The Cathars, between sacred places and ghosts

In the 12th century, the langue d'Oc was spoken south of the Loire. The Roman Church, which spoke Latin and was based in Rome, was perceived as foreign. Not to mention the fact that Pope Innocent III forbade the Provençal people from having a Bible written in their own language, Occitan; to be more precise, he forbade any translation of the Bible into dialect. And the people of Languedoc felt that the dogmas of the Church were detached from the word of Christ.

It was on this soil that Paulicianism, a Christian religion of Armenian origin, arrived in Lombardy after a spell in Bulgaria, and eventually spread to Languedoc. The people of Languedoc allowed themselves to be imbued with this faith, which gave pride of place to the teachings of Christ - who alone was important to them - and which rejected many ecclesiastical dogmas. They saw themselves as "good men" and "good women".

Their disagreements with the Church were profound. The Cathars believe that God is absent from this world (otherwise, evil would not exist), respect animals (they are willing vegetarians), believe in reincarnation, reject war, refute Hell and contest the sacraments of the Roman Church. That's quite a lot.

But that's not all: they see no need for places of worship, since the Holy Spirit is everywhere and the word of Christ can be spoken anywhere. They disapprove of private property, even though the Church is the largest landowner on the planet. They practise asceticism while the Vatican lives in opulence. In short, they believe that the Church is betraying the thought of Christ. There are better ways of taking communion.

For their part, the local lords pacted with the Albigensians and the castles in the Carcassonne region all rallied to the Cathar cause. The Church, which had known it was under threat ever since a Cathar assembly had met at Saint-Félix-de-Caraman in 1176 to organise its cult, had no intention of giving in. It declared any Languedocian who opposed its dogmas to be a "heretic". The Cathars had just been characterised and designated as its enemies.

In 1209, the king's army of 6,000 soldiers and looters drove the villagers out of Carcassonne. Thus began the crusade against the Cathars, known as the Albigensian Crusade, which lasted 20 years and was the sinister prelude to the Inquisition. The following year, the 600 Cathars who refused to recant were burned.

In 1229, the Inquisition took over and lasted for a century, forever changing the face of the countryside through spectacular depopulation and the fall of Cathar castles that never recovered: the four fortresses of Lastours in Cabaret, near Carcassonne, Queribus, Saissac, Lapradelle Puilaurens, Termes, Villerouge-Termenès and Puivert.

The Consuls of Carcassonne alerted the Pope to the desertification of entire regions of Occitania, with the Inquisition driving people out of the country altogether. From the fall of Montségur in 1244 until the end of the 13th century, many people moved to Corsica and Spain, but also to Italy, Sicily and particularly Lombardy, where Paulicianism was still active.

The last Cathars were reputedly massacred in 1321 at the Château de Villerouge-Termenès. 800 years after their disappearance, the Cathars are still present in Carcassonne, in the manner of a legend, despite having been defeated by the double repression of the Crusades and the Inquisition, by the Kingdom of France and the Clergy.

At the end of the Albigensian Crusade, the king regained power and established a seneschalcy in Carcassonne to defend order and his interests. Between 1226 and 1245, the seneschal, the mayor of the time, transformed the medieval city into a fortified citadel to prevent any future invasion or seizure of power from outside.

A second wall, flanked by round towers (Gallo-Roman towers were horseshoe-shaped), often low and without roofs, was erected. In the 19th century, Viollet-le-Duc was responsible for creating the slate roofs we see today.

The church of Saint-Nazaire, built in the 11th century to the south of the citadel in pure Romanesque style, was home to the Cathars and their cult. Listed as a Historic Monument, it was remodelled in the 19th century by Viollet-Le-Duc, thanks to whom it became a basilica in 1898.

Although it is not original, its stained glass windows, centred on the life of Christ, bear witness to the historical split between the Cathar cult, which emphasised the doctrine of Jesus, and the Catholicism of the time, which was all about political power. It is an ancient cathedral.

Its 17th-century organ has been listed as a historic monument since 1970. The basilica itself was listed as a Historic Monument in 1840.