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France Travel
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Minerve
"Minerve, France", © Elroy Christenson1993
Minerve is only a short drive from Carcasonne through a rugged and
parched landscape and sits on rocky out-crop where the rivers Cesse and
Briant come together. The village and its citadel put up a valiant
resistance to Simon de Montfort during a seven week siege in 1210. At
the end of the siege Simon executed 140 Cathars by burning them at the
stake for not renouncing their faith. The sect gets its name from the
Greek "katharos", meaning pure. They were particularly critical of the
corruption of the Catholic church. By this stance they became heretics
with Pope promising absolution and land to crusaders who helped
eliminate them.
In 1209, 20,000 were massacred in Béziers, then Minerve's
burning in 1210, by 1244 the last 225 of 400 Cathars died after a siege
of Montségur.
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updated by Elroy Christenson 11/10/06