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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Château de Saissac, mentioned since 960, was ceded by the Bishop of Toulouse to the Count of Carcassonne. In the 11th century it became the fief of the Saissac, vassals of the Trencavel, with an anterior castrum potentially wisigoth. Two families (Hugues and Jourdain) shared the seigneury, building separate rectangular towers. A central building, dominant over the castri roca, suggests a spatial hierarchy between lineages.

In the 13th century, Bertrand de Saissac, tutor of Raymond-Roger Trencavel, was accused of post-mortem cathar heresy by the Inquisition. During the Albige crusade (1209), the crusaders of Bouchard de Marly and then Lambert de Thurey seized the castle. Attached to the Lévis and then to L'Isle-Jourdain (1331–1412), he passed to the Caramans in the 15th century before being modernized by the Bernuys in the 16th century, with gunboats and Renaissance windows.

The castle resisted Protestant assaults in 1568 and 1580, but declined after 1670, serving as a stone quarry to the Revolution. Purchased in 1920 by Henri Dupuy-Mazuel, it was restored in 1995 by the town hall. Today, its ruins house a museum on the treasure of 2,000 13th century deniers discovered in 1979.

Architecturally, the castle is organized on three terraces with a polygonal dungeon (XX century), house of the 15th to 16th centuries, and defences adapted to firearms (circular towers, cannon guns). Major overhauls took place around 1300 (post-cruise reconstruction) and in the 16th century (comfort and artillery).

Ranked a historic monument in 1926, the site dominates the ravine of the Vernassonne, at the entrance of the Black Mountain. Its shale promontory, reinforced with granite for decorative elements, illustrates the strategic adaptation of cathar castles. The paid visit allows you to explore the remains and the numismatic museum.

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