Why France's 'Cathar castles' will no longer be called Cathar
Sites in south-west expected to receive Unesco World Heritage status
Some of the best-known medieval castles in south-west France could soon receive Unesco World Heritage status, but under a new official name that drops the word 'Cathar'.
The World Heritage Committee is due to decide on July 26 whether to inscribe eight fortified sites in Aude and Ariège, including Carcassonne, as the Royal Fortresses of Languedoc.
The sites’ Unesco application argues that the long-used term 'Cathar castles' is historically inaccurate because the fortresses seen today were built by the French crown, not by the Cathars themselves.
Why the name is changing
For decades, castles including Peyrepertuse, Quéribus and Montségur have been promoted as chateaux cathares, reflecting their association with the Cathars, a Christian movement declared heretical by the Catholic Church and largely eradicated during the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229).
However, historians say the surviving fortifications mostly date from after that conflict.
Following the crusade, King Louis IX (Saint Louis) ordered a chain of royal fortresses to be built or rebuilt between the 1240s and 1290s in the Capetian style.
"22 castles were rebuilt in the royal style," David Maso of the Association Mission Patrimoine Mondial, the body steering the Unesco bid, told Franceinfo. “The places where they [the Cathars] had taken refuge were replaced by the fortresses that we see today.”
The fortresses served a strategic military purpose, allowing the French crown to monitor a region still viewed as unstable while defending the frontier with the Kingdom of Aragon, then only a short distance from sites such as Quéribus and Peyrepertuse.
A controversial rebranding
The change has prompted criticism from some local residents and heritage supporters, who argue that removing the word 'Cathar' risks erasing an important part of the region's identity.
A petition opposing the new designation has attracted around 8,500 signatures, and campaigners plan a demonstration at Quéribus on July 18, the day before the Unesco committee's annual session opens.
Supporters of the new name stress that the Cathar story will always remain central to how the sites are interpreted, even if it no longer forms part of their official title.
The Unesco nomination covers seven medieval fortresses in Aude and Ariège together with the castle and ramparts of Carcassonne, presented as the central element of the royal defensive system.
Backers also hope World Heritage status will boost tourism in rural areas where visitor numbers have declined in recent decades, while helping secure long-term funding to preserve the monuments.
