Montségur

Montsegur is a castle located in the Pyrenees mountains in the south west of France. It was considered the "capital" of a religious order, the Cathares. The Cathares religion has many similarities to Christianity, but with some strong differences like the belief in reincarnation. In the year 1178 the pope tried to convert the Cathares to Christianity without success. They were declared heretics. The pope and his army started fighting the Cathares, who mainly hid in strongholds, among them Montsegur. Following a very long siege, the Cathares surrendered: on the 16th of March 1244, 200 men and women who had decided to stay faithful to their belief entered a huge stake and were burned alive. The line, "What secret that they took to their grave" probably relates to the night of the 15th to 16th (just before the surrender), when 4 Cathares escaped the castle (by climbing down the very steep rock face on one side of the castle, which was not guarded) to bring a treasure into a safe place. The nature of the treasure is still unknown - some believe that it might have been the Graal. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.