The Counts of Foix were some of the most ardent supporters of the Cathar movement, and this castle was their base of operations. The Crusaders tried to take it four times, and each time they failed. After the crusade it remained a castle and was used as a prison until very recently. I can't tell you too much more about it because the only tour that they had was in French , so Dave and I just wandered around by ourselves.
This is a four kilometer tunnel just outside Foix. It is brand new.
The castle of Foix, as seen from the highway.
Here is a picture of the Chateau de Foix, which towers over the city.
The view from the main courtyard. The church in the center of this picture is quite old.
Dave standing in the castle.
The castle has three towers, the round one, the square one, and the one you can't go into. This is a picture of the square tower, taken from the round tower.
It would've been very hard to scale these towers. Mainly because of these defenses. The wall you see that juts out from the top of the tower is filled with foot-wide holes on the bottom. Defenders can see you climbing up the wall and shoot you with arrows or pour boiling oil on you.
The view from the top of the tower. You can really survey all of your lands from up here!
The view from the top of the square tower.
The castle is built on top of a giant rock, people in the middle ages hollowed out rooms in the bottom of the rock and built cave houses like these. They have been occupied continuously since the middle ages.
