The DaVinci Code has captivated millions. Dan Brown’s novel appeals both to our love of secrets revealed and of gods made human. In the 13th century, such longings gave birth to the Albigensian heresy and its followers, the Cathars—an abstemious sect that infuriated Rome, not only by denying its authority, but by promoting Mary Magdalene from ex-prostitute to Christ’s Wise Woman and marital partner. [Click here for a detailed history of the Cathars.]

To the Roman popes, such humanization was blasphemous, especially when it was accompanied by a refusal to pay either homage or taxes. By the end of the 12th century the Cathars had become the dominant force in virtually all of southern France, and so Pope Innocent III launched a crusade against it which claimed half a million victims. In the early 13th century this would culminate in a merciless inquisition which tortured and executed hundreds more, virtually none of whom chose to recant in order to save their lives. (This was two centuries before the famous Spanish Inquisition.)

Najac’s magnificent castle was a Cathar stronghold for a few short years at the beginning of the 13th century. It has had a succession of deaths and resurrections. After the Vatican’s hatchet man Simon de Montfort overcame and destroyed it, it was finally rebuilt by Alphonse de Poitiers. The surviving villagers were forced to do penance for their apostasy by building an imposing church dedicated to Saint Jean, just down the hill from the castle, which would serve as a stopping point for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.

Alphonse’s new castle would become a prison for the Knights Templar when they fell from favour—another tie-in with The DaVinci Code. The imposing structure would even survive the French Revolution but it finally fell victim in the 19th century to free enterprise in the form of scavengers who used it as a stone quarry. Before it had been totally cannibalized, it was fortuitously acquired by the Cibiel family, who open it during the tourist season. You can climb to the top of the old tower, up a flight of worn stone steps that an enterprising Health and Safety Officer would immediately condemn. If you make it to the top, you will be amply rewarded with a spectacular panorama of the adjacent village and the wooded hills and valleys beyond. [Click here for a more detailed history of the castle]

John Whiting www.whitings-writings.com