Hautpoul, la cité perchée prise en 1212

Mazamet

Hautpoul was, before Mazamet which did not yet exist, the town of the Montagne Noire: a spur between two ravines, two castles, an enclosure, and lords — the Hautpouls — who were among the declared protectors of the Good Men. In April 1212, Simon de Montfort, back from the North with fresh crusaders, came up to besiege it. The chroniclers tell of four days of siege in a fog so thick that the defenders ended by fleeing at night, believing the place lost; the crusaders entered and killed everything they found there, then burned the town. The Hautpouls recovered their property after the crusade and the village was rebuilt, but the story began again in 1573, when the Protestants of Castres took it and set it on fire; the inhabitants then went down to settle beside the Arnette, where Mazamet would make its fortune in wool. There remain, on the rock, the gutted walls of the Château-Haut, a north gate and a south gate, stepped lanes, and the void above the gorges that a footbridge crosses today.

Wikipédia — Hautpoul ↗

Getting there : 3 km south of Mazamet by the D 54 (route de Hautpoul); car park at the entrance to the village, everything else on foot and uphill. The ruins of the Château-Haut and of the Château-Bas are freely accessible; the Himalayan footbridge over the Arnette (admission charged) links Hautpoul to the sentier des Usines. Allow two hours.

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

Ambient sound