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Origin and history

The castle of Boisseson, cited as early as 966 in the will of the Viscount Matfred of Narbonne, was a fortified castral town in the Viscount of Albi, held by the Trencavel. After the Albige crusade (1229), the seigneury passed to the Montforts, then to the families of Manicort, of the Estendart, and finally to the Peyrus (XVth–XVIth centuries), Protestant lords engaged in the wars of Religion. The castle, described as a set of five towers connected by thick walls, served as a stronghold and a reformed place of worship.

The Peyrus, powerful vassals of the Count of Castres, turned the castle into a Protestant bastion. In 1570 Antoine de Peyrusse established a reformed church there, and the family actively participated in religious conflicts. Pierre de Peyrusse, killed in 1586, is buried in the cemetery adjacent to the castle, where later excavations reveal medieval skeletons and coins. The seigneury then passed to the Genibrous (17th century), which, after the Huguenot revolts, converted to Catholicism and gradually abandoned the castle.

In the 18th century, the Genibrouse-Boisseson resided elsewhere, and the castle, already in decline, was partially dismantled to build a departmental road and power a lime oven. The seigneurial archives, preserved by a local lawyer, are now kept in the departmental archives. In 2005, the municipality of Murat-sur-Vèbre undertook works to safeguard the ruins, including a tower that remained, and highlighted the site with a historical presentation.

The architecture of the castle, described in documents from the 15th to the 18th century, evokes a defensive ensemble in crescent, with towers on rock and a lower courtyard. The Peyrus had strengthened, but he did not resist modern weapons (canons, firecrackers) of the Wars of Religion. The current remains, including a gargoyle in pink sandstone, testify to its past importance as a political, religious and economic center of the Lacaune Mountains.

The site, now protected, offers a panorama of the seigneurial and religious history of the region. The stones of the castle, re-used in the houses of the hamlet in the nineteenth century, recall its central role in local life, between feudal power, religious conflicts and agricultural transformations. The excavations and archives allow a partial reconstruction of this emblematic monument of the Tarn.

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