Name -
Chateau de Quillan
Location -
Quillan
Department -
Aude 11
State -
Chateau Ruin
The Chateau de Quillan is built on the old castrum Visigoth of the VIIIth century, it was built in XIIth and XIIIth centurys by the archbishops of Narbonne. it was the object of conflicts between the King of France and the Archbishop's palace of Narbonne.
After the peace treaty of 1229 which marks the end of the Albigensian Crusade, Quillan was classified Royal and the town equipped with a governor.
Nearly two centuries later, the King of France made a strategic military country house out of it to resist the Aragonese invasion of the XVth century.
Sentinel taking care on the border with Spain, the castle shelters a garrison. The current vestiges testify to this specificity: square chateau with the notched walls, pepper plantations with each donjon.
The Chateau de Quillan remains one of the rare specimens of the military architecture of the XIVth and XVth centurys.
In 1659, the peace treaty of the Pyrenees and the annexation of Roussillon which see's the Spanish border move further south. The chateau loses its military role then and becomes pillaged for it's stone which will be used for the construction of the Old Bridge and part of the bell-tower of the church.
Overhanging the city, the castle still presents its quadrangular enclosure in embossing's, arch openings and of the doors of which one controls access and has been destroyed on its external part.
Polygonal 'echaugettes' are placed at the angles of square enclosure of approximately 34 meters in dimension. The general aspect of the chateau (rather than being regarded as a fort) illustrates the medieval military architecture, in particular the stones with embossing, the separation ditch
The panels indicating the castle dating from XIIth century. However, its geometry and the presence of embossing would rather indicate a dating of the end of XIIIth or beginning XIVth century. Within a few kilometers in direction of Puilaurens, The Aude supplys a stunning landscape. The only point of shade, when you follow a HGV or a caravan!
