Avignonet
Do you not want to be here (anymore)? If so:
Click here to go back to home page
Click here to go back to "What's New in 2002" page
Click here to go back to the Pyrenean Adventure page
Avignonet is the place where a posse of armed men from the Cathar fortress at Montsegur found and killed seven monks, Inquisitors, in 1242. Apparently they were given encouragement to do this by the Count of Foix. It was quite a conspiracy, with men being snuck into town late at night, taken to a door behind which the Inquisitors slept, and bashing in the door and the skulls of the Inquisitors with axes. The booty? Monks did not own much of value, but the painstaking records kept by the Inquisitors were among the items taken.
What did this have to do with the place and time of interest? A few miles and generations later this was still
a well-remembered event, a last gasp of military resistance by the Cathars. It made the fiery deaths of Cathars
at the hands of Catholic (civil) authorities less outrageous.
Today, Avignonet is a very pleasant town overgrowing a hill on which sits the church that dominates the city.
The church is a massive one, the current structure
dating to the later 1300's when fortress-like churches were still being built.
Let's enter this church. It is very pretty inside
because light, color, and considerable works of art sit within these rather stern looking walls.
There is more to this town than the church, however. These views from the church level into the heart of town should show you that:
Some of its medieval streets show quite nicely how the town has been placed on a hill to oversee the countryside.
Houses on the other side of a remnant of the town ramparts show this town grew outside of its original hilltop ramparts.
The old fortifications are now surrounded by city, suggesting times are safer today than 700 years ago.
It is also a very modern city, of course. Homes are old on the outside but modern on the inside, and wind-power is being harnessed just outside of town!
It is always a real treat to see my good friend
Joan of Arc again, of course. Avignonet proudly displays her in her finest armor at its most important intersection.
Do you not want to be here (anymore)? If so:
Click here to go back to home page