Château de Termes

Built on a promontory, defended on three sides by formidable deep ravines, the crumbling ruins of the castle cover an area of 16,000 square metres (170,000 sq ft).

Following an exceptionally dry summer and autumn, the empty water tanks led Raymond to offer surrender.

[1] Later, weakened from dysentery, and exposed to the fire of numbers of siege weapons, the garrison attempted unsuccessfully to creep out at night.

After de Montfort's death, Raymond regained possession of the castle but was soon forced to give it up again, this time to the King of France.

To stop this, it was demolished by royal decree - a master mason from Limoux spent 1653 and 1654 blowing up the walls with gunpowder and reducing them to piles of rubble.

The ruins of the castle of Termes, on a hilltop above the little village
The cross-shaped window in the chapel of the castle, built by French architects at the end of the 13th century
The château de Termes and the gorges of Termenet
The north-west angle of the château de Termes