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Origin and history

The castle of Argeliers, located in the village of the same name in Occitanie, is a building dated from the first half of the seventeenth century. It is a seigneurial residence built on the foundations of an ancient medieval castellum, mentioned for the first time in 1154 when it was assigned to the Abbey of Forty. The wars of Religion profoundly marked the building, requiring almost complete reconstruction at the hinge of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a period of return to peace. The religious of Forty retained their property until the French Revolution.

The architecture of the castle reveals traces of its defensive past, including a wall of thick enclosure with remains of a round road on the second floor. A characteristic square tower, intercepting an alley perpendicular to the old southern defences, still marks its location today. East wing, dating from the 15th century, is a pre-Ligue vestige, now separated from the rest of the estate. Inside, a remarkable fireplace on the first floor, classified as a historic monument in 1951 but disappeared in the 1980s, illustrated the fascist of the era by its carved decorations (angels, palmettes, garlands).

The site, partially protected for its chimney — now destroyed — bears witness to the successive transformations of a place both seigneurial and religious. Its southern wall, extended by a medieval courtine, and the ancient access to a turret (now walled) recall its initial defensive role. After the Revolution, the castle lost its ecclesiastical use to become a civil heritage, part of which is now an independent property. The GPS coordinates and the sources (Merimée, Monumentum) precisely locate the monument in Argeliers, in the department of Aude.

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