From Quillan , the road runs south through the incredibly narrow défilé de Pierre-Lys to the Pont d'Aliès before swinging 17km east to the village of Lapradelle and the first of the castles, the Château de Puilaurens (daily: April-June & Sept 10am-7pm; July & Aug 9am-8pm; Nov-March 10am-6pm; €3.05).
You can either drive up or there's a shorter and fairly gentle path from the hamlet of PUILAURENS
. The castle is perched on top of a high, wooded hill at 700m, its fine
crenellated walls built around the very top of the rock outcrops.
Although the existence of a castle here dates from the tenth century,
it seems more likely that it was fortified to something like its
present extent in the early thirteenth century, when it passed from the
king of France to the count of Roussillon, and then to the king of
Aragon. It sheltered many Cathars up to 1256, when Chabert de Barbera,
effective controller of power in the region, was captured and forced to
hand over his strongholds here and at Quéribus further east, to secure
his release. The castle remained strategically important, being close
to the Spanish border, until 1659, when France annexed Roussillon and
the frontier was pushed away to the south. The view from the
battlements, which you can climb up to at one point, is quite
breathtaking.
Five kilometres south of the village is the Hostellerie du Grand Duc in GINCLA (tel 04.68.20.55.02, fax 04.68.20.61.22; €46-61; closed in winter), and a gîte (tel 04.68.20.59.39) nearby at Col de Tuilla.
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