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Bastide (planned town)Ariège

Bastide de Roquefixade (La Bastide-de-Montfort)

Roquefixade

Dimensions
The village gathers round the square, bordered by the town hall and the church of the Nativité-de-Saint-Jean-Baptiste, a large part of whose furnishings is inventoried; a fountain of 1884 and a covered wash-house line the access road. Above, the château de Roquefixade, classified as a monument historique since 1995, crowns the cliff.
Period
Castle attested in 1034, destroyed between 1209 and 1212; royal bastide of 1288; royal castellany until the Revolution.
What stands there
A royal bastide without paréage, founded in 1288 as a symbol of the victory over Catharism; castle classified as a monument historique in 1995. Every August the church hosts the festival of medieval and baroque music Musica del temps passat.

At the foot of a cliff of the pays d'Olmes crowned by the ruins of a Cathar castle, the village of Roquefixade, "the cleft rock", is a royal bastide built in 1288 by order of the king by Simon Briseteste, seneschal of Carcassonne and Béziers. It was for a time called La Bastide-de-Montfort, in honour of Simon de Montfort, victor of the Albigensian Crusade, who had destroyed the village and the castle between 1209 and 1212. Founded without a paréage, unlike most royal bastides, it took the place of the old Roquefixade as a symbol of the victory over heresy, and remained the seat of a royal castellany until the Revolution, taking in Leychert, Nalzen and Soula. The village is ordered around its square and its church, under the gaze of the castle attested since 1034 and classified in 1995.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the village and to the path up to the castle.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Bastide de Roquefixade (La Bastide-de-Montfort)
levieuxchiendetalus · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Ariège (25).