Château de Castelnaudary, Medieval castle in Castelnaudary, France
Château de Castelnaudary is a stone fortress on elevated ground overlooking an ancient Roman road that connected Narbonne to Aquitaine through the Lauragais region. The site now houses a primary school and a museum featuring exhibitions, including two 18th-century bust reliquaries in the Saint-Pierre chapel.
During the Cathar Crusade in 1211, Simon de Montfort held the castle as a stronghold until Raymond VI of Toulouse besieged it. The fortress was completely demolished in 1623 under Louis XIII's orders and later reconstructed as a prison that operated until 1926.
After the Treaty of Paris in 1229, the castle site became a courthouse called Présidial and served the regional justice system until the French Revolution. This transformation shaped how people used and understood the place for centuries.
The site is accessible to visitors who can explore the museum exhibitions and the Saint-Pierre chapel. Plan enough time to respectfully navigate the school grounds and examine the various exhibition areas throughout the property.
The site long showed traces of its prison use, with the transformation from fortress to courthouse to jail leaving visible marks on the original structure. Architectural details and the spatial arrangement still reveal these different historical purposes today.
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