 in Monsegur one of the most dramatic episodes of European history took place. The Papal Inquisition and the army of the French king Louis IX, numbering 10 thousand people, laid siege to the castle for almost a year.

But they never managed to cope with two hundred heretic Cathars. The defenders of the castle could repent and leave in peace, but instead chose to voluntarily go to the fire: thus they kept their mysterious faith pure.

And to this day there is no unequivocal answer to the question: where did the Qatari faith penetrate into southern France? The first traces of it appeared here in the 11th century, while Catholicism prevailed in the north of France.

According to some historians, the Qatari faith penetrated the south of France from Italy; she, in turn, borrowed this religious teaching from the Bulgarian Bogomils, and those from the Manichaeans of Asia Minor and Syria. The number of those who were later called Cathars (in Greek - "clean"), multiplied like mushrooms after rain.

"There is no one god, there are two who challenge the dominion over the world. This is the god of good and the god of evil. The immortal spirit of mankind is directed to the god of good, but its mortal shell is drawn to the dark god" - this is how the Cathars taught.

At the same time, they considered our earthly world to be the kingdom of Evil, and the heavenly world, where the souls of people dwell, as a space where Good triumphs. Therefore, the Cathars easily parted with life, rejoicing in the transition of their souls into the domain of Good and Light.

On the dusty roads of France, strange people roamed in the pointed caps of Chaldean astrologers, in robes belted with a rope, and everywhere preached their teachings.

We took on such an honorable mission of the so-called. "perfect" - devotees of the faith who have taken a vow of asceticism. They completely broke with their former life, refused property, adhered to food and ritual prohibitions. But all the secrets of the doctrine were revealed to them.

Another group of Cathars included the so-called. profane, i.e. ordinary followers. They lived an ordinary life, cheerful and noisy, sinning like all people, but at the same time reverently observed the few commandments that the "perfect" had taught them.

Knights and nobles were especially eager to accept the new faith. Most of the noble families in Toulouse, Languedoc, Gascony, Roussillon became its adherents. They did not recognize the Catholic Church, considering it a product of the devil. Such a confrontation could only end in bloodshed.

In those days, the south, which was part of the Languedoc County, was practically independent. This vast territory was ruled by Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse.

Nominally, he was considered a vassal of the French and Aragonese kings, as well as the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, but in nobility, wealth and power he was not inferior to them. In his domain, the dangerous Qatari heresy was spreading more and more widely.

The first clash between Catholics and Cathars occurred on January 14, 1208, on the banks of the Rhone, when, during the crossing, one of the squires of Raymund VI mortally wounded the papal nuncio with a spear blow.

Dying, the priest whispered to his murderer: "May the Lord forgive you as I forgive." But the Catholic Church has not forgiven anything.

In addition, the rich Toulouse county has long had views of the French monarchs, who sought to annex the richest lands to their possessions.

The Count of Toulouse was declared a heretic and follower of Satan. Catholic bishops shouted: "Cathars are vile heretics! We must burn them out with fire, so that there is no seed left." For this, the Holy Inquisition was called, which the Pope subordinated to the Dominican Order - these "dogs of the Lord."

So a crusade was declared, which for the first time was directed not so much against the gentiles as against the Christian lands. Interestingly, to the soldier's question on how to distinguish Cathars from good Catholics, the papal legate Arnold da Sato replied: "Kill everyone: God will recognize his own!"

The crusaders laid waste to the flourishing southern region. In Beziers alone, having driven the inhabitants to the Church of St. Nazarius, they killed 20 thousand people. The Cathars were massacred by entire cities. The lands of Raymund VI of Toulouse were taken from him.

In 1243, the only stronghold of the Cathars was the old Montsegur - their sanctuary, turned into a military citadel. Almost all the surviving "perfect" ones have gathered here.

They were not allowed to carry weapons, because in accordance with their teachings, it was considered a direct symbol of evil. What happened on a tiny patch on the top of the mountain became known thanks to the preserved records of interrogations of the surviving defenders of the castle.

They are fraught with an amazing story of courage and resilience of the Cathars, which still boggles the imagination of historians. Yes, and there is enough mysticism in it.

Bishop Bertrand Marty, who organized the defense of the castle, was well aware that his surrender was inevitable. On March 2, 1244, when the situation of the besieged became unbearable, the bishop began to negotiate with the crusaders. He really needed a respite.

And he got it. For two weeks of respite, the besieged manage to drag a heavy catapult onto a tiny rocky platform. And the day before the surrender of the castle, an almost incredible event takes place.

At night, four "perfect" ones descend on a rope from the mountain 1200 m and carry away a certain bundle with them. The crusaders hastily set up a pursuit, but the fugitives seemed to dissolve.

Soon two of them showed up in Cremona. They proudly talked about the successful outcome of their mission, but what they managed to save is still unknown.

Only the doomed to death Cathars - fanatics and mystics - would risk their lives for gold and silver. And what burden could the four desperate "perfect" ones carry? This means that the Cathar treasure was of a different nature. It is said to be still hidden in one of the many grottoes in Phua County.

Montsegur has always been a holy place for the "perfect". They built a pentagonal castle on the top of the mountain. Here, in deep secrecy, the Cathars performed their rituals, kept sacred relics.

The walls and embrasures of Montsegur were strictly oriented to the cardinal points like Stonehenge, so the "perfect" could calculate the solstice days. The architecture of the castle makes a strange impression.

Inside the fortress, you get the feeling that you are on a ship: a low square tower at one end, long walls blocking out a narrow space in the middle, and a blunt nose resembling the stem of a caravel.

In August 1964, cavers on one of the walls found some signs, notches and a drawing. It turned out to be a plan of an underground passage leading from the foot of the wall to the gorge. Then the passage itself was opened, in which skeletons with halberds were found.

A new mystery: who were these people who died in the dungeon? Several interesting objects with Qatari symbols inscribed on them were found under the foundation of the wall.

A bee was depicted on the buckles and buttons. For the "perfect" it symbolized the secret of fertilization without physical contact. A strange 40 cm long lead plate was also found, folded in a pentagon, which was considered the hallmark of the "perfect" apostles.

The Cathars did not recognize the Latin cross and deified the pentagon - a symbol of dispersion, dispersion of matter, the human body (this, apparently, where the strange architecture of Monsegur comes from).

Analyzing it, a prominent expert on Cathars Fernand Niel emphasized that it was in the castle itself that "the key to the rituals was laid - a secret that the" perfect "took with them to the grave."

There are still many enthusiasts who are looking for buried treasures of Cathars in the vicinity and on Mount Cassino itself. But most of all the researchers are interested in that shrine, which was saved from desecration by four daredevils. Some suggest that the "perfect" possessed the famous Grail.

It is not without reason that even now in the Pyrenees one can hear the following legend: “When the walls of Montsegur were still standing, the Cathars guarded the Holy Grail. But Montsegur was in danger.

Rati Lucifer settled under its walls. They needed the Grail to re-enclose it in the crown of their master, from which it fell when the fallen angel was cast down from heaven to earth.

At the moment of the greatest danger for Montsegur, a dove appeared from the sky and split Mount Tabor with its beak. The Guardian of the Grail threw a valuable relic into the bowels of the mountain. The mountain closed and the Grail was saved."

For some, the Grail is a vessel into which the blood of Christ was collected, for others - a dish of the Last Supper, for others - something like a cornucopia. And in the legend of Monsegur, he appears in the form of a golden image of Noah's ark.

According to legend, the Grail possessed magical properties: it could heal people from serious ailments, reveal secret knowledge. Only the pure in soul and heart could see him, and he brought down great troubles on the wicked.

Some scholars believe that the secret of the Cathars was the knowledge of hidden facts from the earthly life of Christ - about his earthly wife and children, who, after the crucifixion of the Savior, were secretly transported to the south of Gaul.

The wife of Christ was the gospel Magdalene - a mysterious person. It is known that she reached Europe, from which it follows that the descendants of the Savior founded the Merovingian dynasty, i.e. family of the Holy Grail.

According to legend, after Montsegur, the Grail was taken to the castle of Montreal de Sau, and from there - to one of the cathedrals of Aragon. Then he was allegedly taken to the Vatican. Or maybe the sacred relic has returned to its sanctuary - Montsegur?

After all, it was not for nothing that Hitler, who dreamed of world domination, so stubbornly and purposefully organized the search for the Grail in the Pyrenees. But it was all to no avail.

Hitler hoped to use this sacred relic to turn the tide of the war. But even if the Fuhrer managed to take possession of it, it would hardly have saved him from defeat, as well as those German soldiers who tried to defend themselves within the walls of Montsegur with the help of the ancient Celtic cross. Indeed, according to legend, the unrighteous keepers of the Grail and those who sow Evil and death on earth are overtaken by God's wrath.