Labarre Castle: A Medieval Fortress in Foix, France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page5 sections
History
Labarre Castle is a medieval fortress in France, above the Labarre district of Foix, whose construction began in the twelfth century as a garrison. Built on a rocky platform, it became an important element in the defensive system of the County of Foix during the final quarter of that century.
Medieval Foundation and Lordship
The castrum of Barra is recorded in 1168 or 1169, when Roger Bernard, Count of Foix, transferred it to the abbot of Saint-Volusien of Foix. Saint-Volusien was a religious abbey in Foix. The record places the fortress within the political and military organization of the medieval County of Foix, a territorial lordship centered on Foix in the central Pyrenean region.
Destruction during the Albigensian Crusade
In 1210, during the Albigensian Crusade, the Pas de la Barre was attacked by troops commanded by Simon de Montfort. The crusade was a campaign against Catharism and its supporters in southern France. When Montfort returned the following year, the castle was razed.
Later Reoccupation and Abandonment
Activity resumed during the late Middle Ages, when an enclosing defensive wall was built around the small fortified structure known as the châtelet. The site was abandoned again before 1540, as the settlement moved downhill toward the church, where it remains today.
During the French Wars of Religion, sixteenth-century conflicts between Catholics and Protestants that also involved local struggles for political and military control, the site was repeatedly reoccupied. It was used either by the military authority controlling the area or by raiders seeking ransom. The castle has been definitively abandoned since the end of the seventeenth century and is now a ruin above the Labarre district, on the right bank of the Alses.
Remains
Labarre Castle occupies a rocky platform known as the Labarre sandstone. The surviving site is the ruin of a medieval fortified castle, with the elevated position providing an unobstructed view toward Château de Foix.
Its late-medieval arrangement included an enceinte, or enclosing defensive wall, constructed around the châtelet, a small fortified structure that could serve as an entrance or defensive strongpoint. These elements formed the principal fortified layout on the rocky platform, while the castle’s present condition reflects its long abandonment after the seventeenth century.
